1999 Corvette - Remove Swirls and Scratches

[Lynn Matthews]

Originally posted by HEK
1st let me say that ..wow...and being here a new guy on the block I will ask, is the Mirror Glaze an abrassive??

We are glad to have you as a member!

Mirror Glaze is actually the name for the Meguiar's Professional Line of products. As far as abrasives go, it depends on what product you are referring to in the line.

Here is a list of just a few products in the Professional Mirror Glaze Line...
Washes
Cleaners/Compounds
Polishes
Waxes
Vinyl/Rubber Care
Leather Care
Wheel/Metal Care
Clear Plastic Care
Sandpapers
Buffing Pads

There are more products as well as accessories that are also included in the line. You can get a better idea by going to:
Meguiar's Professional On-line Store

Lynn

[Lynn Matthews]

Re: Leather seat

Originally posted by Beginner2002
Mike,

What did you use to restore the leather seats?

Regards,

ME!

Okay, here's what I used...

It wasn't easy. I did start with the least aggressive first and worked my way up. I found that the seat had some type of paint, not dye on parts of them. After trying every leather cleaner I had, the only thing that I could think of for removing paint, was paint remover.

I was worried about how harsh a paint remover would be to the leather so I did a test spot with a Q-Tip and some NON-Acetone nail polish remover. It worked, but not very well. I didn’t want to get more aggressive with chemicals so I worked on small areas with the remover on a microfiber and gently removed the paint. It took some patience but it worked and didn’t seem to hurt the leather. Not something I would recommend.

After I removed the paint I used the GC Aloe Cleaner on the entire seat and followed it with the GC Aloe Conditioner. I did put it on thick and left it overnight for extra conditioning. The next morning I applied a second coat and wiped the seats down with a microfiber before returning the Corvette to it’s owner.

While it wasn’t perfect, it was much better. The owner was going to buy new seats but now it isn’t as urgent for him.

Lynn

Before:



After:

[ColinM]

Mike,
Roughly how many hours did you work on the paint ?

[Mike Phillips]

Hi Collin,

I usually document pretty well how long I put into a finish, check out this thread here which I used time stamp from beginning to end,

1956 Oldsmobile Rocket 88

The above detail was a little on the extreme side because the finish was in very good condition to start with, at least to the average person, it was glossy and shiny. In reality, it had lot's of scratches throughout the finish and the metallic green paint was a basecoat/clear coat system, while the yellow was a single stage system. For this detail, I erred on the side of caution and took my time working the defects out.

As far as the 1999 Corvette goes, I don’t' remember. I stopped what I was doing often to capture photo's. The deck liked before and after, side-by-side demonstration took at least an hour to do and really had nothing to do with how long it would take to buff out that car from start to finish.

I would guess from start to finish around 6-7 hours the first day, and then another hour the second day as I applied a second coat of Tech Wax and then ran a toothbrush around all of the edges, cracks and crevices.

I didn't go over the entire finish with a compound because quite frankly, this paint was incredibly hard and because it's a daily driver, I didn't think removing each and every defect/scratch to be wise idea. In hindsight, I wish I would have, and perhaps I will re-do it in the future.

Mike

p.s.

Here's the owners comments...

[HEK]

Originally posted by Mike Phillips
First I tried M-83 Dual Action Cleaner Polish with a W-8006 foam polishing pad on a Makita rotary buffer at around 1800 rpms.



While this removed a majority of the shallow scratches and restored clarity to the clear coat, it wasn’t aggressive enough to completely remove the deepest scratches.

Next, I substituted M-84 Compound Power Cleaner, with a W-7006 foam cutting pad with the Makita rotary buffer at the same rpm as the previous test.



I spent some time slowly moving the buffer back and forth over the affected area overlapping each of my passes by about 50%. After approximately 10 to 15 minutes, I stopped buffing and wiped off the residue. This combination proved effective at removing 95% of the remaining scratches and smoothing out the remaining scratches to the point that they were almost impossible to detect.

These are the pictures I keep on coming back and looking over and over....I will re-do my car with these two products and ask you before I start..are these abrassive?...and will the gloss on both pictures remain after how many car washes?...or the scratches will re-appear...Newbee question but....

Far from being a Grasshopper , Master........


Hector

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by HEK
These are the pictures I keep on coming back and looking over and over....I will re-do my car with these two products and ask you before I start..are these abrassive?...and will the gloss on both pictures remain after how many car washes?...or the scratches will re-appear...Newbee question but....

Far from being a Grasshopper , Master........


Hector

Hi Hector,

The answer to your question,

Are these abrasives

The two products shown in the above pictures contain microscopic diminishing abrasives that breakdown as you use them.

Meguiar's pioneered the use of diminishing abrasives at their very inception with their first products, the Furniture line. Here's something I wrote about a year ago on Meguiar's history,

Meguiar's History, Unique Background and Extensive Product Line

The above link will take you to a web page that will explain the Furniture Line comment incase your unfamiliar with Meguiar's 100+ year history.

Diminishing Abrasives
Meguiar's has access to all kinds of diminishing abrasives which they use in different formula's depending on the specific results they are try to achieve.

The way a diminishing abrasive works is this, at the beginning; the abrasives start out aggressive, removing the defect. As the diminishing abrasive is worked against the surface under time, heat and pressure, it breaks down. By doing this, it can remove a defect without scratching and scouring the finish the way a traditional compound will.

Meguiar’s chemists can use diminishing abrasives that react differently under time, heat and pressure, as well as vary the size and aggressiveness of their selection. The result is always a product that performs a dedicated process, such as the #83 Dual Action Cleaner Polish.

You can purchase a video from Meguiar’s that uses computer generated graphics to show how this process works, called,

How to Remove Paint Defects for only $9.99

Or, you can watch the video here for free, (After David fixes the links, right now they’re not working because he moved the videos to another server)

Better Car Care – PES101V

How To Remove Paint Defects

To watch this video online you will need,

RealPlayer for Window’s systems. For all other operation systems, visit Real.com This presentation will not play without the RealPlayer browser plug in or a DSL/cable broadband internet connection.

Meguiar’s Compounds, Paint Cleaners and Cleaner/Polishes all use diminishing abrasives of some type to accomplish there defect removal. Best of all, because all these products use a high lubricating oil film to embody the diminishing abrasives, the results are always clear and glossy ready for the next product and procedure.

Like this,




I hope this answers your questions… if not, please feel free to query further…

Mike

[HEK]

Is been a while since I visited this great place, source of information on a passion I've had for years but have not been able to persue due to personal reasons, but in any case today UPS left at my front door the items mentioned on this thread and I can't wait to use them on my car, but with a guy working on my driveway for a week and him taking his sweet time in paving the now dirt driveway I will have to wait since tomorrow and the rest of the week :FORECAST RAIN..... ..

Guys HAPPY EASTER!!

Peace

[2000]

mike,
I have three questions for you.
1) why did you use #83 on both the rotery and pc? you didn't step down when you switched to the pc. (I know the pc itself is a bit of a step down abrassive wise, but wouldn't you go to an #82 or similar product step down?
2)how long to you estimate you work a panel with the rotery when you used # 83? ( not the bad spot on the door that you mentioned.) reason I asked was it seemed you worked the product longer than I though you could which might explain my "lack" of luck with it.
3) If lynn wasn't there to do those seats would you of come up with the idea to use nail polish remover? give her props!

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by 2000
mike,
I have three questions for you.

1) Why did you use #83 on both the rotary and pc? You didn't step down when you switched to the pc. (I know the pc itself is a bit of a step down abrasive wise, but wouldn't you go to an #82 or similar product step down?

From my experience, newer Corvettes have extremely hard paint, that was true with this particular Corvette. Any time I use a rotary buffer on a car with an extremely hard finish, I like to re-polish the finish using #83 DACP to insure I have removed all swirls. I like the #82 SFP, but I know the #83 will give me a little more bite when using the PC.

2)How long to you estimate you work a panel with the rotary when you used # 83? ( not the bad spot on the door that you mentioned.) Reason I asked was it seemed you worked the product longer than I thought you could which might explain my "lack" of luck with it.

Good question. You never want to work any of the Meguiar’s Professional products until you reach a dry buff. At the same time, you need to buff all of the Meguiar’s Professional products until the diminishing abrasives have completely broken down. If you don’t, you could leave behind a swirl because, the abrasives will not have fully broken down. In essence, you will not have buffed the product long enough. How do you know when you have buffed long enough? Trial and error which builds experience. Remember, pressure is also a very important factor when using the rotary buffer. Do you have a copy of Meguiar’s "How to remove paint defects" video?

Using video shots and computer generated graphics, this video teaches you quite a bit on technique with the rotary buffer. If you don’t have it, I would recommend getting it. It’s only $9.99

3) If Lynn wasn't there to do those seats would you of come up with the idea to use nail polish remover? give her props!

Because she was there, now we’ll never know… (Thanks Lynn!)

One note to your above comment for anyone else reading this that may have missed how she removed the paint from the leather seats. Meguiar’s always says, ”Use the least aggressive product to get the job done”. In keeping with that philosophy, Lynn first tried Meguiar’s’ Gold Class Rich Leather Aloe Cleaner with a terry cloth towel. When that didn’t work, she was forced to become more creative. The nail polish remover she used was a non-acetone version. It was aggressive enough to remove the paint from the seats, but a whole lot less aggressive than acetone.

Mike

[geoff]

Looking at the before and after on both the inside and outside is simply amazing. It's hard to believe these days it's possible to really clean up the inside and outside without resorting to Photoshop

My wife's car, a '93 Lexus GS300 has a similar color interior, but is in pretty decent shape. The one thing I haven't been able to clean well are the seat belts. What did Lynn use to clean the accumulated crud off the seat belts? In the "after" picture, the seat belt looks like a completely different color!

[Lynn Matthews]

Originally posted by geoff
What did Lynn use to clean the accumulated crud off the seat belts? In the "after" picture, the seat belt looks like a completely different color!

I used...

G-9419 Heavy Duty Carpet & Interrior Cleaner


wilth an M-9910 Ultimate Wipe

[rusty bumper]

Originally posted by Lynn Phillips
I used...

G-9419 Heavy Duty Carpet & Interrior Cleaner


wilth an M-9910 Ultimate Wipe

Did you have to rinse off the cleaner with a damp rag or something?

We were using it on carpet one time with a wet brush, and it foamed like crazy.

[Lynn Matthews]

Originally posted by Rusty Bumper
Did you have to rinse off the cleaner with a damp rag or something?

No, after it was clean I just used a fresh microfiber to wipe off the excess.

Lynn

[the newbie]

wow,what a big difference

i don't know how i could miss this one,very impressive.
i think the owner just couldn't believe his own eyes when he saw the results of your work.
he kissed the scratch heap goodbye when Lynn drove away,but he needed to kiss her,for taking it to detail heaven.
really enjoyed this tread,thanx

also,impressive interior detail.seems to me that the inside gets the least attention of most people,while it's the part the driver sees more of when he/she is driving it.strange.

Lynn and Mike,you guys did a fabulous job on this one

ciao,Rick

[Mike Phillips]

Re: wow,what a big difference

Originally posted by the newbie
Also, impressive interior detail.seems to me that the inside gets the least attention of most people,while it's the part the driver sees more of when he/she is driving it.strange.

ciao,

Rick

Hi Rick,

Lynn's interior detail really helped to put the frosting on the cake so to speak, the interior looked better than new when she was finished with it.

Mike