Mike Phillips
Active member
- Dec 5, 2022
- 51,004
- 6
Best of Show Win! - 1970 1/2 Camaro
Last weekend my good friend and fellow geek, Tommy entered his 1970 1/2 Camaro into the 2012 Cars of Dreams car show in North Palm Beach, Florida at the John Staluppi Cars of Dreams Hospice Benefit Car & Truck Show and won Best of Show!
Tommy sent me the below pictures...
When I first met Tommy at was at the Gold Coast Corvette Club - First Annual Car Show where we talked shop.
I invited him to Autogeek to do a little polishing work on the finish on his Camaro. Here's that thread,
1970 1/2 Camaro - Show Car Finish by Pinnacle - Modeled by Amy
Before
Okay... so when the Camaro arrived I took this picture and most people just by looking at the picture or even the car from a few feet away would die to have a custom paint job this nice....
But the Brinkmann Swirl Finder Light reveals the true condition of the paint and that is a surface filled with,
Tracers Tracers - RIDS - Pigtails - Cobweb Swirls - Rotary Buffer Swirls - Holograms - Water Spots - Bird Drooping Etchings - Micro-Marring
Check it out...
Pig Tails
If you look closely you can see a scratch that looks like the letter e in cursive writing running horizontally across the paint, this is called a Pig Tail and it generally comes from an abrasive particle that gets trapped between the paint and a sanding disc when machine sanding. The entire finish had Pig Tails plus Tracers randomly dispersed...
Micro-marring also called Tick Marks or DA Haze
The millions of tiny, small scratches highlighted by the Brinkmann Swirl Finder Light are caused by improperly worked abrasives when using a DA Polisher like the Porter Cable 7424XP, Meguiar's G110v2, Griot's Garage 6" ROP or Shurhold DA Polisher. These types of scratches are through out the entire car but you can really only see them on the black stripes not the metallic green paint. The point is that even though your eyes can't see them on the lighter colors they still cloud and dull the finish and keep you from seeing the beautiful color and/or metallic finish under the clear. These have to go!
RIDS - Random, Isolated Deeper Scratches
These types of scratches come from normal wear and tear and don't have any pattern to them thus the use of the word random in the description.
More information on RIDS here...
RIDS - The Definition of RIDS and the story behind the term...
Swirls and Scratches
What I see here is a combination of RIDS, swirls, DA Haze and Arc Scratches probably caused by wiping but they are also caused by improper use of a rotary buffer.
And just for the record, the nickname for the Brinkmann Swirl Finder Light is the Cruel Master because it's hard to please...
For my e-book I needed to create a list of categories that would describe the condition of a car's paint AFTER you first wash and dry the car.
That list can be found starting on page 30 of the e-book. After evaluating the condition of the paint on this Camaro I would place it into the category 3 Good Condition as it has way too many below surface defects to fall into category 1 Show Car Quality or category 2 Excellent Condition
After
Classic Camaro with a glassy wet-looking finish created entirely by machine and finished off using Pinnacle Souveran Paste Wax...
Congratulations Tommy!
:dblthumb2:
Last weekend my good friend and fellow geek, Tommy entered his 1970 1/2 Camaro into the 2012 Cars of Dreams car show in North Palm Beach, Florida at the John Staluppi Cars of Dreams Hospice Benefit Car & Truck Show and won Best of Show!
Tommy sent me the below pictures...



When I first met Tommy at was at the Gold Coast Corvette Club - First Annual Car Show where we talked shop.
Mike Phillips said:Talked to the owner of these sweet 1970 1/2 Split Front Bumper Camaro... we might see it here at our studio in the future...
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I invited him to Autogeek to do a little polishing work on the finish on his Camaro. Here's that thread,
1970 1/2 Camaro - Show Car Finish by Pinnacle - Modeled by Amy
Before
Okay... so when the Camaro arrived I took this picture and most people just by looking at the picture or even the car from a few feet away would die to have a custom paint job this nice....

But the Brinkmann Swirl Finder Light reveals the true condition of the paint and that is a surface filled with,
- Swirls
- Scratches
- Pig Tails
- RIDS
- Tracers
- Micro-marring also called DA Haze
Tracers Tracers - RIDS - Pigtails - Cobweb Swirls - Rotary Buffer Swirls - Holograms - Water Spots - Bird Drooping Etchings - Micro-Marring
Check it out...
Pig Tails
If you look closely you can see a scratch that looks like the letter e in cursive writing running horizontally across the paint, this is called a Pig Tail and it generally comes from an abrasive particle that gets trapped between the paint and a sanding disc when machine sanding. The entire finish had Pig Tails plus Tracers randomly dispersed...

Micro-marring also called Tick Marks or DA Haze
The millions of tiny, small scratches highlighted by the Brinkmann Swirl Finder Light are caused by improperly worked abrasives when using a DA Polisher like the Porter Cable 7424XP, Meguiar's G110v2, Griot's Garage 6" ROP or Shurhold DA Polisher. These types of scratches are through out the entire car but you can really only see them on the black stripes not the metallic green paint. The point is that even though your eyes can't see them on the lighter colors they still cloud and dull the finish and keep you from seeing the beautiful color and/or metallic finish under the clear. These have to go!

RIDS - Random, Isolated Deeper Scratches
These types of scratches come from normal wear and tear and don't have any pattern to them thus the use of the word random in the description.

More information on RIDS here...
RIDS - The Definition of RIDS and the story behind the term...
Swirls and Scratches
What I see here is a combination of RIDS, swirls, DA Haze and Arc Scratches probably caused by wiping but they are also caused by improper use of a rotary buffer.

And just for the record, the nickname for the Brinkmann Swirl Finder Light is the Cruel Master because it's hard to please...


For my e-book I needed to create a list of categories that would describe the condition of a car's paint AFTER you first wash and dry the car.
That list can be found starting on page 30 of the e-book. After evaluating the condition of the paint on this Camaro I would place it into the category 3 Good Condition as it has way too many below surface defects to fall into category 1 Show Car Quality or category 2 Excellent Condition
After
Classic Camaro with a glassy wet-looking finish created entirely by machine and finished off using Pinnacle Souveran Paste Wax...










Congratulations Tommy!
:dblthumb2: