Could use some pointers on polishing a vette

Hey guys,

I am going to be doing some correction work to a 2004 Black Corvette in the next week or two.

Now, I have a good amount of experience with correcting paint and wet sanding and I have plenty of tools and equipment to do so.

However, being a Corvette, it's mostly plastic (maybe fiberglass as well). That being said, my Defelsko DFT PTG is useless for it.

Ive already taken a look at the car and it is need of compounding and some wet sanding... Scratches/swirls galore! It also has a plexiglas roof as opposed to glass that has some swirls in it.

Does anyone have experience with these cars? I've heard the paint is very hard on them, but I have no idea what the thickness is.

Hes not looking for "perfect" but he is a good friend of mine and he just bought it so he wants it to look pretty. I suppose my plan of attack is to just use the Griots or 3401 with some D300 or 105 and go from there... Trust me, it's gonna need some compounding.

Thanks
Seth

 

Yea the paints hard. I did a Maroon 04' and attacked it with 105 and surbuf and Meguiars MF and worked really well. If I remember correctly paint is like 125-140.
I would go easy on the wetsanding.

 

I used 105 on my bosses Z06 came out great!

 

D300 and m105 has worked great for me. If scratches are deeper you can use a rotary with 105. But don't add a lot of pressure. Swirls will be a bitch to remove. Sometimes making the paint look "refreshed" is the best way to go.

 

I've done more corvettes than I can count and yes, the clear is HARD. You'll definitely need 105, add a little D300 to increase the working time and bring the dust down. Menz SIP is a great medium polish on this hard clear and 106FA will finish down beautifully. I wouldn't recommend doing the roof. They have a tendency to delaminate and have to be replaced, a very common thing on C5s. I would not polish that roof unless you are 100% certain the coating is intact, and even then...I wouldn't compound it.