Detailed and buffed: 2002 Black Z28 with BS Street Lite wheels, 41 photos

[LS1 Sounds]

So I decided it was time to buy my first buffer and get my black 2002 Z28 with ~50k miles looking great again. My car still looked pretty good, until I stripped all products from the surface and clayed it which allowed the true condition to show. Here are the before pictures:

Plenty of ugliness in the flourescent light reflections:


2-3 inch long mark on the hood from an unknown source:




Bird droppings etched on the spoiler and back bumper:


Clouding as seen on the side view mirror:

[fzr confused]

Re: Detailed and buffed: 2002 Black Z28 with BS Street Lite wheels, 41 photos

the title says 41 pics, but i only see 5...is my comp not loading them all?

[CieraSL]

Re: Detailed and buffed: 2002 Black Z28 with BS Street Lite wheels, 41 photos

[LS1 Sounds]

Re: Detailed and buffed: 2002 Black Z28 with BS Street Lite wheels, 41 photos

I had my post broken down into sections. I posted the first section above, then had to wait for the moderators to approve it before it appeared. I will post the rest right now.

[LS1 Sounds]

Re: Detailed and buffed: 2002 Black Z28 with BS Street Lite wheels, 41 photos

The process and products that I used are listed below. I would estimate about 20 hours total into this project:

Wash: Meguiar's Gold Class shampoo and chenile wash mitt, 2 bucket method with grit guards
Clay: Mother's clay bar from the local Advance Auto with 1:1 Meguiars D155 Last Touch as a lubricant.
Correction: Meguiar's M105 Ultra Cut, G110 DA machine, and W8207 polishing pad.
Polish: Meguiar's M205 Ultra Finishing Polish, G110 DA machine, and W8207 polishing pad.
LSP: Meguiar's NXT Tech Wax 2.0, G110 DA machine, and W9207 fishing pad. It is hard to capture in photos, but I am not happy with the NXT 2.0 due to cloudiness and streaking problems. I have some

replacement products coming...
Loads of microfiber towels: Meguiar's Water Magnet for drying, Supreme Shine and Auto Detailing Solutions Premium 16x16 for product removal and wipe downs.

Meguiar's M105 is a pretty aggressive product, and these shots includes some visible micromarring. Direct sunlight shows it better than the flourescent, but it is still hard to capture in the photos. It

was expected and will be corrected with the M205. All pictures were taken with a Canon Eos Digital SLR camera, and are not altered in any way other than the automatic resizing from my picture hosting

company. I have the paint and decals, and will be detailing my brakes soon: black everywhere except the pad brackets which will be silver, and the calipers are getting silver CAMARO decals.

The wheels are Billet Specialties Street Lites, 17x11 in the rear and 17x7 up front. Rear tires are 315/35R17 Toyo Proxes drag radials and the fronts are cheap 215/50ZR17s from DTD. A while back I cut one

coil off of all four stock springs and did the hose mod on the rear, with 4 stock shocks.

After one pass with the M105, reflection of my garage ceiling:


Same reflection after 3-4 passes with M105.


Pulled the car out into the sunlight for inspection before moving on to the M205.

[LS1 Sounds]

Re: Detailed and buffed: 2002 Black Z28 with BS Street Lite wheels, 41 photos

Some reflection shots after the M205, it's nearly impossible to remove all of the dust and take a picture before dust starts to settle on the surface again!












Direct sunlight:


Having the sun reflected off 6 different curves at the same time like this makes it PAINFUL to look in the direction of my car now.

[LS1 Sounds]

Re: Detailed and buffed: 2002 Black Z28 with BS Street Lite wheels, 41 photos

And now some shots of the entire car. Yes, I know I need to cut my grass! :lol:








The products used:




It's hard to tell where the glass ends and the paint begins!

[LS1 Sounds]

Re: Detailed and buffed: 2002 Black Z28 with BS Street Lite wheels, 41 photos

I went for a drive to meet a friend, and we took some more pictures at the City Center and in their parking garage:






It's like a black hole unless it's reflecting something.




This one is my personal favorite, and has become my new desktop wallpaper:

[LS1 Sounds]

Re: Detailed and buffed: 2002 Black Z28 with BS Street Lite wheels, 41 photos

Some pictures I took at work, including reflections of a coworker's Screaming Yellow 2006 Mustang GT. It will be getting the buffer treatment soon too!














There used to be a big, etched, bird dropping on the spoiler about 2-3 inches in diameter. Not any more!

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Detailed and buffed: 2002 Black Z28 with BS Street Lite wheels, 41 photos

So I decided it was time to buy my first buffer and get my black 2002 Z28 with ~50k miles looking great again.

This is your first experience using a G110 buffer? And you do this to a 7 year old black car?

Gee, to think there are still people out there who think using a machine like this is too hard, too dangerous, too scary!

The Camaro looks gorgeous - very nicely done!!

[Fischer]

Re: Detailed and buffed: 2002 Black Z28 with BS Street Lite wheels, 41 photos

Now that is nice and black! I'm surprised there isn't much orange peel like there is on the new cars. Great job!

[LS1 Sounds]

Re: Detailed and buffed: 2002 Black Z28 with BS Street Lite wheels, 41 photos

This is your first experience using a G110 buffer? And you do this to a 7 year old black car?

Gee, to think there are still people out there who think using a machine like this is too hard, too dangerous, too scary!

The Camaro looks gorgeous - very nicely done!!

Yes, this is my first experience using a G110 buffer and only my second time ever using a machine buffer at all. A local friend gave me some tips on how to use his PC 7424 several years ago. For some reason I thought that a 7 year old black car with a perfectionist owner (me) would be a great training experience. LOL, I have no fear!

Thank you for the compliments! I have learned a lot from reading these forums, and it really has helped learn what to expect from the buffer and products. Without the support available here, I don't think there's any way I could have achieved these kinds of results on the first attempt. Now if I could just figure out the NXT 2.0 streaking and cloudiness problem...

Now that is nice and black! I'm surprised there isn't much orange peel like there is on the new cars. Great job!

Thank you! It does have some minor orange peel to it, but it's pretty good for a factory paint job. I like how the car looks like a black hole, absorbing all light around it, unless it picks up a reflection and then it's like a mirror. It's wild looking watching it go down the street!

[RKN LS3]

Re: Detailed and buffed: 2002 Black Z28 with BS Street Lite wheels, 41 photos

STUNNING!! Of course I'm a little prejudice when it comes to black cars
Beware of the envious rubberneckers admiring themselves in the reflection of your side panels as you're driving down the road!!

[SpinsB]

Re: Detailed and buffed: 2002 Black Z28 with BS Street Lite wheels, 41 photos

WOW fellow F-Body owner here a Black WS6. That is one sweet camero. Nice job. Did you find the paint easy or hard to work with and how was the 105/205 product with your car??

[Eddie6th]

Re: Detailed and buffed: 2002 Black Z28 with BS Street Lite wheels, 41 photos

Very nice

I like the car