Show & Shine: Black '69 Camaro SS Pro-Touring

Dr_Pain

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It has been a little while since I posted a Show and Shine and I though this car would be a good one for you to feast your eyes on.

The Subject: 1969 Camaro SS Pro-Touring w/ a 383 Stroker

The customer contacted me shortly after picking up his new toy because he was somewhat disappointed with the state she was in. He tried describing the issues he was having over the phone but it was clear that we had a little "lingo" barrier, so we made arrangements for him to drop her off. He described to me that when he purchased the car, he made arrangements with the builder/previous owner to get white strips painted on it. She had seen a full resto-mod and was fairly recently painted but they had elected to keep the stripes off.

At the time he dropped off his car he did not want to talk about prices he just wanted the scratches gone..... This is my kind of customer! By the way, the sound of that engine and exhaust made the hair on the back of my neck stand on attention. I did attempt to describe the process but it was obvious that he did not care. He told me to keep the car as long as needed to make it right. Upon inspection this is what I found......

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Can someone see that the painter/builder went crazy with the rotary? The back 2 c-pillars and rear quarters were full of holograms.... and the rest of the car showed typical scratches and swirls. A few RIDS were discovered in front of the driver side rear quarter (as shown above) and on the roof (not shown). I definitely had a lot of questions but the owner was adamant that I just take care of it.

A few test spots were done and the best combination was selected. The car underwent a 2 step polishing. The rims were hand polished and sealed, the tires cleaned and dressed and a basic interior was done. The engine bay was clean and no time or money was needed to be thrown at it (since he had no intention of bringing it to a car show).

Process

Exterior
- Wheels: Iron X with various brushes
- Tire: Cleaned with Meguiar D101
- Wash: ONR QD dilution with MF towel
- Decontamination: Nanoskin fine with ONR lube dilution
- Dry: Waffle Weave Towels
- RIDS: Wet sanded to 3000 grit
- Compounding/Polish: PF2500 on 5.5" Orange LC Light Cutting Pad via Rupes LHR21ES (speed 5.5 x 6 passes) and 3" hydrotech Pads via GG6 (speed 6); This was followed by SF4000 on 5" LC white pad (Speed 5 x 5 passes)
- IPA Wipedown
- Eraser Wipedown (CarPro Eraser)
- Protection: CG Blacklight machine applied topped with PW54x
- Tires Dressing: Pinnacle Black Onyx
- Glass: Pinnacle Crystal clear

Interior
- Vacuum
- Dash, trim, and vinyl Protected with Blackfire interior protectant

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As you can imagine, the owner could not be anything less than thrilled to get rid of all that mess. It took me a few minutes to kinda make sense of the lingo he was using in describing what he was seeing, but it was plain as the nose on my face what he wanted. Well, he did come and pick it up 2 days later and was ASTONISHED! He had some expectation but did not anticipate what he finally saw. One of his employee came to drop him off and had his 2 boys with him and he corralled them in a hurry when he saw them lunging for the car with hands outstretched. The expression on the customer's face was priceless. His last parting comment was that he was bringing her home and he may not want to drive it now, LOL!

Hope you enjoyed! As usual, feel free to comment and/or ask questions....

:dblthumb2:
 
That is one sexy lady! Beautiful! :dblthumb2:
 
Wow - Amazing work, and amazing car! Sounds like the owner was really upset by its current condition if he just tossed it at you and basically said "I don't want to see it until it is perfect!" I'm glad he was thrilled with your results! Hopefully he takes proper care of it and keeps it looking that way :)

i-wanna-go-fast-o.gif

"I WANNA GO FAST!"
 
Sweet looking car, and you certainly worked some magic on that paint. It is crazy if you really go to some car shows and look at the paint jobs, just how many of them are messed up like that.
 
That is one sexy lady! Beautiful! :dblthumb2:

Indeed my friend, indeed!!

Wow - Amazing work, and amazing car! Sounds like the owner was really upset by its current condition if he just tossed it at you and basically said "I don't want to see it until it is perfect!" I'm glad he was thrilled with your results! Hopefully he takes proper care of it and keeps it looking that way :)

i-wanna-go-fast-o.gif

"I WANNA GO FAST!"

I seriously doubt that this car will be seeing much of anything for a while and strongly suspect that I will be seeing it once in a while after that. I did contact the owner the day after (as I always do) and inquired if the second more critical look was as pleasing as the first, and to ask his permission to post pics to my web page. He did admit that he parked his car in his workshop and spent quite a bit of time just marveling, and while we are having a nice chat he made a mention that his wife's AMG will coming to spend a weekend soon!

Nice! Impressed Pf2500 handled all that.

I was ready to get out the MF pads and the FG400 but PF2500 was all it took. Softish little bugger, which surprised me considering it is a custom repaint.

Sweet looking car, and you certainly worked some magic on that paint. It is crazy if you really go to some car shows and look at the paint jobs, just how many of them are messed up like that.

Thanks for the compliment. To be honest, I avoid car shows! I made a couple people mad the last time I went because those "car guys" are just happy to see all the cars, but true to form, I started pointing out a couple of defects..... and once you see them, you cannot unsee them!

Stunning work Claude! That is Beautiful!

She is a beauty for sure..... but that engine was just SICK!! Thanks for the compliment Mike!
 
Amazing restoration! A show car makeover for sure!


Thank you for documenting with pictures the hack job of buffing by the painter or the painter's helper. It's a shame to have such a nice car with such nice paint job only to be destroyed by the misuse of a rotary buffer.

Note I wrote, misuse of a rotary buffer.

The rotary buffer is not an evil tool in fact it's a great tool. It's just not everyone knows how to use it correctly and too many people don't know there are other options for tools for the last machine polishing step instead of the rotary buffer to key word, ensure a hologram-free finish.

Excellent work my man... let's hope the owner knows how much head knowledge on your part plus skills and the right pads, products and tools to undo the damage and produce the show car results displayed in your excellent pictures.


Given the choice...


Would you rather work on cars like this 1969 Camaro?

Or

Would you rather work on normal, daily driver transportation type cars?



Just a question I find myself asking more and more when people share the cars they work on...



This is a very nice car to include in your portfolio of coll cars you've detailed.


:dblthumb2:
 
Amazing restoration! A show car makeover for sure!


Thank you for documenting with pictures the hack job of buffing by the painter or the painter's helper. It's a shame to have such a nice car with such nice paint job only to be destroyed by the misuse of a rotary buffer.

Note I wrote, misuse of a rotary buffer.

The rotary buffer is not an evil tool in fact it's a great tool. It's just not everyone knows how to use it correctly and too many people don't know there are other options for tools for the last machine polishing step instead of the rotary buffer to key word, ensure a hologram-free finish.

Excellent work my man... let's hope the owner knows how much head knowledge on your part plus skills and the right pads, products and tools to undo the damage and produce the show car results displayed in your excellent pictures.


Given the choice...


Would you rather work on cars like this 1969 Camaro?

Or

Would you rather work on normal, daily driver transportation type cars?



Just a question I find myself asking more and more when people share the cars they work on...



This is a very nice car to include in your portfolio of coll cars you've detailed.


:dblthumb2:

Thanks for the kind words Mike!

Believe it or not, you were on my mind the whole time I was working on this car. How many times have you preached about DISO and buffer trails and rotary induced holograms etc...???? This car had it all, and those holograms were the worst I had ever seen, seriously! Even my first attempt at using a rotary was not that bad. I definitely wanted to document for prosperity, and took some 83 pictures, which those were selected from. I am glad you find it to be a valuable asset to the site.

To answer your question, I prefer working on "Saturday" cars rather than daily drivers or "Sunday" cars.

"Sunday" cars are trailer queens. I put so much pressure to have 100% correction, and flawless execution, that I can't sleep at night. This Camaro was corrected to about 95-98% and it "consumed" me for the whole weekend. From the owner's reaction I think he would have been thrilled to see 50% improvement, but I could not have delivered anything less (even if he had put me on a restricted budget).

"Saturday" cars are the "drive up" car show entries/night on the town with the wife/girlfriend kinda cars. They don't see much inclement weather (unless they are caught by a random patch of bad weather) and are always well cared for. Those customers hang on to every word and piece of instruction. Those correction still eat my lunch because of the pressures I put on myself, but there is definitely less expectations to produce a flawless finish. I usually approach those with the following attitude:

"Less than perfect leaves you the ability to beautify it again later"

Daily Drivers are a pain, to be honest. The whole time I work on them I know that the paint will be neglected or mishandled in some way, shape or form, and continuously ask myself "why bother!?!". For every 10 DD you do, only 1 customer will actually take the education/instructions seriously (long term). They all start on the right track, and fall off the bandwagon sooner or later, and run the car through a carwash. It may be just me but I invest so much of myself in those corrections that I take it personally when someone fail to do the proper maintenance. When that happens, it is almost like if one of my kids had been punched in the face.

I may have a different attitude if I was doing this to provide for my family (primary income), but this is a side business which I do because I LOVE and have a PASSION for it!

P.S. I did include the sun shots for you :)
 
Thanks for the kind words Mike!

Believe it or not, you were on my mind the whole time I was working on this car.

How many times have you preached about DISO and buffer trails and rotary induced holograms etc...????

Info on our forum kind of gets ingrained in the brain...



To answer your question, I prefer working on "Saturday" cars rather than daily drivers or "Sunday" cars.

Me too...

I have people ask me once in a while why I tend to always work on muscle cars, classic and streetrods and the simple answer it because it's a lot more enjoyable.

Taking on the risk of working on someone else's toy taxes your brain and your nerves and this wears you out just like physical work.

The work is what it is... usually long and hard.

If I'm going to tax my brain, stress my nerves and pour my heart and soul into someone else's ride then at least I want to enjoy it.


Good to hear your answer... I like to be in good company in the forum world.


:dblthumb2:
 
Looks great. My all time favorite camaro body styles.
 
Claude,
Amazing job. I love those '69's my favorite body style. I would love to have one again, my dream machine...
 
Looks great. My all time favorite camaro body styles.

Thanks! She is a beauty for sure :xyxthumbs:

Claude,
Amazing job. I love those '69's my favorite body style. I would love to have one again, my dream machine...

Thanks a lot.... I am a Ford man but I can appreciate beauty, and this falls right in line!!
 
Great job on a great car. I agree with you completely that "Saturday" cars are the best. They are cars that can be appreciated by the owner as well as others. Why have a classic car if you feel you can't drive it anywhere?
 
Spectacular.

I like you hate going to car shows and seeing people using paper towels and god knows what in a spray bottle. They think this is detailing . Also see some horrible defects that the avg joe would never notice


Ryan
 
Thanks for the positive comments! I am glad that I am not the only one who prefers being appreciated over being remunerated.
 
IM astonished! He must have done all he could to even STAY STANDING!!! Amazing job on that one.
 
Wow, amazing work on a gorgeous car :xyxthumbs:

I really like what you said about Saturday cars, Sunday cars and DD's :)
 
Wow...just wow.

It's posts like this that continue to make me realize I have so much to learn. I'm in awe of your efforts - the owner must have been absolutely stunned!

Thanks for posting this and describing your process. Time to get signed up for Mike's weekend class (next year :( ).

Truly amazing job!
 
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