Rescued from Hell: 1969 Corvette Convertible

richy

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My father bought this car to flip it. To say that it was in rough shape is an understatement. He will be getting it back into shape mechanically and whatnot but wanted me to try to repair the interior. As for the paint? Well, he thought he'd have to paint it but really didn't want to. He didn't think I'd be able to turn it around. I didn't know whether I would or not either. As you will see, it was really badly oxidized. This job was going to be interior only if the paint didn't correct, or a big job to try to turn it around.

When I got it, I didn't even bother washing it or the tires or anything. I thought that on the off chance the paint did turn around, I would just ONR the paint and then correct it from there. Here's how it was when it arrived to me. He had removed the seats for me to be able to clean the interior better and also to do them better as well:

















No oxidized paint here, no sir! OMG!!





The wheels were in good shape as my dad had already removed them and polished the rings and had painted them black.






The chrome had seen much better days too. I ended up being able to improve them marginally, but not much unfortunately.







OK...are you ready for the interior. Don't be eating anything when you see these pics!
























Here are the seats:











So, there we are. Good thing I was up for the challenge. First up: the interior. I was thanking my lucky stars that I had purchased my Mytee extractor last year!! First step was a thorough vacuum. That alone took quite a while. I then got the extractor heating up. I decided to use a Zep product that I bought about a year ago but hadn't tried yet. It had been describe to me as being very powerful: Zep Premium Carpet Shampoo. I mixed it up in a 32 oz bottle. Very little is needed: it's very concentrated.

I then sprayed my Zep cleaner on an area and then agitated it with my DA and carpet brush. For giggles, I also compared it to LATA to see which one would work better. The LATA suds up a lot more which was harder to clear from the carpet, and it did not clean any better than the Zep. The win goes to Zep for that product. After agitating, I would extract. I worked this combo heavily. I used 1.5 bottles of cleaner mix on this car...for a 2 door!!! It also took me 3.5 hours to complete. How did it turn out? Let's see:
























OK, another make-sure-you-don't-have-anything-in-your-mouth warning: This is what came out of my extractor at the end. I swore it looked like bloody used oil:

 
The door panels were cleaned with my AG knockoff interior cleaning pad and the Zep cleaner. It was then treated to a couple of coats of Ultima Interior Guard. They did not come out as well as I had hoped they would:








The seats were cleaned with the AG pad with Zep, and then extracted. The vinyl and the cloth was treated with UIGP. They cleaned up nicely:






Now it was time to play with some paint! Got me a cigar lit up and got out my trusty flex 3401 and my black tuf buff pad. I was first going to see if it could be saved at all. I wanted to try my Shine Supply Flat Top compound a second time. What a test for it!! And did it pass..with flying colours! I found it to remove the oxidized haze really well too. I then went over the area a 2nd time with a white B/S pad + M205. Holey moley...I was going to be able to make a car outta this thing! I'll be damned.

Here's a 50/50 shot of the LF fender which was my guinea pig panel:








Now that I knew it was going to work, I wanted to test the Flat Top against 2 strong competitors: Americut and M105. Both had the same reaction: they were able to remove the oxidation as well as the Flat Top did, but the removal of it was a lot harder. FT it was for the rest of the car. Now, as far as the level of correction I was going for with this car: None! This thing has many issues and really needs a repaint, but I know that it isn't going to happen. There were many places that really needed touch up paint, but that was not available. The car had been repainted years ago (and not with a Corvette paint my dad said) so I just had to make it presentable. Period. The other thing that held me back was that I had no clue how thick the paint was on this car as it had originally been white, not red. So I needed to clean it up as good as possible while treading very lightly indeed. So scratches and whatnot that did not come out in the initial pass were ignored. The bumpers got the same 2 step process to them.

After the 2 step correction process, the car was wiped down with Eraser. The LSP of choice? I chose CQUK for it as I figured it would hold up very well until well after the car was sold and furthermore lock in the paint so you stopped having a red rag every time you wiped the paint. I forgot how much I hate single stage paint. It's just so dirty. The bumpers were coated too.


Well after 17 hours, I think it's worthy of going through an auction. Here we go:




















Some reflection shots:


















Here's one last shot, and thanks for looking! Comments always appreciated!


I wouldn't need to manage my anger if people would manage
 
Amazing work!
Since it has been resprayed do you know if it's a single stage or clear coat?
 
OMG, only a detail fanatic can appreciate! That is so cool.
 
Richy, you've been working on some really cool cars lately!! I'm so jealous lol

Great job on that!!
 
Outstanding. That's one of those interiors where you open the door, your jaw drops, and you don't know where to start. Always loved those old Stingrays
 
Auction? I bet you could get more out of a private sale. I think an auction is an insult to that great work!!!!!
 
I'm pleased you accepted the challenge because that is a very cool post! :props: Fantastic work mate, a really enjoyable write up & pictures to match.

As yuck as it was, I'm guessing even though it wasn't perfect, you had fun turning it around.

Awesome! Thank you for sharing! :dblthumb2:

Aaryn NZ.
 
Great save. Any reason you did not use Meg #7 beforehand to feed the paint Richy? Great choice on a coating for protection as well.
 
Great job, did you leave the tires bare for a reason?
 
Awesome Work! The choice of UK was a great one, since it should help with oxidation in the future. I love the turn around, great pics as always.

HUMP
 
Nice turnaround Richy!! Reminds me of the first Corvette I polished. It too was a 69 but in original Monza red paint. It was super soft single stage and real easy to work with to bring back a nice shine. You do what you can with those old damaged lacquer paint jobs.
 
Amazing work!
Since it has been resprayed do you know if it's a single stage or clear coat?
Yes, it was a single stage paint. I had the joy (Canadian sarcasm:xyxthumbs:) of constantly cleaning red out of my TB wool pads (my spur was turning red!) and the B/S white pad. In fact one thing I wanted to add to the write up and forgot is what worked well to remove the paint residue. Normally LATA will do fine, but it didn't do it in this case. I grabbed a several years old bottle of Dawn Power Dissolver that I kept for nasty things and it worked. Just FYI.
And thanks very much!

OMG, only a detail fanatic can appreciate! That is so cool.
Thanks man! My dad was blown away! He just kept shaking his head. I was proud.

What a turnaround Richy! Great work :xyxthumbs:
Davey, thanks so much for commenting!

Great work there. A+
Thanks very much Gibby!

Richy, you've been working on some really cool cars lately!! I'm so jealous lol

Great job on that!!
Roshan, dude, I've been lucky! Stay tuned my friend, I've got some other cool things coming too...

Outstanding. That's one of those interiors where you open the door, your jaw drops, and you don't know where to start. Always loved those old Stingrays
Thanks so much. It WAS like a trip down memory lane for me too as when I was in high school, I had a '71 coupe with a removable top and back window, factory air and power windows. It was white with black interior. GOD I MISS THAT CAR!!

Auction? I bet you could get more out of a private sale. I think an auction is an insult to that great work!!!!!
Maybe. My father has worked for and with RM Auctions for many years. He has bought and sold quite a few cars using them and has been happy. Their sales get great attendance and a very high sale rate.

Wow, impressive work
Spence, thanks a bunch and I appreciate you commenting!


What's the reserve price?
Gibby, no clue man. If I find out when/where it's going, I'll PM you OK?

I'm pleased you accepted the challenge because that is a very cool post! :props: Fantastic work mate, a really enjoyable write up & pictures to match.

As yuck as it was, I'm guessing even though it wasn't perfect, you had fun turning it around.

Awesome! Thank you for sharing! :dblthumb2:

Aaryn NZ.
Aaryn, thanks so much. I was paranoid of striking through the red and hitting the white paint underneath. With no paint gauge that reads plastic, I was running blind. Hell, even if I had one, it would not have been helpful in this case with the re-paint.

Great save. Any reason you did not use Meg #7 beforehand to feed the paint Richy? Great choice on a coating for protection as well.
It's funny you say that. I kept a gallon jug of that for years and years. I used to use it on my Lamborghini Miura many years ago. I ended up throwing it out a few years ago (it had to be 20+ years old at that time anyway)

Amazing turn around!!!
Thanks very much man. I appreciate the comment!

Great job, did you leave the tires bare for a reason?
Don, yes, I had posted above that I didn't wash and clean the car as I honestly didn't expect the paint to turn around. In person it looked even worse than it did in the pictures. I wasn't going to waste my time washing a ruined paint job. I almost considered pulling it outside and just doing the tires but I was shot by that point.

Awesome Work! The choice of UK was a great one, since it should help with oxidation in the future. I love the turn around, great pics as always.

HUMP
Hump, thanks very much. As an aside, did you get my response to your PM? It came through as an email only without a corresponding PM on the forum, so I responded via email. Just wanted to make sure it worked.


Nice turnaround Richy!! Reminds me of the first Corvette I polished. It too was a 69 but in original Monza red paint. It was super soft single stage and real easy to work with to bring back a nice shine. You do what you can with those old damaged lacquer paint jobs.

Thanks so much Dave! I fondly remember polishing my '71 coupe as I mentioned above. Boy, I cut my teeth on polishing lacquer paint jobs on the antique cars my father used to have when I was growing up.
 
What a great turn around. You did an unbelievable job on the paint. The splatters across the interior look like a murder scene. Great job on it too. Super job all around.

Walter
 
What a Save Richy!, this thread is inspiring to say the least.

It's pretty understandable your limitations on this project but you definitively made the best decisions possible and the results speaks for themselves.

Congratulations and thanks a lot for sharing this pristine detailing work.

Kind Regards.
 
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