Tried To Detail a Black C5 Z06...

[The Critic]

One of my co-workers owns a black, C5 Z06 Corvette. Ever since I began working with him, I have been trying to convince him to let me fix the nasty swirls on the Corvette's finish. Well, that day finally arrived last weekend-- we scheduled 8 hours together to make it happen.

While I did not take any before pictures, the paint's condition was very similar to the "before" pictures in this thread: http://www.tennspeed.net/forums/showthread.php?t=30687

As you can see from the "borrowed" pictures, the finish was in very bad shape. There was a lot of work to be done in only 8 hours. And even though we would be working together, my co-worker had never used a polisher before.

To make matters more challenging, most of this Corvette had been repainted. Some panels reacted differently than others. During polishing, I found lots of sanding pig tails and some strange swirl-like defects that would not come out.

Here were the combinations that we used for the various steps:

Menzerna FG400, Flex 3401, Lake Country Hybrid Blue Cutting Pad - Compounding Step
Menzerna FG400, Rupes 21, Meguiars MF Finishing Discs - Compounding Step
Meguiars M101, Flex 3401, Lake Country Hybrid Blue Cutting Pad - For the hood (due to severe defects) and a few stubborn areas

Meguiars M205, Flex 3401, Meguiars W8207 Polishing Pad - intermediate step to remove micro marring
HD Adapt, Flex 3401, Buff & Shine Orange Pad - for areas with heavy micro marring due to M101 usage

CarPro Reflect, Rupes 21, Rupes White Finishing Pad - finishing step
CarPro Reflect, Flex 3401, Lake Country HT Crimson Pad - finishing step

We used nearly all of the products and tools in my arsenal to find the most efficient and effective way to remove the defects. My co-worker did a pretty good job considering it was his first time with a polisher; although some of the areas he did could have turned out better if we had time to go over them again. Overall, I think we got about 60-70% correction. Personally, I am not fully pleased with the outcome considering the number of steps and the time spent.

Ultimately, the goal was to make a major improvement, and I think we accomplished this. Working on this car taught me a lot, as non-metallic black paint is absolutely brutal to work on. The toughest part about this project was to finish out the paint as well as possible. On this particular car, even M205 was leaving some extremely faint micro marring. In the end, doing the extra finishing step with CarPro Reflect was well worth it since it brought the finish to a new level of gloss.

Products Used:
Adam's Car Wash Shampoo
Meguiars D140 Wheel Brightener
Iron-X Spray
Nanoskin Medium Grade Wash Mitt
Optimum No Rinse diluted 1:5 (for Nanoskin Mitt)
Meguiars M101
Menzerna FG400
HD Adapt
Meguiars M205
CarPro Reflect
Meguiars DA Microfiber Finishing Discs
Meguiars DA Microfiber Cutting Discs (for testing only, no improvement in cut compared to Finishing Disc, it only resulted in more micro marring)
Lake Country Hybrid Blue Cutting Pad
Meguiars W8207 Polishing Pad
Buff & Shine Orange Light Cutting Pad
Rupes White Finishing Pad
Lake Country Crimson Finishing Pad
CarPro Eraser
CarPro CQuartz UK Edition
CarPro Reload (Applied over CQuartz UK per instructions)
Optimum Opti-Bond (tire dressing)

Tools Used:
Rupes 21
Flex 3401
Lake Country Changeable Backing Plate System
Brinkmann MaxFire Dual Xenon Light
Wheel Woolies
Various MF towels

By the time we finished, the sun was already setting. These pictures were taken after a single coat of CarPro CQuartz UK, but before Reload was applied as a topper.







Here are all of the pads that we used:

Total time = 8.5 hours.

I will try to get some pictures in the daylight.

 

[demarpaint]

The car looks great. I have a question though, is there anything that can be done to the wheel wells? Something other than shooting them with undercoating, or something as drastic as that. I see some nicely detailed cars and the wheel wells jump out at me for some reason, especially black cars.

I think you did a great job, so please don't take my question wrong. It's a question that's all.

Thanks.

 

[gofast182]

Originally Posted By: demarpaint
The car looks great. I have a question though, is there anything that can be done to the wheel wells? Something other than shooting them with undercoating, or something as drastic as that. I see some nicely detailed cars and the wheel wells jump out at me for some reason, especially black cars.

I think you did a great job, so please don't take my question wrong. It's a question that's all.

Thanks.

YES!!! (I was thinking the same thing)

Adam's Invisible Undercarriage Spray. It shines/blackens wheel wells for great presentation. As the name suggests it really makes the wheel wells disappear. It's for short-term vanity more than anything but it sure is a nice detail to add when viewing a job you just completed.

Anyway, the finish appears great, Mike. Good job with a tough finish; I can't imagine using so many pads!

 

[CharBaby]

Yes indeed, that's alot of work!

I detailed for 40 years and know exactly what you mean! Though, I only take the easy jobs(now & again) that pays quickly these days. I don't want to get this involved anymore as my shoulders & back can't handle the work load of an 8, 10 or 12 hours of labor, even into the next day. I'd rather putter around the garden

Most of my work in the past was very involved including engine bays, undercarrages and even some small body work/painting...No More!

I want the quick easy stuff such as interior shampoo and polish/waxing. I used to even sew fabric and fix loose fitting moldings/trip, all as part of my detailing PKG's. Each job by estimate!

Today, I'll work a bit harder on a single area of a vehicle to match the rest of the paint but, that's all! My customers today don't require the attention to detail that my customers in the past required. And, I turn down anything I can't do in 5-6 hours and no more than 8 hours(once in a while). I don't have alot of business these days but, this is by choice!

The products, epuipment an techniques that I used in the past, probably wouldn't hold a candle to today so, I am a less well versed as-far-as the new stuff!

 

[aquariuscsm]

I love that bodystyle of this particular one,it has that short back window versus the bodystyle that has the long back window that reaches the tail. What do they call this model? I hardly ever see those.

 

[qwertydude]

It's the hardtop model. Although I think on the Z06 like this one it's not a removable hardtop.

 

[The Critic]

Guys,
Thanks for the kind comments. If I had more time, I would’ve cleaned the inside of the wheel barrels and the fenderwells. Although I have never tried it, I have been told that Meguiars Hyper Dressing is a very inexpensive way to dress that area.

There appears to be a problem with this car. The day after I posted these pictures, I looked at the car under a Brinkmann Xenon light and found uniform diagonal “tick marks” across the entire vehicle. These marks were not present after final polishing; these only appeared after I wiped down the entire car with Eraser (to remove the polishing oils) and applied CQuartz UK.

From my conversation few other detailers, it is likely that this was an issue with the polish, CarPro Reflect. It is a technique-related issue with the product. It is unfortunate though, as the oils in the polish covered up the issue. In fact, if I had simply waxed car the car after the final polish, I would have never known about this.

Personally, I am quite irked that this happened as the car looks unacceptable to me. I think the owner is still happy that the car looks a lot better than before. Regardless, I’ve offered to re-polish the car and re-coat it if he finds the appearance to be unsatisfactory.

 

[Pablo]

You are very hardworking. And you do awesome work!

My theory about cleaning and polishing cars is like many things: It didn't get like that in a day (well unless someone went crazy with a bad polish job), so it might not become perfect the first attempt. You did the first cut very, very well.

My input on the wheel wells if they are pretty dirty, it's best to take each wheel completely off, scrub everything - even using Simple Green on the mechanical parts, treat as necessary. It's amazing how much nicer the car will appear.

 

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted By: qwertydude
It's the hardtop model. Although I think on the Z06 like this one it's not a removable hardtop.


Yes, ANY C5 with this body style does NOT have a removable roof panel like the 'fastback' models all have.

There was also one model year ('99 I think, Patman would know for sure!) where they offered what is referred to as an FRC, for 'fixed roof coupe' in this body style, which was NOT a Z06.

It was ONLY available with a T56 manual gearbox, just like the C5 Z06es.

BTW; that car came out GREAT, and I could only HOPE to get my black car anywhere even close to that perfect.

It being a daily driver, which is now pure white with salt/silt, I have almost given up hope for that depth/clarity/lack of swirls and orange peel.