Some before photos of my current nightmare

You have your hands full with this one, but I'm sure it will come out looking as good as it ever can short of a respray! I find that with the C3 Corvettes, you really have no middle road when it comes to overall condition- it's either an extremely well-kept garage queen, or it's trashed. I've maybe seen one or two ever that have original paint that are driven and still look OK.
 
tuscarora dave said:
Me too Myles. What part of PA are you from? I'm around Harrisburg/York area. Thanks for posting.



Thanks for the vote of confidence. I have brought back some real doozies but I really do believe this might be the worst one I've had my hands on to date. Kind of reminds me of the red 69 I did a few years back.
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I'm in the Denver area, although I haven't worked up much of a client base yet. I mainly do this for my own vehicle and a few close friends.
 
Here are a few photos of what's been going on with this project. First a very generous soaking in Meguiar's #7 show car glaze to bring the paint back to a polishable state of health. First coat sat for 18 hours and the second coat sat for well over 24 hours. I used the entire bottle between the 2 coats. The paint did soak up a lot of the oils of the second coat and all the oils of the first coat.









It took a few hours to remove all the excess #7 before going on to the sanding stages. Of course I played around a little testing different methods before deciding to just sand with 3000 grit then DA compound with Ultrafiber 5" discs and M-105.











Shop security guard doing his thing...



On to the compounding. I decided to do the harder parts first.





The single stage paint clogs up the fibers in the Ultrafiber discs but they work very nicely.



After a spin with compressed air...they still need some brushing to fluff the fibers back up.







For glossy damaged paint it's not looking too bad. The car will look a whole lot better once I get through the current process, wash the residue off and then follow the compounding with the Meg's Finishing Wax D-301 I think it is. The paint has fracturing and lacquer checking all over it and the D-301 will conceal some of that mess during the finish polishing stage.
 
Dave,
You may already be aware of the quirks of old GM lacquer, but I have to mention this: When you're working on the checked areas, keep the heat to a minimum or you'll just open the cracks wider. I have quite a bit of checking on my Camino, so I've been there,done that. Also, if you're not a regular user of Meg's #7, isn't it amazing what that stuff can do with old lacquer? I had been using it as a pre-wax glaze for 30 years and never fully realized its benefits until I read Mike's tutorial and applied the process to my Camino. For the last three years, a couple overnight soaks have been part of my spring regimen. I went from being ashamed to park it inside the ropes at a cruise from taking home some trophies at judged shows. All the paint maladies are still there, but now I can bring up some serious shine. Best of luck in your project. Anything close to perfection is absolutely impossible, but there's some serious pride to be had by bringing one back from dead.

Bill
 
davey g-force said:
Nice work! Coming along nicely Dave :xyxhumbs:
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Thanks Buddy :xyxthumbs:
BillyJack said:
Dave,
You may already be aware of the quirks of old GM lacquer, but I have to mention this: When you're working on the checked areas, keep the heat to a minimum or you'll just open the cracks wider. I have quite a bit of checking on my Camino, so I've been there,done that. Also, if you're not a regular user of Meg's #7, isn't it amazing what that stuff can do with old lacquer? I had been using it as a pre-wax glaze for 30 years and never fully realized its benefits until I read Mike's tutorial and applied the process to my Camino. For the last three years, a couple overnight soaks have been part of my spring regimen. I went from being ashamed to park it inside the ropes at a cruise from taking home some trophies at judged shows. All the paint maladies are still there, but now I can bring up some serious shine. Best of luck in your project. Anything close to perfection is absolutely impossible, but there's some serious pride to be had by bringing one back from dead.

Bill
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Thanks for the tips on the checking, I have done extensive testing and trial and error on lacquer checking over the years. I've even sanded layer by later to see how deep it goes. It usually goes about half way through the primer coat until you sand into the primer and no longer see the checking marks. I wasn't aware of what excessive heat would do to it though. That's good to know. yes #7 can do some amazing revitalizing to dead paint.:dblthumb2:
 
Dave, you are the detailer I look the most up to. I've said countless times that your work is inspiring to me, and I have a feeling this will be one to top them all. I'm eagerly waiting your results!

Btw, did you get a chance to use d101 yet?
 
ihaveacamaro said:
Dave, you are the detailer I look the most up to. I've said countless times that your work is inspiring to me, and I have a feeling this will be one to top them all. I'm eagerly waiting your results!

Btw, did you get a chance to use d101 yet?
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Thanks Roshan...I'm all :o:o:o over here. Seriously though...I'm very humbled by it.

Haven't tried D-101 yet, though I did like your video.
 
ComradeGrumbles said:
I'm in the Denver area, although I haven't worked up much of a client base yet. I mainly do this for my own vehicle and a few close friends.
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Random thread jack but weather permitting I'll be racing at Maple Grove this Saturday. Small world.

Back on topic I'm confident in your skills to carry through to this car. The teasers already posted show a night and day improvement. Excited. Keep it up Dave.

Sent from my VS840 4G using AG Online
 
Becciasm said:
Random thread jack but weather permitting I'll be racing at Maple Grove this Saturday. Small world.

Back on topic I'm confident in your skills to carry through to this car. The teasers already posted show a night and day improvement. Excited. Keep it up Dave.

Sent from my VS840 4G using AG Online
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I was going to Maple Grove twice in my life, both times the guys I was going with passed away before the date we had set to go. I'm not too thrilled to make a third date to go to Maple Grove Raceway... True story as bizarre as it may sound. Good luck on the weather and on the racing!!
 
tuscarora dave said:
I was going to Maple Grove twice in my life, both times the guys I was going with passed away before the date we had set to go. I'm not too thrilled to make a third date to go to Maple Grove Raceway... True story as bizarre as it may sound. Good luck on the weather and on the racing!!
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Yeah. We don't need any more of those types of trips.

I've been many times as a spectator, this will be my first time down the track.

Sent from my VS840 4G using AG Online
 
tuscarora dave said:
Thanks Roshan...I'm all :o:o:o over here. Seriously though...I'm very humbled by it.

Haven't tried D-101 yet, though I did like your video.
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Well I don't know if what you do can be classified as detailing. You take near death vehicles and bring them back. Paint polishing, for the most part, is not very hard in my opinion. But I would be scared to do all the crazy bondo and painting and other stuff you do. You're on another level from detailers like myself :props:

I brought up the d101 because of your comment on my video. When you do get a chance to play with it, let me know what you think, as I'm really curious to hear your unbiased opinion. :dblthumb2:
 
Good morning all.

I sent this cell phone photo to the owner of this Corvette. He was impressed so far and said looking at it gave him goose bumps.



And another angle. This car will be gleaming at it's best on an overcast day or at an evening get together at the "Soda Jerk".



I finished the compounding of the hood, tops of front fenders, T-tops then backed it out of the shop and gave it a good wash. The top side of the rear end of this car is going to need to be repainted. I'll be compounding the rest of the compoundable areas before starting in on the paint work. For now I swept out the shop to take a break from this project and bring in something a little more elegant.



This Benz got a full correction and a coat of Opti-Guard last year. I'll be spending some quality time with her, caressing her wheel wells, wheels & barrels and adding a coat of something to the paint to give it that just waxed look.
 
Looking fantastic so far!
Quick question though...I just ordered my first ONR but it has two separate dilutions for clay lube and quick detailer. Your bottle is labeled both, which dilution do you use? Is your detailer weak or is your clay lube strong lol? If I can save a bottle I'm all for it.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Dave, your going to spray those areas of the 'Vette that need it yourself?
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I'm going to price all the supplies and two sprayers, then get a quote from my paint guy up the road and decide at that point which way to go. I'm leaning toward doing it myself if I gan get a primer and a paint sprayer out of the deal for less than the paint shop quote.

Kyle_Elantra said:
Looking fantastic so far!
Quick question though...I just ordered my first ONR but it has two separate dilutions for clay lube and quick detailer. Your bottle is labeled both, which dilution do you use? Is your detailer weak or is your clay lube strong lol? If I can save a bottle I'm all for it.
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I have a pump dispenser on a gallon of ONR. I give it one pump into the bottle then fill the rest with water and use that mixture for everything. There's better ways to save money that to me bean counting with QD. Been doing it that way for years now and get 128 quarts of QD for roughly fifty bucks.
 
Not questioning your reasoning behind doing it that way, I'm just unfamiliar with the product is all.
Thanks for responding! Good luck with the painting :-)
 
This is how you define heroic detailing.
 
Dave,
I am new to the forum and the whole detail / paint restoration. The work you have shown is really unbelievable. Nice job! I sent you a PM with some other thoughts.
 
Amazing results.... Post a pic/vid of the owners reaction when he picks it up if you can. I bet that would be priceless.
 
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