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This weekend I had the pleasure of buffing out a 1962 Chevy Impala SS. Sorry no before pictures, only the after. This car was purchased by my customer a year ago. He said it had a frame off restoration, but the paint was poor. I'd call this a 50 foot car. Looks great from a distance, but up close there are many flaws.
There was not much shine to the paint. That's the good news. The bad is what's under the paint. I found many places where I could see sanding scratches under the paint. Looks like they left scratches in the body filler prior to painting. Also, this car must have had rust. They did not clean up the pit marks and now there is rust bubbling up under the paint. I found about a dozen places with this issue. This made the buff out a definite challenge.
I got the car Thursday night and spent about 90 minutes testing out the best combination to at least bring some shine to the paint. I worked on the trunk area as it is large and flat. I started with the least aggressive...M80 on the DA with the polishing pad...nothing. Then up to M83...nothing. So I stepped it up to M105 on the rotary with the yellow So1o wool pad. Got results but not what I wanted. Then I switched to the maroon wool So1o pad...bingo! That looked pretty good but I was concerned about leaving swirl marks and also wanted to beef up the shine. So I finished with M86 So1o polish cream on the Da with a foam finishing pad (I know Meguiars does not recommend this, but it worked this time). Final topping is M21 2.0.
The customer also wanted the wheels polished. I used Meguiars Hot Rims Mag & Aluminum polish (awesome stuff!). I removed the lug nuts to get at everything. In the end the customer was extremely pleased.
BTW, this car has a 500hp big block under the hood. The neighbors definitely knew when I fired it up. My neighbors are used to seeing interesting cars in my garage on the weekends. This one really got lots of attention.
I think one thing can be learned from this experience. There is no one combination that works on every car. You need to use your best judgement and don't be affraid to experiment. Just remember to start with the least agressive approach.
Here are some after pix. I hope you enjoy....now where is that bottle of advil....these old bones are sore.
There was not much shine to the paint. That's the good news. The bad is what's under the paint. I found many places where I could see sanding scratches under the paint. Looks like they left scratches in the body filler prior to painting. Also, this car must have had rust. They did not clean up the pit marks and now there is rust bubbling up under the paint. I found about a dozen places with this issue. This made the buff out a definite challenge.
I got the car Thursday night and spent about 90 minutes testing out the best combination to at least bring some shine to the paint. I worked on the trunk area as it is large and flat. I started with the least aggressive...M80 on the DA with the polishing pad...nothing. Then up to M83...nothing. So I stepped it up to M105 on the rotary with the yellow So1o wool pad. Got results but not what I wanted. Then I switched to the maroon wool So1o pad...bingo! That looked pretty good but I was concerned about leaving swirl marks and also wanted to beef up the shine. So I finished with M86 So1o polish cream on the Da with a foam finishing pad (I know Meguiars does not recommend this, but it worked this time). Final topping is M21 2.0.
The customer also wanted the wheels polished. I used Meguiars Hot Rims Mag & Aluminum polish (awesome stuff!). I removed the lug nuts to get at everything. In the end the customer was extremely pleased.
BTW, this car has a 500hp big block under the hood. The neighbors definitely knew when I fired it up. My neighbors are used to seeing interesting cars in my garage on the weekends. This one really got lots of attention.
I think one thing can be learned from this experience. There is no one combination that works on every car. You need to use your best judgement and don't be affraid to experiment. Just remember to start with the least agressive approach.
Here are some after pix. I hope you enjoy....now where is that bottle of advil....these old bones are sore.
Nice Car!
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