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Many of you know that we recently sold my wife's 1992 Camaro RS to her brother as a first car for our nephew. That meant we needed to replace it and ultimately the replacement vehicle was totally up to my wife. Well, not totally - I did have some say in the deal. This is the first used car I've bought in quite some time and I'd forgotten that most people consider a car to be just another appliance and they really don't take very good care of the finish. In our search we found some cars that actually needed a full repaint even though the interior, engine etc were in very good condition. This includes one Chrysler sedan who's paint looked as though it had tried to keep up with you Jeep guys running through the scrub brush!!
So anyway, my wife falls for this Victory Red 2008 Cobalt LT that's in great shape, is a Certified Pre-Owned car so we get an extended warranty, and the dealer was willing to deal - after I started to walk out. Twice.
But the paint... oh, the poor, poor paint. And to think this was actually one of the better finishes we came across in our search. Just sad. Horrible swirls, scratches, some holograms, everything. How do you rotary buff a car to the point of inflicting holograms yet you still don't pull out the swirls?
So here's what we started with:
This is the trunk lid at the base of the rear window:
Here's the hood:
Roof just above the passenger door:
Another hood shot, this time with the Swirl Finder light as a light source, with the same nasty swirls plus a big ol' scuff/scratch thrown in for good measure:
And the rear 1/4 panel showing horrible swirls and some random scratches:
So I started out with the G110/W8207 and some M80. Nothing. Stepped up to the G110/W8207 and Ultimate Compound. A little, but not much. OK, time to bust out the M105, but on the G110 even it didn't do what was needed. So I grabbed my trusty Makita rotary, some W7207 foam cutting pads, a couple of wool pads, and started to experiment. Hard paint in horrible condition is a lot of work and it can be pretty frustrating when you try several combinations of liquid and pad, but when you finally hit on a combo that works it's time to get down to business. So what worked? This paint responded really well to M105, a W7207 foam cutting pad and about 1500rpm on the rotary. I then followed up with M205 on a W8207 foam polishing pad with the G110 and then topped it all off with 2 thin coats of M26 Hi-Tech Yellow Wax. I also decided to strip the factory door guards off (ugly things they were, too) and my wife liked the look of the painted calipers on my PT so I did those too, and threw in some Cobalt decals to finish it off. Oh yeah, the wheels were a mess, the wheel wells were downright nasty, and the interior was clean but too darn shiny. No interior pix at this time but I can get some if you really, really need to see 'em. Wheel Brightener, APC, M39, M40, Gold Class Trim Detailer and Natural Shine were all put to good use in the appropriate areas. Oddly enough, the engine bay was pristine - go figure.
So here's the result after waaaaaay too many hours of work:
Clean wheels and red calipers set off the whole package:
Gee, did I mention we had the windows tinted too?
All clean and shiny:
[IMG]hhttp://archive.meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/500/cobalt_done_2.jpg[/IMG]
But here's the real test - this is that same roof area just over the passenger door, still in direct sunlight. A couple of minor RIDS here and there but some are deep enough that I'm not about lose any sleep over 'em:
That nasty hood, again in direct sunlight, again with the odd RIDS here and there. Hey, it's a daily driver used Cobalt, not a Pebble Beach winning Pre-War Alfa Romeo!!
You like reflection shots? How about the Cobalt reflected in the PT Cruiser reflected in the Cobalt?
I'll probably tweak it here and there over the next few weeks, but all in all it's not a bad turnaround for a neglected ride.
So anyway, my wife falls for this Victory Red 2008 Cobalt LT that's in great shape, is a Certified Pre-Owned car so we get an extended warranty, and the dealer was willing to deal - after I started to walk out. Twice.
But the paint... oh, the poor, poor paint. And to think this was actually one of the better finishes we came across in our search. Just sad. Horrible swirls, scratches, some holograms, everything. How do you rotary buff a car to the point of inflicting holograms yet you still don't pull out the swirls?
So here's what we started with:This is the trunk lid at the base of the rear window:
Here's the hood:
Roof just above the passenger door:
Another hood shot, this time with the Swirl Finder light as a light source, with the same nasty swirls plus a big ol' scuff/scratch thrown in for good measure:
And the rear 1/4 panel showing horrible swirls and some random scratches:
So I started out with the G110/W8207 and some M80. Nothing. Stepped up to the G110/W8207 and Ultimate Compound. A little, but not much. OK, time to bust out the M105, but on the G110 even it didn't do what was needed. So I grabbed my trusty Makita rotary, some W7207 foam cutting pads, a couple of wool pads, and started to experiment. Hard paint in horrible condition is a lot of work and it can be pretty frustrating when you try several combinations of liquid and pad, but when you finally hit on a combo that works it's time to get down to business. So what worked? This paint responded really well to M105, a W7207 foam cutting pad and about 1500rpm on the rotary. I then followed up with M205 on a W8207 foam polishing pad with the G110 and then topped it all off with 2 thin coats of M26 Hi-Tech Yellow Wax. I also decided to strip the factory door guards off (ugly things they were, too) and my wife liked the look of the painted calipers on my PT so I did those too, and threw in some Cobalt decals to finish it off. Oh yeah, the wheels were a mess, the wheel wells were downright nasty, and the interior was clean but too darn shiny. No interior pix at this time but I can get some if you really, really need to see 'em. Wheel Brightener, APC, M39, M40, Gold Class Trim Detailer and Natural Shine were all put to good use in the appropriate areas. Oddly enough, the engine bay was pristine - go figure.
So here's the result after waaaaaay too many hours of work:
Clean wheels and red calipers set off the whole package:
Gee, did I mention we had the windows tinted too?
All clean and shiny:
[IMG]hhttp://archive.meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/500/cobalt_done_2.jpg[/IMG]
But here's the real test - this is that same roof area just over the passenger door, still in direct sunlight. A couple of minor RIDS here and there but some are deep enough that I'm not about lose any sleep over 'em:
That nasty hood, again in direct sunlight, again with the odd RIDS here and there. Hey, it's a daily driver used Cobalt, not a Pebble Beach winning Pre-War Alfa Romeo!!
You like reflection shots? How about the Cobalt reflected in the PT Cruiser reflected in the Cobalt?
I'll probably tweak it here and there over the next few weeks, but all in all it's not a bad turnaround for a neglected ride.
You went NUCLEAR
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