My First Stingray: The Good & the Bad

[richy]

Man, oh man, was I excited to do this car! I had a puddle of drool at my feet looking at them for the last 2 years at the NAIAS in Detroit. This customer called me from Detroit a few months ago just after he ordered it. I was booked up about 4 months out so it was a good thing. The day finally arrived...however...I was coming down with what turned out to be pneumonia (again)(and it was no more fun the 2nd time!). So, even though I really enjoyed working on this beauty, I was not in a good state physically. Not that I was going to let it affect my work!!

Anyway, this was to be a wheels-off, CQF job. My package for that includes a single stage polish as well.


Here it is as it arrived. He had already put 1500 miles on it:
























Unfortunately, there was a fair sized chip in the front fascia, right next to the Corvette emblem which really stuck out. I did not think he'd have a chip so I hadn't asked him to bring any touch up paint with him. I had some that was pretty darned close in colour and after touching up a few smaller ones and comparing the match, I filled this one as well:






The first stage was wheel cleaning. Tarminator was used first and even though there weren't many miles, the tar deposits in the barrels were evident. Bye bye.
Next they were shot with Zep Citrus and cleaned with the large wheel woolie dipped in a bucket of 901.
The faces were cleaned with 901 by hand too.
The wells were cleaned with LATA.
The tires were cleaned with Zep 505.


The car was then hand washed with DG 901. Following that was a 2nd decontamination wash using IronX paste and the incredisponge.
The car was then blown dry (wheels and surrounding drip areas) and was then clayed with a Speedy Prep Towel.

Now it was time to pull the wheels. He had supplied me with the torque specs (I have a torque wrench) so I was good to go.


I started by cleaning the barrel once again with ONR just to make it perfect. That was followed by a chemical cleaning using DG Squeaky Clean. 2 coats of CQF were applied and flash cured. Here is the first barrel all done:




The same method was used to prepare the caliper and it too got 2 coats of CQF:







The well was shot with CarPro Hydro upon being cleaned. Once the wheel was off, I shot Permanon in the whole well again, just to make sure it was 100% covered.





The face of the wheel was also chemically cleaned with SC and then given a double coat of CQF and flash cured:

 

[richy]

For the single stage polish, I chose Reflect + orange B/S + Flex 3401. That was followed by DG SC + green B/S + 3401. An ONR wipedown was given to make sure nothing was left behind. The windshield got coated first with Fly By 30. The rest of the glass was coated with CQF. The rest of the car was then given 2 coats of CQF and flash cured. It was then cured with an IR lamp:





Oh yeah baby!! It was a cloudy day outside but I was thankful for no rain which did come later that day.




















The exhaust tips had been polished by hand with Reflect and were coated as well:





The black painted trim was metallic and was very nice.














Here's how that chip turned out:







































Bye bye beautiful Stingray!!






You could tell that I really liked this car (and the wheels)based on the amount of the shots! I've now been off of work for 2 weeks battling this pneumonia. My 3rd set of antibiotics will hopefully kill it. At least I have the time to get caught up on write ups. Thanks for looking!!

 

[TuxedoTaurus]

WOW!!!!! if it was not for the badges I would think that was an Italian sports car. Chevy really did an amazing job on the design (hope it does not have any recalls).

Richy, you did a excellent job, especially on the touch up. I would be going all camera happy too. Like I have said before you can not have enough pictures. Hope you get that stuff knocked out soon.

 

[richy]

WOW!!!!! if it was not for the badges I would think that was an Italian sports car. Chevy really did an amazing job on the design (hope it does not have any recalls).

Richy, you did a excellent job, especially on the touch up. I would be going all camera happy too. Like I have said before you can not have enough pictures. Hope you get that stuff knocked out soon.

I absolutely feel the same way! I think, without a doubt, the nicest looking Corvette EVER!

And, thank you very much for taking the time to comment and I hope I do get better soon, 3 weeks is long enough!

 

[longdx]

First off, you did a fantastic job in correcting and protecting this car.
I also agree with "TuxeduTaurus" in that the new C7 is truly a world car. I think the C6 really started the trend for a more world class car. But the C7 is light years ahead in the design.

 

[trekkeruss]

Excellent work.

Count me as another who really loves the new C7. It's the first Corvette that I have ever thought was lust-worthy.

 

[zckid]

great job as always richy :dblthumb2:

Just a quick one, what do you use for polishing the exhaust? I mean the pads?

many thanks :xyxthumbs:

 

[BobbyG]

I can see why you were excited to get your hands on one of these....Beautiful car, fantastic job Richy! :cheers:

 

[sproketser]

That s some great job again ! Great How To .

 

[GS2011]

Beautiful work! :xyxthumbs:

 

[richy]

First off, you did a fantastic job in correcting and protecting this car.
I also agree with "TuxeduTaurus" in that the new C7 is truly a world car. I think the C6 really started the trend for a more world class car. But the C7 is light years ahead in the design.

Thanks very much! Not in my foreseeable future however. I will be excited to get a new Jeep Grand Cherokee diesel when the time is right!

Excellent work.

Count me as another who really loves the new C7. It's the first Corvette that I have ever thought was lust-worthy.

Thanks! True, so true. I had a white '71 in High School with a removable back window and T tops. I thought I was the cat's pajamas in that car, LOL.

great job as always richy :dblthumb2:

Just a quick one, what do you use for polishing the exhaust? I mean the pads?

many thanks :xyxthumbs:

Thanks very much! I didn't use pads, I used a micro fiber with Reflect on it. They were coated too with CQF.

I can see why you were excited to get your hands on one of these....Beautiful car, fantastic job Richy! :cheers:

Thanks very much Bobby for commenting; it means a lot to me!

That s some great job again ! Great How To .

Thank you very much!

Beautiful work! :xyxthumbs:

Thanks kindly.

 

[bimmer325!]

Richy..been on the AG Forum for a while and have always valued your HONEST opinions/advice! You do amazing work and it is not only skills that get you there..but a passion that shows thru. Really hope you get to feeling back to "100% Richy"...

 

[yello430]

excellent work.....get well soon!

 

[RobZ71LM7]

Beautiful car. It's an amazing car... Starting in '97 with the C5 Chevy has really continued to slowly and steadily step up the Corvette's game. Each year brings better power, world class handling, and refinement-best of all at a low pricepoint.

 

[Tato]

Wow, amazing detail Richy. Like said above, your work exhausts passion. Congratulations, and wish you the best in your recovery.

Kind Regards.

 

[glen e]

Very nice, I'm a tech contributor over on the corvette forum and used CQUK on mine. The C7’s have a bit of orange peel on the sides and the black wheels are showing a bit of rock damage early on, as GM used car paint instead some something like powder coating. But yes, they do look stunning when detailed nicely like you did. Here's mine with CQUK:

For 60k it's a helluva buy....

 

[richy]

Richy..been on the AG Forum for a while and have always valued your HONEST opinions/advice! You do amazing work and it is not only skills that get you there..but a passion that shows thru. Really hope you get to feeling back to "100% Richy"...

Thanks very much. You'll only ever hear my honest opinion. If I like it, I say why and how it worked for me. If I don't, I say how I did it and why it didn't work. Take mf pads for instance. I've tried so many of them so many times and I STILL don't like them. I like to try things but always come back to what works, all the time, for me.
And thanks for the good wishes!

excellent work.....get well soon!

Thanks very much. Going for my 2nd chest Xray tomorrow. I doubt it will be clear.

Beautiful car. It's an amazing car... Starting in '97 with the C5 Chevy has really continued to slowly and steadily step up the Corvette's game. Each year brings better power, world class handling, and refinement-best of all at a low pricepoint.

Thanks. Hey, can you imagine the pressure over at the Corvette division? Top this? Good bloody luck...but they keep doing it!!

Wow, amazing detail Richy. Like said above, your work exhausts passion. Congratulations, and wish you the best in your recovery.

Kind Regards.

Thanks very much for the kind words and good wishes.

Very nice, I'm a tech contributor over on the corvette forum and used CQUK on mine. The C7’s have a bit of orange peel on the sides and the black wheels are showing a bit of rock damage early on, as GM used car paint instead some something like powder coating. But yes, they do look stunning when detailed nicely like you did. Here's mine with CQUK:

For 60k it's a helluva buy....

Glen, dude, that is one sweet ride!! Are those wheels stock?