A good friend of mine told me he had purchased a new vehicle, he said that under the sun light he could see some scratches and wanted me to look at the vehicle, I told him I would be more then happy to take a look at his new vehicle. Well long story short we set a date and the day finally came for me to detail the vehicle, my friend wanted to help me with the detail so he hung around for the three days it took to get the vehicle detailed properly. The vehicle is a: 2007 Convertible Corvette Here is the vehicle upon arrival: As you can see the vehicle was in great shape, just needed a little extra attention that’s all. First things first, the vehicle was washed via ONR. The rims, wheel wells and tires on the other hand were treated to steam. First the wheel wells are steamed: Next up the tires: Finally the rims: The rims needed a bit more work, so I got out Red P21S: With a EZ Brush the inside of the rims are agitated: Making sure to get all the way inside: The face of the rims are taken care of by a Zymol brush: My friend wanted to help so I put him in charge of the shoes of his vehicle, here he is hard at work: Here is Red P21S Gel hard at work: Here is how the rims finished off: Next the vehicle is to be clayed, for this Yellow Riccardo is used, here is how the clay finished off: Just a bit of contamination :role: Well now that the vehicle is squeaky clean it’s time to take readings on the vehicle, since the vehicles panels are made up of composite material I brought out my PosiTector 200 out: For the most part the vehicle had healthy paint readings, but some areas I had to be cautious on, duly noted and another thank you to the paint gauge :worship2: Well now it was time to inspect the vehicle, this was done with the help of the 3M Sun Gun: The passenger fender had this lovely, long, deep scratch :thumb: A closer look: Speaking of deep scratches, the trunk area was full of them and: Don’t they look lovely :thumb: Oh but the fun doesn’t stop on the trunk area, here is the bumper: This picture make made sense why I was getting low readings: It’s been polished before :shrug: Well there’s more: Speaking of being polished before, this says is tall: Now that I know the condition of the vehicle and it’s previous treatment, it’s time to find a polishing combo. First combo: Menzerna Polishing foam pad with Menzerna Intensive Polish. I taped up the driver fender, before: After: Here is a 50/50 of the test panel: Looks like a good combo to me :thumb: Well that was easy, now to press on, here is the lower panel of the driver side fender before: After: Here is the rest of the driver side fender, before: After: The fender had a deep scratch: I bumped the polish and pad and still no go, so I turned to my friend and asked for permission to wet sand, I got permission and I was one step a head, I had already set the sanding pads in water :giggle: something told me that I was going to be wet sanding :whistle: Well I couldn’t have all the fun, so I gave my friend the task of polishing the exhaust tips: Of course, Autosol was used: I explained how I polish the tips and he followed directions well, my friend was thrilled with the results on the first tip and called me over and I have to admit the first tip stood out from the rest: Well wile my friend was busy with the exhaust tips, I get to enjoy my self and wet sand :woo: First 2,000 grit followed up with 4,000 grit: Followed up with Power Gloss and a Menzerna Compunding pad, refined with Intensive Polish with a Menzerna Polishing pad. Left it at that for now. Well moving on to the hood: The hood had some deep scratches, surprisingly deep, power gloss and Menzerna Compounding pad couldn’t cut it: Here is the result after a few passes: Deep scratches still there :shead: Well time to go to my #2 compound: A yes my #2 always comes through for me, makes me wonder why I call it my #2 :shrug: :thumb: no more RIDS :cheerl: Well Fast Cut Plus and Menzerna Compounding pad it is, on with the vehicle. Before: After: Before: After: Before: After: Here is an example of the power of Fast Cut Plus, before: After: If you look closely you can just barely make out the deep scratch, so the second pass took care of that. Pressing on with the correction, before: After: Before: After: Before: After: Before: After: Well that completes the correction, my friend thought we were done, I told him it was now time to refine the finish, I proceeded to Menzerna Intensive Polish partnered with Menzerna Polishing pad then followed up with Menzerna 85RD with 3M UK Blue Finishing pad: I almost forgot the tail lights, tail lights were easy though they only needed Menzerna Intensive Polish with a polishing Ultimate foam pad: Before: After: Before: After: Before: After: Before: After: Well that completes this vehicle, now for the clean up, for this Menzerna Top Inspection comes out to play: Now seeing as this vehicle belongs to a good friend of mine, I made an exception and brought out my personal stash: I applied and my friend removed :giggle: For those that have never used HD Professional, it’s a pain to use it’s literally wipe on wipe off or else you’ll pay for it…as my friend found out :whistle: Now when I showed this to my friend: He looked at it and said “..that looks nice.” Then I started rambling on and on about it and my friend asked me how much it cost, when I told him how much it cost he was shocked and couldn’t believe the price. Any who I decided to apply Vintage via foam applicator, again I applied and my friend buffed off. After a few hours I gave the vehicle a Field Glaze wipe down and here are the end results, get ready lots of pictures coming up, you have been warned: When we finished the vehicle it was nice and sunny outside so here come the full sun shots: Oh yes, tires were dressed with Optimum Tire and I told my friend to seal the rims, DG #105 was used :thumb: Here’s my friend admiring all that hard work we put into it :thumb: This is my favorite picture, I’m sure you can see why: Yes, engine bay was dressed with 303, almost forgot about the engine bay. This is a neat picture: A mug shot of my friend and my self :thumb: Well hope you enjoyed the detail and sorry for so many pictures but the vehicle turned out so great that I waned to get a bunch of pictures for my friend :thumb:
Incredible work and pictures Carlos! You're friend must be thrilled to be a new corvette owner, and to have a $2000 wax on it. Any word yet on the autosol?
Glad you enjoyed the lengthy detail, lots of pictures huh...well I'm sure my friend wont mind when he sees them all. My friend is very pleased with his purchase and I'm glad I was able to improve the appearance of the vehicle for him. Yea, my friend couldn't believe the dollar figures on some of the waxes I have. As for Autosol, I'm expecting it this week, will keep you informed eace:
Wow, that thing has some nasty scratches in it Nica! Fantastic work getting them all out, considering how Corvette paint isn't the easiest!
your friend is a trooper, my friends can not stick around for more than an hour without getting bored..good job!
Awesome job Nica, all that hard work went a long way on this car, simply amazing finish you got out of it I can see why your friend was so impressed. I know you had to step up the polish and pad for the deep scratches and a few other areas, but did the Corvette clear prove to be as hard as they say it is? I wish they made a nub handle on the Makita like they do on the Metabo.
I don't think you gave yourself enough credit on this one Carlos. It's looks beautiful...:thumb: I love corvettes...:thumb:
Looking good! I'm surprised to see the amount of cut you got with such a mild combo on the 'vette! Outstanding!
