Dodge Stealth detail

[Tom Weed]

This detail was for a soldier who's in the Navy stationed in Iraq, he was home on leave and his car had been parked on base for 6 months under a tree, it had sap like I've never seen before, almost like it rained sap. The paint was swirled and this car was in bad shape. My only regret is, it was dark when I finshed it up so I couldnt' really pull it outside to take some decent pictures.

Here's the car getting washed and presoaked using my karcher foam gun:



Here's a picture where I had it the week before and experiemented with what it would take to remove the sap and polish it out with M105, I threw a coat of NXT on the drivers side of the hood, which you can plainly see:



Here you can see what the conditon of the paint was:




Here you can see the sap up close:

[cnfowler]

Re: Dodge Stealth detail

Wow, Tom, you had your work cut out for you. I've never seen that much sap on a car. Wish you were able to take some after pictures. I would have loved to see the finished car. I've always liked the Stealths and 3000GTs.

[Tom Weed]

Re: Dodge Stealth detail

To remove the sap, it was VERY time consuming, I ended up using Goo Gone with a heat gun and a plastic razor blade, hope I never see sap like that again!

I polished out half the hood with 105 on a Lake County orange foam cutting pad on the rotary, then used 80 with a Lake County white polishing pad on the flex, here at those:







Here are a couple of after hood shots:

[Tom Weed]

Re: Dodge Stealth detail

Here are more, the trim was in bad shape, as was the moldings, so I used Black Wow on the trim and Showroom trim restorer on the moldings:

[Tom Weed]

Re: Dodge Stealth detail

Finally the final pics, I so wish it was light outside cause the garage and my camera didn't do this car justice when we were finished







I did this a few weeks ago, but never had time to get it posted, this project took me all weekend, but I figured since it was for a soldier in Iraq, I would show my appreciation as well.

Tom

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: Dodge Stealth detail

Wow, that was alot of sap. I have never seen anything like that. Congrats on a job well done. The finish you brought back to life is utterly amazing. Great work ,Tom. Way to go.

[TKDDAD]

Re: Dodge Stealth detail

GREAT JOB TOM !!...the Black Wow really made that trim POP...I am so envious of those of you who are able to take the leap to the rotary and cutting pads with M105. I have the rotary but need to find a "beater" that I can practice on. SUPER JOB ON THE STEALTH !!!

[amari]

Re: Dodge Stealth detail

Great Detail...

[Tom Weed]

Re: Dodge Stealth detail

Thanks everyone for the compliments...

TKDDAD, you should definatley find a beater or a hood from the junk yard, get comfortable with the rotary and different combinations, once you do, there's no turning back! It's great to be cautious, but don't be afraid of it either.

Tom

[pcmark]

Re: Dodge Stealth detail

Great work!

[TKDDAD]

Re: Dodge Stealth detail

Thanks everyone for the compliments...

TKDDAD, you should definatley find a beater or a hood from the junk yard, get comfortable with the rotary and different combinations, once you do, there's no turning back! It's great to be cautious, but don't be afraid of it either.

Tom

Thanks for the vote of confidence Tom....I did a black Acura TL today and it had some nasty water marks on the hood that I was SOOO tempted to bring out the rotary for...but I think you're right, I'm too afraid of !!!

So I think I have a beater that I can borrow from a neighbor once the weather breaks here and start practicing...I really want to try the M105 kit as I've read it's really nice to use...

Again, thanks !!

[dvtldav]

Re: Dodge Stealth detail

Great job. Maybe someday I can do half that good

[cnfowler]

Re: Dodge Stealth detail

Great job, Tom. The car turned out fantastic.

Here's a tip for tree sap. I discovered this by accident while detailing a 2005 Corolla. The car had really bad road tar all over the sides and rocker panels so I started off rinsing the car down. I used Castrol Degreaser (purple bottle) and sprayed it all over the lower portion of the car. I immediately started to wash as normal. I noticed a couple spots of tree sap on the front end that seemed to dissolve upon contact with the Degreaser. After rinsing the car the sap was gone. And this was that rock hard dried on tree sap, too. I found a couple more spots on the hood and roof. I wet the spots and put some degreaser on them. Immediately the sap began to dissolve. I scrubbed lightly with a terry cloth rag and the sap came right off. I've never removed sap this easily before. Try it sometime - it worked great for me.

(on a side note, I was polishing and waxing the vehicle after washing, hense the degreaser. Would have never used the degreaser on just a wash or wash and wax.)

Colin

[bmgamble]

Re: Dodge Stealth detail

Wow, that's a great turn around!! Definitely some hard work that paid off.....fantastic job!!!

[VonLego]

Re: Dodge Stealth detail

Looks very impressive! One nitpick though---

Seems as if the wow black has some sort of streaking going on, as if brush strokes are still in the black. Is this the nature of the product, or just a testiment to how bad the trim truely was at first? Perhaps its just a trick of the lense.