BillyJack
Active member
- Aug 14, 2010
- 1,227
- 0
This post is kinda "reverse engineered". Sunday, I was out taking some scenery shots at abandoned gas stations to submit for the National El Camino Club calendar. Looking at some of the reflections, I decided to snap some sun pics and do a post here also. I know I can't begin to compete with some of the incredible details posted in this section, but I was pretty proud of the old girl, especially after winning another trophy at a local Chevy dealer's judged All-Chevy show.
Subject vehicle is my '87 Chevy El Camino. I bought it in '93 with over 100,000 miles and it's been mostly a fair weather garage queen. The only fresh paint that it has seen in that time has come from a touch-up bottle. Back in the spring of 2009, I changed jobs, lost my company car and needed to use my Camino as a daily driver for most of that year. Daily exposure brought about even more deterioration of the aged lacquer, so off to the internet I went for some help. First, I found Meguiar's Online and then some promos on Speed channel by Mike Phillips led me here. Mike had just published his superb tutorial on SS paint restoration using Meguiars' #7, a process that was tailor made for my paint maladies.
My process:
Prep- Clay Magic Blue
Polish- four very vigorous applications of Meguiar's #7 Show Car Glaze. First application was allowed an overnight soak before removal. Subsequent applications were removed after an hour or two.
First buff - Meguiar's M80 w/ rotary and wool pad
Polish - 3M Foam Pad Polish for Dark Vehicles w/ rotary and Meguiar's yellow pad
Sealant - Collinite 845 IW applied by hand. Two coats with overnight cure
LSP - Dodo Juice Doublecoat. I've also done test panels with Optimum Wax, Meguiar's M16 and M26 and Griot's Best-of-Show. The Dodo Juice has a very slight edge in my opinion, but any of them look pretty darn good over the 845
Maintenance - Optimum Car Wax
Here's some pics:
And a hardware shot:
Once again, thank you Mike for your fantastic tutorials and thanks to AG staff and AGO members for the selfless exchange of information here. I've come to learn that with the right combination of product, process and technique, almost any vehicle can look pretty damn respectable.
Bill
PS The lower silver areas are coated with a highly textured chip-resistant coating, so reflection is virtually non-existent. That's a project for this upcoming winter.
Subject vehicle is my '87 Chevy El Camino. I bought it in '93 with over 100,000 miles and it's been mostly a fair weather garage queen. The only fresh paint that it has seen in that time has come from a touch-up bottle. Back in the spring of 2009, I changed jobs, lost my company car and needed to use my Camino as a daily driver for most of that year. Daily exposure brought about even more deterioration of the aged lacquer, so off to the internet I went for some help. First, I found Meguiar's Online and then some promos on Speed channel by Mike Phillips led me here. Mike had just published his superb tutorial on SS paint restoration using Meguiars' #7, a process that was tailor made for my paint maladies.
My process:
Prep- Clay Magic Blue
Polish- four very vigorous applications of Meguiar's #7 Show Car Glaze. First application was allowed an overnight soak before removal. Subsequent applications were removed after an hour or two.
First buff - Meguiar's M80 w/ rotary and wool pad
Polish - 3M Foam Pad Polish for Dark Vehicles w/ rotary and Meguiar's yellow pad
Sealant - Collinite 845 IW applied by hand. Two coats with overnight cure
LSP - Dodo Juice Doublecoat. I've also done test panels with Optimum Wax, Meguiar's M16 and M26 and Griot's Best-of-Show. The Dodo Juice has a very slight edge in my opinion, but any of them look pretty darn good over the 845
Maintenance - Optimum Car Wax
Here's some pics:
And a hardware shot:
Once again, thank you Mike for your fantastic tutorials and thanks to AG staff and AGO members for the selfless exchange of information here. I've come to learn that with the right combination of product, process and technique, almost any vehicle can look pretty damn respectable.
Bill
PS The lower silver areas are coated with a highly textured chip-resistant coating, so reflection is virtually non-existent. That's a project for this upcoming winter.
