Helping a neglected '72 Skylark

[MosportGreen66]

Hi Guys,

My brother and were hired to come to the aid of this poor '72 Skylark. Original owner car, female owner and very proud of her car. Was painted about 15 years ago. A true northeast body with some rust issues. When we got the car it had faded paint, a stained interior, was running poorly with fouled plugs and wires. Changed all the fluids, changed the intake gasket, added some NGK plugs and wires, rid the engine compartment of the heavy grime, installed some new KYB shocks, and topped off the job with a nice set of BFGs.

Here are some pictures of the work.

Day 1:




50/50 shot of the mold removal on the canvas top




looking whiter now


Back to the body. After 3M clay and lube




More to come...

[MosportGreen66]

Moved her inside for the three day paint correction.

1) Mask your subject, mind your gaps and edges and begin compounding. I chose Menzerna Power Gloss compound (high cut) and a Lake Country yellow pad. I could have gone more aggressive with the pad but the paint meter was reading off the charts. The yellow pad offered just enough cut.

Note the swirls and hazing against the halogens.

[MosportGreen66]

The paint was very tough to cut through but Power Gloss was great.

50/50 shots below of the corrected v. the untouched. Amazing results to follow.

corrected on the left, untouched on the right






A great trick when detailing is to use the light to guide your work.



After compounding was complete. Hard to believe this was the same car. I forgot to add... this is single stage.

[MosportGreen66]

Fender 50/50 shot



I finished the detail with Menzerna Super Intensive Polish and a Lake Country White pad and then topped that off with Menzerna Nano polish (PO85rd) and a Lake Country black pad.

The Halogens don't lie





Last but not least, I capped off the detail with an even coat of Meguires paste wax to protect the polish. The detail took about 15 hours. I went through five pads. The end result looks good. Owner will see it tomorrow. I will report back the verdict.

What was:


Is now:

[Smokey]

What made you choose that paste over using 3M's compounds and pads??

Now it just needs a set of Buick Chrome 5 spokes and the white letters popped out with a fatter tire in the back

[MosportGreen66]

[ QUOTE ]
What made you choose that paste over using 3M's compounds and pads??

[/ QUOTE ]

A very similar result can be had with 3M's products. I love their clay and hand glaze but it just boils down to personal preference. Menzerna works just as good if not better than your run of the mill 3M, Presta, Megs 100 series compounds, etc.

-Dan

[agtw31]

car looks good

the paint was tough to cut through because you used the wrong product.

3M run of the mill??lol

[MosportGreen66]

[ QUOTE ]
the paint was tough to cut through because you used the wrong product.

[/ QUOTE ]

I really just posted the transformation here to be enlightened. Please tell me what I did wrong.

[agtw31]

[ QUOTE ]

The detail took about 15 hours.


[/ QUOTE ]

[Smokey]

Don't know if its true today anymore but we had 3M come into the shop back in 94. They taught us back to do the heavy cutting with a wool pad and then a black waffle with cutting to help melt it back. Then do the steps up from there. It also helped to wash the car between each step also.

Sad thing is that I would go through 5-6 steps to do a dead nuts nice black job. Here in MN we would have to have the shop around 30-40% humidity to make hand glaze work like it was suppose to. If I was at a show, it would take 3 times longer to hand glaze the car out. I loved black and had everything black up until 5 years ago.

I'm just trying to learn how to make it easier for all of us...or no more black cars. Cream is looking alot better each day!

Now I hear they have Trizac(sp?) process to remove swirle marks and such.