The POWER of BLACKFIRE One Step - American Graffiti - 1931 Ford 5-Window Coupe - Extreme Paint Correction

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

The POWER of BLACKFIRE One Step - American Graffiti - 1931 Ford 5-Window Coupe - Extreme Paint Correction



BLACKFIRE One Step - Used to correct the paint on Ken White's 1931 Ford 5-Window Coupe

Here's an American Graffiti Movie Poster

This is the real American Graffiti movie car - John Milner's 1932 Ford 5-Window Coupe

Ken White's tribute car - 1931 Ford 5-Window Coupe

The backstory...

For the 2021 season of My Classic Car, we shot all our TV segments in-house. Because this TV show caters to classic cars, muscle cars and streetrods, we try to bring in and use cars that fit this theme. My friend Ken custom built his car from scratch and it's incredibly close to the real movie car. For those that might not know, there's not a lot of difference between a 1931 model and a 1932 model, pretty much the same car. Also - whereas a lot of cars like this that you see today at car shows are fiberglass, not Ken's car. This is the real-deal, this is a real steel 1931 Ford Model A.


The car looks GREAT in this picture....

While Ken did a great job of building the car, the finish needs a little touch-up....

The paint had a lot of swirls and scratches and in some places it was simply dull and hazy in appearance.

My take...

I've always loved the look of the 1931/1932 5-window and even 3-window coupes. I've detailed a number of these over the years but never a John Milner tribute car, so this was a real pleasure to work on. I appreciated that Ken trusted me and Autogeek with his streetrod, I know he has a lot of time and money invested in building it over the years. While it was here I told him I would do a little polishing and waxing as a thank you for letting us use his car for our TV commercials.

Process

1. Waterless wash using SONAX Glass Cleaner
2. Used Pinnacle Ultra Poly Detailing Clay with SONAX Glass Cleaner to clay the paint
3. Machine corrected the paint using the FLEX Supa BEAST, Lake Country 6.5" Orange foam cutting pads with BLACKFIRE One Step
4. Polished the paint using the FLEX Supa BEAST, First Generation RUPES yellow foam polishing pads with BLACKFIRE One Step
5. Knocked out the tight areas like the firewall and the sides of the radiator shell using the FLEX PXE080

Here's final results...

This is one really nice example of a traditional Americana streetrod....

Thanks Ken for trusting us with your super cool Model A!



:xyxthumbs:

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Continued...


I know Ken was interested to see some of the new tools, pads and products for machine polishing so I saved a section on the deck lid and let him polish it out.

And "yes" - when the car left Autogeek it was right and tight. rops:



Here's links to everything I used...


BLACKFIRE One Step 32 oz. - There's a 16 ounce bottle but it's a better cost-per-ounce to buy the 32 ounce bottle




I call this tool the Supa BEAST but the actual name and part number is: FLEX XCE 8-125 18.0 Polisher


I highly recommend swapping out the factory 5" backing plate for the optional 6" backing plate, here's the link to the 6" plate



Here's the link to my article on this topic,

Supa BEAST and CBEAST Backing Plate Swap by Mike Phillips

For pads, I used the Lake Country 6.5" Orange Foam Cutting pads to really CHOP on the paint to remove the deeper swirls and scratches. I re-polished the entire car using the older RUPES yellow foam polishing pads to maximize gloss and clarity. Since buffing out this car RUPES has discontinued their first generation foam pads and replaced them with the new CP foam pads.

Here's my article on pads for the Supa BEAST and the CBEAST - I show pictures and the links to the pads I used for this project in this article.

Mike Phillips recommended foam pads for the FLEX Family of BEAST 8mm Gear-Driven Orbital Polishers

Here's the links to get them on the AG Store

6.5 inch Lake Country Force Hybrid Orange Cutting Pad

RUPES 180 mm / 7" Foam Pads


This is a super handy micro-tool.

FLEX PXE 80 12-EC KIT

The pads I tend to use the most with this tool are the Buff and Shine Uro-Tec pads in 3". I use the FLEX PXE with the 12mm random orbit drive unit and the 3" backing plate. The velcro "hook" on the current FLEX PXE-80 backing plates is a tick on the anemic side, hopefully FLEX will address this moving forward. There are aftermarket backing plates for this tool but offhand I'm not sure the vendor.


3 inch Buff and Shine Uro-Tec Foam Pads



SONAX Glass Cleaner (Not pictures on the cart)

Most of you that have been reading my article over the last few years know I use the SONAX Glass Cleaner for a Prep Wash and I've shared the reasons why many times on this forum and in my classes. So much so that even Jim Lafeber recently refined my idea for a Prep Wash and created a new and unique formula to do what the SONAX product does but fine-tuned it to be more perfect for why I used the SONAX product. Besides working [for me] as a Prep Wash - SONAX Glass Cleaner is also a great glass cleaner.


SONAX Glass Cleaner


Over the years I've found the safest way to mechanically decontaminate paint while reducing the risk of accidentally marring the paint during the process is to use an ULTRA FINE grade of clay. I'm not sure how many options for this grade are on the market but here's the one I've been using.

Pinnacle Ultra Poly Clay



Microfiber Towels

I like these because they have a FLAT WEAVE and this simply means they are a lot less likely to become contaminated over time.

Cobra Storm Gray Edgeless Microfiber Polishing Cloth


Same towel - different color

Cobra Forrest Green Edgeless Polishing Cloth


My recommendation is to purchase the above towels in either 12 packs or 24 packs.

Why?

So when you wash them you can wash them with only themselves - as in a dedicated load. The idea being to do everything you can to avoid contaminating your "paint care" towels. Thus you want enough towels to make and justify a SMALL or MEDIUM load. See my article here,


Buy enough towels to make a DEDICATED small wash load


And if you have not read this article or watched the video - do it.

How, why & when to inspect your microfiber towels when detailing cars


Like I always say,

It takes hours to buff out a car and only seconds to put scratches into the paint - if your towels are contaminated.







Taking a diamond in the rough and turning it into a glistening gemstone...

 

[Burger]

You had me at American Graffiti...Beautiful!

What at FUN, COOL project!

Lots of cool cars in that movie. Milner's Coupe just makes an old guy smile.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

You had me at American Graffiti...Beautiful!

Yeah that was a fun movie in its time and still endure the test of time.

What at FUN, COOL project!

It was a genuine pleasure and also rewarding to fix the paint for Ken on his Model A. We put out the word we were looking for some cars for our TV commercials on "My Classic Car" and Ken answered the call. He didn't know me from Adam but probably was aware of Autogeek as a part of the car culture here in South Florida, to what extent I don't know.

But for someone to bring for the most part strangers their car and trust us to take care of it is more than appreciated.


:cheers: