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For those of you who may be wondering who Drik Diggler is, I strongly recommend renting the movie “Boogie Nights” 
This 1977 Corvette belongs to the mother of my roommate. The car has been in the family for over 20 years now, but unfortunately it has not been driven in years. Since his mother can no longer drive the car they decided to get it running so they could try and sell it. As most of you already know, cars are meant to be driven, and when they are left to sit for long periods of time things start to go bad. Since my roommate is very mechanically inclined he offered to fix the parts that needed to be replaced prior to sale and also asked me if I’d help him restore the finish. Obviously I couldn’t say no to working on Dirk’s car!
It had been over 10 years since the car was repainted and there was noticeable shrink in the paint as well as many washed induced swirls from over the years. Having talked with the painter we learned that there was at least 3 coats of clear used when it was painted and the car had only been lightly sanded after the initial repaint…which meant we should have a safe amount of paint to work with.
Here is the car prior to correction. As you can see there is heavy marring and light oxidation in the paint.
Here you can see the rough distorted texture of the paint as a result of the shrinking over the last 10 years.
We first did a few test panels using various grit paper to determine which route we wanted to go with.
The deciding sanding process was to use the following:
Initially I had planned to remove the sanding scratches with the PCXP and Surbuf pads as it worked effortlessly in my test panel. I also felt it was a tool my roommate could handle. However, once I started looking at all the sharp edges it was clear that the rotary would be the better option as it allows me to buff off/away from the edges, which is necessary when trying to remove sanding scratches close to the edge.
Sanded pics
Testing out the Surbuf pads on the door
The deciding polishing process for the sanding scratch removal was as follows:
Our choice for LSP was Blackfire Wet-Diamond, tires were clean with Optimum Power Clean and dressed with Meguiars Hyper Dressing. All chrome trim was polished with Optimum Metal Polish.
Keep in mind this job was really under the gun, which limited the amount of pics I was able to take. The work on this car took place over 3 evenings after we both finished with our regular jobs. The idea was to get the car done by Friday so that he could drive it home for a family wedding to show his mom and family. A total of 15hrs were spent on this job, which is far less than I would normally spend as I like to take my time and hate being rushed. I did have the help of my roommate though, and he handled all the fine detailing and even helped with the 2nd polishing step. We finally finished late Thursday night and I came back on my lunch break Friday afternoon to take some sun pics before he left town. I decided to do a quick wipe down with some Z8 to remove any light dust which ended up streaking the paint a little and I really didn’t have time to deal with it before taking the pics…I’m sure you can see it in a few of them…
This 1977 Corvette belongs to the mother of my roommate. The car has been in the family for over 20 years now, but unfortunately it has not been driven in years. Since his mother can no longer drive the car they decided to get it running so they could try and sell it. As most of you already know, cars are meant to be driven, and when they are left to sit for long periods of time things start to go bad. Since my roommate is very mechanically inclined he offered to fix the parts that needed to be replaced prior to sale and also asked me if I’d help him restore the finish. Obviously I couldn’t say no to working on Dirk’s car!
It had been over 10 years since the car was repainted and there was noticeable shrink in the paint as well as many washed induced swirls from over the years. Having talked with the painter we learned that there was at least 3 coats of clear used when it was painted and the car had only been lightly sanded after the initial repaint…which meant we should have a safe amount of paint to work with.
Here is the car prior to correction. As you can see there is heavy marring and light oxidation in the paint.
Here you can see the rough distorted texture of the paint as a result of the shrinking over the last 10 years.
We first did a few test panels using various grit paper to determine which route we wanted to go with.
The deciding sanding process was to use the following:
- 3M 1500 grit on the PCXP
- Mirka Abralon 2000 grit on the PCXP
- Mirka Abralon 4000 grit on the PCXP
Initially I had planned to remove the sanding scratches with the PCXP and Surbuf pads as it worked effortlessly in my test panel. I also felt it was a tool my roommate could handle. However, once I started looking at all the sharp edges it was clear that the rotary would be the better option as it allows me to buff off/away from the edges, which is necessary when trying to remove sanding scratches close to the edge.
Sanded pics
Testing out the Surbuf pads on the door
The deciding polishing process for the sanding scratch removal was as follows:
- M105 via rotary with Meguiars Solo wool pad (finished out very nice too)
- Menzerna Power Finish via PCXP and Cyan LC pad (roommate helped with this step)
- Menzerna 106fa via rotary and Crimson LC pad
Our choice for LSP was Blackfire Wet-Diamond, tires were clean with Optimum Power Clean and dressed with Meguiars Hyper Dressing. All chrome trim was polished with Optimum Metal Polish.
Keep in mind this job was really under the gun, which limited the amount of pics I was able to take. The work on this car took place over 3 evenings after we both finished with our regular jobs. The idea was to get the car done by Friday so that he could drive it home for a family wedding to show his mom and family. A total of 15hrs were spent on this job, which is far less than I would normally spend as I like to take my time and hate being rushed. I did have the help of my roommate though, and he handled all the fine detailing and even helped with the 2nd polishing step. We finally finished late Thursday night and I came back on my lunch break Friday afternoon to take some sun pics before he left town. I decided to do a quick wipe down with some Z8 to remove any light dust which ended up streaking the paint a little and I really didn’t have time to deal with it before taking the pics…I’m sure you can see it in a few of them…
. I've road a motorcycle for 23 years, so I love it too, but I tend to be more picky of the weather. With the car, as long as it's not raining or snowing the weather is always good. Classic car insurance is also dirt cheap (at least it is in Canada)... $120 for insurance for a year.
Polishing Paint removes the stress in my life, and the swirls on my car.
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