MY FIRST Extreme Makeover!! 98 RED Camaro Z28!

[Mike Phillips]

Re: MY FIRST Extreme Makeover!! 98 RED Camaro Z28!

What a nice brother!

That was a lot of work, thanks for taking the time to document your procedure and before and after results.

Nice job!

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: MY FIRST Extreme Makeover!! 98 RED Camaro Z28!

What a improvement. The interior was sad. You cleaned it up real good. As you stated you spent more time on the interior then the exterior. It looks like the exterior is in pretty good shape. Looks like it has a lot of potential Great work. way to go.

[navyblue2000]

I've been dying to document this makeover. For the record, my brother has owned this car for 6 years. When he bought it it just had over 34000 miles on it. At time of detail, it had a whopping 196,197 miles on it. Yep, over 196,000 miles!

First order of business was to get all the junk out of his car. This took a half hour alone. He's a musician, and lives on the second floor of the house he lives in, so sometimes his camaro is his mobile studio. He also had quite a few other things in there to get rid of.

Before I make with the pictures, I will say although I helped make this car look 150,000 miles younger, I wasn't truly satisfied with the work. I didn't have everything I needed to rejuvenate the vehicle. The chrome rims still don't look great, but they have some luster in them again. There were a few scratches that would have required wet sanding, or even touch up paint, and I don't have the experience nor the materials needed. However, I did what I could.

Steps taken:

Exterior:
Spray, eat a snack. Spray, fill bucket with wash soap and water. Spray again.
Washed with NXT soap, dried.
clayed entire car with Clay Magic clay bar kit.
Washed again with NXT Soap, dried.
#83 on 8006 via rotary
#9 on 8006 via PC
rinse car with water, dry
#26 on 9006 via PC
Stoners for glass
APC for wheels, engine, wheel wells
Wheels then got Hot rims

Interior:
removal of stuff. We found probably 10 bucks or more of change!
Vacuum, APC on carpet, nasty leather spots and dash
Turtle wax leather cleaner on leather pieces.

Please keep in mind we spent more time on the inside than the outside, and we washed the car twice, clayed, and made 3 passes with cleaners/polishes/wax!

Now to stop being boring and make with the pics...It was overcast most of the day so I didn't get many good exterior shots. Sorry.

Post wash:


The picture didn't do the poor paint justice. You can see some REALLY bad scratches. That happened in the winter, with a shovel.



sick, nasty


not sure what is on that furry floormat:


are you kidding me:


you can kind of see the mcnasty on the back of the front seats:


and now some afters:

My favorite mod: Removing the black grille piece:


A little shinier


so much better!!


I'll see my bro tomorrow so I may update with a one week follow up. But I was very glad to do his car. Nobody should be driving a car in that condition, let alone considering going on a honeymoon in it. Maybe the sun will be out more tomorrow!!

Oh yeah, one more. At the end of the day, I felt accomplished but wore out. So here's a picture the wife took of me sporting a tool of the trade: