A co-worker recently purchased a black 2005 Corvette C6. He indicated the vehicle needed a thorough detail and asked if I was up for the task. The process: Cleaned wheels with Chemical Guys Sticky Citrus Wheel Gel. De-tarred wheels with 3M All Purpose Adhesive Remover. Cleaned tires and wheel wells with Meguiar's Super Degreaser. Pre-wash with foam cannon; 2 oz Meguiar's APC + 2 oz Meguiar's Hyper Wash +28 oz water. Washed using TBM with Meguiar's Hyper Wash and lambswool mitt. De-tarred lower panels with 3M All Purpose Adhesive Remover. Clayed using Bilt-Hamber Autoclay soft. Compounded using Pro Ultimate Cutter and Meguiar's burgandy foam cutting pad. Re-washed vehicle. Polished using Menzerna SIP and Lake Country CCS white foam polishing pad. Finished using Menzerna 106FA and Meguiar's tan foam finishing pad. Re-washed vehicle. Sealed using Jeff Werkstat Prime. Waxed using Z***l Titanium. Polished exhaust using #0000 steel wool and Meguiar's NXT All Metal Polish. Dressed tires using Zaino Z-16. Cleaned and fed seals using 1Z Gummi Pfledge. This detail took the better part of 4 days and nearly 40 hours. It was accomplished at the owners house; him and his wife were extremely hospitable and made me feel right at home. My Makita broke right after compounding so I had to run to Harbor Freight and pick up a cheap Chicago Electric buffer for $35 to finish the job. Don't know what happened there, I switched the carbon brushes out but it still wouldn't fire up; I'm guessing the motor burned up. I always intend to take a lot of pictures when I accomplish a detail; however, time constraints and a lack of photography always prevent me from doing so. Anyhow, on with the photographs I did take. This is the only picture I took of the vehicle in its entirety; receiving a well deserved bath. Don't have any before and after pictures of the wash stage. To be honest, the owner had recently washed the vehicle and photographs would not have revealed a significant turn around. Special attention was given to the wheels to get them looking new again; they turned out very well. After a wash and clay, the vehicle was driven into the garage where I could use the halogens to view defects in the finish. The vehicle was covered in swirls and RIDS from top to bottom. The driver side front quarter panel. The hood. The driver side door. The passenger side door. In this picture, the camera flash in the upper right hand corner does a better job revealing defects in comparison to the halogen reflections. The lower portion of the passenger side front quarter panel. The passenger side rear quarter panel. I completed a test section and discovered two viable options for compounding. 3M Extra Cut on a Meguiar's burgundy foam cutting pad delivered respectable correction and finished down semi-well; however, it was somewhat temperamental and dusted quite a bit. Pro Ultimate Cutter on a Meguiar's burgundy foam cutting pad also delivered respectable correction and was a dream to work with; however, it did not finish down well. I decided to go with the Pro Ultimate Cutter and deal with the excessive micro marring. I also tried Lake Country Purple Foamed Wool and a 3M double sided wool pad; however, the results weren't any better in comparison to the Meguiar's burgundy foam cutting pad and I hate wool lint. Multiple compounding sets had to be completed to remove the majority of swirls and RIDS. I expected the clear coat on this vehicle to be hard and it did not disappoint; however, it is not the hardest clear coat I have worked on. The micro marring left behind via compounding is apparent in this 50/50 photograph. The left side has been refined via Menzerna SIP and a Lake Country CCS white foam polishing pad. I began to refine the entire vehicle using Menzerna SIP and a Lake Country CCS white foam polishing pad. Four inch pads were used for areas inaccessible for the 6.5" pads. I periodically took photographs with the flash on to determine the presence of holograms. The Menzerna SIP finished down very well. The Menzerna SIP removed the micro marring and broke down nicely. A shot of the rear of the vehicle following refinement using Menzerna SIP. After polishing using Menzerna SIP I finished the vehicle using Menzerna 106FA on a Meguiar's tan foam finishing pad. Here are some before and afters. Hood before. After. Driver side front quarter panel before. After. Passenger side rear quarter panel before. After. Passenger side lower front quarter panel before. After. A random photograph with flash on. Some random completed photographs. The interior was very clean and me and the owner agreed it did not need any additional attention. Thanks for looking.
Great detail. It looks Fantastic. You can tell that you have a ton of hours into this beautiful Corvette...It shows...:thumb::thumb::thumb:
Well done, great improvement on the vehicle. I actually enjoy detailing Vette's, something about there body lines that are fun to detail :thumb:
The weather hasn't been cooperating to well since I completed the detail on this vehicle. However, a little bit of sunshine managed to peer through the clouds this afternoon and I was able to get a few half decent sun shots. Thanks!
