Black 02

Greg brought me his blown and cammed 1998 Corvette for a paint correction this weekend. Overall, I spent about 9 hours on it from start to finish.

The first step was a thorough wash. I started off with SCG Professional Surface Prep Wash



After the surface prep wash, I clayed the entire vehicle. A ton of red overspray was removed from the roof and hatch area of the car. As it turns out, it did have some overspray at one point that a shop had supposedly removed, but there was a good amount left over that my uber clay bar removed.

After the clay bar treatment I washed the car one more time, dried it and brought it into the garage.

I laid a piece of tape down and experimented a bit and ended up settling on Menzerna FG400 and a microfiber cutting pad to correct the C5's very hard clearcoat.

50/50 shot of paint after one pass



Now that I knew the steps to take, I got to work on the entire vehicle. After multiple passes with the microfiber cutting pad, I switched to a foam pad loaded with Menzerna SF4000 polish. The results were simply amazing as the Nassau Blue paint really started to come alive. Keep in mind, this car is 16 years old.



Doing work


After completing the polishing stage, it was time to protect the car. I chose to go with Adam's Liquid Paint Sealant as I love the stuff and it gives a nice finish which causes water to just roll off. It also makes the car extremely easy to wash and care for after the paint correction.







After the sealant was applied, it was time to look at the car in natural daylight. The metallic in the Nassau Blue paint just popped and the car looked simply outstanding.





Short video of the light on the car along with the car out in the sunlight.



Needless to say, we were both extremely pleased with the results. I enjoyed working on the car quite a bit and it was great to see the owner's face after the transformation.

91LSMAN

Awesome Work!!!

02blackLS6

Nice job! That color looks awesome when it's that clean.

95wht6spd

Wow, looks new!

damilleniumboy

nice

Vetteman Jack

You did a great job on the detailing.

jrose7004

Yep!

Black 02

Thanks everyone, appreciate the comments!

oldC5

How much $$$$$$ for the detail work?

madmatt9471

That is absolutely fantastic!

And you are all the way in TX, bummer!

My '98 with 102,000 miles on the paint can definitely use another treatment like you did to his '98 (shop who did mine before did a decent job but I know it could of been much better)

Thanks,Matt

DaveVette91

I just did a 2-step correction on my C5 this weekend. The clear coat is very thick and very orange-peel like. It took a lot to try and correct some of this.

I am partial to Meguiar's DA Microfiber pads with a heavier cut on it.

mstromquist

Wow, that looks great. So the microfiber pads do a better job then the foam ones for cutting? might have to go buy me some.

DaveVette91

The Microfibers are nice because they cut without the extra "polishing scratches" you would normally get.

Toque

Wow looks amazing ! ! !

Toque

Black 02

On extremely hard clear coats, they do a better job of cutting. They aren't necessary on all finishes but the C5s have clear that is pretty tough. The MF pads seem to use a little more material and require a little conditioning after each panel, but the results are worth it. Once the cutting is done, a foam pad will take any haze or anything else left from the more abrasive cutting pad.

mstromquist

Thanks for the info and sorry for the highjack. Another question and I'll leave you alone. Any particular color for doing different cutting like the foam?

Black 02

No worries on the hijack. By color, do you mean pad color or did you mean vehicle color? If vehicle color, it really shouldn't make a difference since the clear coat would be the same so the degree of aggressiveness would need to be the same to get the results you are after. With that said, each vehicle is different so sometimes you just have to experiment to see which combos give you the desired results. If you meant pad color, then different manufacturers use different colors for different things. I use mostly Uber pads but also have some adams pads but the colors don't necessarily interchange between them

CQRT

Beautimous !

Jeff T.

Great job on a great color!

mstromquist

Sorry about that. I was talking pad color. Thanks for the info.