tbrent

Whaaaaat?! This looks amazing! I don't know that a person would be able to guess that the top picture was your car. Nicely done

leadfoot4

Holy Crap!!!



That stuff is WAY too abrasive for today's two stage paint! That stuff was for the old acrylic lacquers and enamels. If you feel the need for buffing compound, try Griots Garage polishes, with a foam buffing pad.

Evil-Twin

I had a lot of dirt between my toes so I used a wire brush and some paint thinner. Over kill ??

YA THINK ?

Black 02

This is a Camaro door after one pass of the cutting compound I use. It only gets better after the polishing step on a foam pad as this is technically still a little hazy and was done with a microfiber pad.

SaxyVette

OK I see you guys are laughing at me..but I don't mind I'm learning quite a lot..ya gotta remember I'm a "Saxer" not a Waxer haha (ok lame joke I know).....anyway I got some Zaino on the way, so I'm putting away the wire brushes for now. Also I got a fresh can of Mothers Carnauba to keep me busy in the meantime, don't think I can hurt anything with that. 02 that is freakin' incredible finish..!!!

0Surf City Garage

Since we're playing the reflections in black paint game I guess I'll join in - these are just a few reflection shots taken on black surfaces that have been corrected to remove any imperfections, then polished to bring out gloss and clarity.
No wax alone is going to produce these kinds of results.... but we've kinda beat that horse to death already.

2006 TBSS





2009 Avalanche








1933 Packard (Pebble Beach Award Winner after this detail)






2012 Aventador (Tag teamed with Innovative Detailing)




Original Paint 1972 Ferrari 356 GTB

Black 02

Dylan just won the thread. We can all pack up and go home now. Better luck next time to everyone involved 😬

SaxyVette

OK..I give up.

2CRUZIN

Game over! So what else can we talk about?

tbrent

Wow! Makes me want a black car. Great examples!

alxltd1

Ok but I tried ALL those same methods on my 1998 Subaru with 250k miles on it and it did not turn into any of those cars pictured....it is still a green Subaru....what am I doing wrong!

Black 02

Did you sprinkle some Zaino on it like instructed?

alxltd1

Sure did...even wished upon a star....still a green Subaru.....

Evil-Twin

Not to add any fuel to the fire... but Im always carrying matches..

Some one said.. " he wins this thread" let talk abou8t something else..

Win????
This thread was about " real cars " with Real road mileage, and Not about garage queens or cars that are entered in multi million dollar car show like pebble beach..

It doesn't get any better when you can work on a car that gets trailered everywhere, or never sees a UV ray exept when in a car show.

We are talking real cars, in real situations here.. for example ( my car ) because I can only speak about my car.. its 15 years old and has 100,000 real road miles, My car is a means of transportation that I take to the grocery store, the bank, the doctor, the drug store, the gun range, the gym and to the beach.
So before we get too into the wow factory of a car that is specifically a show car.. lets look at the guys who drive their car everyday.

The show cars are actually beautiful examples of the show car experience.
Again, the thread was designed to offer some " real world " advice to real guys with cars they drive everyday, to work or on the weekend.

I don't really care what anyone uses, the OP asked for advice on their real world, driven daily, even in the rain car, and how to make it better, he does not expect to ever see pebble beach even as a spectator.

I didn't say my methods are the best, I just said my methods work for me, and offered some real world photos . Others point out what works for them and offered photos... this thread offers some good insight into the relevance of making a real world car look better.

I don't think the show car photos help the OP at all, but only show that a car that never sees a rainy day or the light of day, or a gravel road, can look better than a car that sees work traffic, and grocery store and the track.

Black 02

The first two trucks he posted were his personal daily drivers. Some of the others were obviously high end vehicles, but paint is paint. You can make common cars have a "show car finish" by using the correct methods.

You keep mentioning that your car has 100,000 miles and the paint still looks as good as it does. Why don't you ever point out to people that your aftermarket hood, aftermarket fenders and aftermarket rocker panels all have new paint? That's half, maybe more, of the total surface area of your car

Maxx_Z06

You must not know who this guy is....
He's worked on anything you can think off whether it be a car that has been neglected its entire life to a brand new exotic out of the showroom floor. Detailing is the man's profession.

Because of his contributions he's put one very well known detailing company on the map. To say his advice or pictures aren't helpful is a good laugh.

0Surf City Garage

I think if we figure that one out we might sell a few bottles

LOL... I don't know about all that, but thank you.

You seem to know an awful lot about the cars in those pictures from just seeing them on the web. LOL

For reference, the TBSS was my personal vehicle... daily driven, brought my son home from the hospital in it, drove around 40 miles round trip each day to my job, ran errands on weekends, took a few trips up the california coast... I suspect it had around 20,000 miles on it at the time those particular pics were taken.

The Avalanche was the vehicle that replaced the TBSS... was side swiped by an uninsured driver only 8 hours and 32 miles after being driven off the lot. Spend its first 3 months of ownership in a shop being repaired, and not some high dollar show job, just a regular body shop respray. It saw the same use as my TBSS, daily driven, spent a few months parked outside when we moved, even helped haul furniture to our new house, towed trailers, made home depot runs, etc. I was actually working swing shifts when I had that truck... so not only did it get daily driven, it sat in an outdoor lot at each day from around 3pm to midnight or later with the typical California dew and moisture.

The Packard was actually fresh off a $2m restoration when I got my hands on it, but as most any restoration had 'body shop' finished paint. I've provided an example pic below. It was sanded and finished with a wool pad, the paint was worse than some daily drivers when we started - it went to pebble AFTER it was detailed. As you can see... wasn't exactly a 'show car' when I started -



The Lambo - for sure a toy, but one that gets cruised around Huntington/Newport Beach by the owner regularly. It actually had some bad spots on it that needed to be fixed thanks to lackluster prep at the dealership - pic below:



Since then Dave @ Innovative Detailing has continued to maintain the vehicle and has since had to correct the finish a few times after the owner has had it into the dealer for service and they swirled the finish up with bad wash techniques.

The '72 Ferrari GTB as I mentioned in my first post is an original paint car... so at the time of the detail it was about 39-40 years old. The car is driven very regularly by the owner, it races in vintage road course events and even made a run at the Silver State Classic from what the owner told me. Also happend to be the same guy who owned the Packard.

I can add plenty of daily driven examples as well... anything from a honda Civic to things like the Packard - I've detailed an extremely wide variety of cars over the years - and while a daily driver certainly gets more than its share of damage from the use, it doesn't mean that it requires any different of an approach if you are aiming for perfection or close to it.

Paint is paint - doesn't matter if its on a cheap commuter car, a corvette, or a concours showcar, in the end its all paint and the same methods and approaches apply. The only variable is how much work may or maynot be needed and how often.

Honestly - to the trained eye... I see horrific finishes on cars not cared for or detailed properly at all levels of shows. I've been to pebble, and while the standards are unbelievably high, there were still plenty of hack job details and swirly messes there... just as there are at any car show.

You are far too kind... I'm just a lowly wax jockey posting up show cars with some shine to em

Evil-Twin

My Hood and rocker panels were painted 12 years ago.... 95 % of the photos I've shown over my 13 years here are from my car where the hood and rockers were painted 12 years ago... only the rear quarters are new.
What I find simply amazing is the fact that people like you try your best to find some BS story to discredit my input.. Instead, you present your BS to show how petty and clueless you are. Why don't you just address the Op, and offer him some help. .

Here is a shot of my car taken over 12 years ago, I only had the Wagon wheels on my car for a year and a half. Note the rockers and hood were already on. Are you Petty??? You betcha.!!!!!

0Surf City Garage

Oh what the heck... for sake of argument - 70,000+ mile infiiti G37s





And what it started with





And what did it take to fix that stuff? Nearly the identical process used on all the examples above -

Machines
Pads
Polishes
and proper technique
one the paint was corrected THEN we moved onto waxes and/or sealants

0Surf City Garage

whoops. double post.