Today's detail is a very special car. It's a custom twin turbo Pro Street racer that was painted by the legendary Pete Santini crew-- I was told the paint itself cost $15,000!

That must mean it's pretty good right? And the owner even keeps the baby stored inside of a bubble! Puts something like 1300+HP to the rear wheels. Keep an eye out for it to be featured in Super Chevy magazine soon---it will be at Fontana Raceway while we are at AMVIV and the magazine is doing a feature on it.



Tools and Chemicals Used:
Makita Rotary with W8006 pad and M83
PC with W8006 and M80
PC with Grey LC Pad with Prima Amigo (Could have eliminated this step)
PC with W9006 Pad and Prima Epic
PC with W8006 and M66 (Was a final process to rid marring caused by wiping Epic with Monster Fluffy microfiber towel)

Wipedown with Meguiar's Last Touch quick detailer and clayed with Meguiar's blue mild clay


Impala all taped off and ready to work!


All my gear unloaded from MINI and ready to work.


Product Selection. Meguiar's and Prima. Towards the back, the spray bottles are Meguiars, but filled with Prima Hydro and Slick!


Swirls over the entire car.


Taped off windshield.


Swirls!


Swirls!


Swirls!


Swirls were everywhere


Finish looks pretty good, but not so hot in the sun!


Test Spot before polishing


Swirls!


Ready for test spot.


First pass of test spot using M80


Test spot results. Not perfect but great improvement. Evaluation complete and ready to schedule for the real detail.


Test spot result from a week earlier




Back to present time. Clayed using Meguiar's Professional Mild Blue Clay. My lighting rig in plain view.


Roof was taped off prior to claying. Meguiar's Last Touch bottle placed here for the photo. One of the tasks was to remove the overspray on the roof from when the roll cage was painted and the roof wasn't masked off!


Overspray on the roof from painting of roll cage came off easily.


Some of the deeper scratches in the paint was wetsanding.


I pulled the car out into what remained of the sunlight. By this time 9 hours had passed from when I started at 8AM.


Flawless


The paint was buffed using my Makita Rotary with a W8006 pad and M83, followed by M80 with the PC, followed by Prima Amigo with the LC grey pad.


Flawless



I attempted to shoot the panel from a variety of angles to show that the finish was indeed flawless.


Flawless


Flawless


Flawless


Flawless



Nice crisp reflection


Flawless


Flawless


Flawless


Flawless


Flawless


Flawless


Nice sharp reflections. Some of the bumper decals hid defects which I was able to remove, so the stickers came off too!


Flawless


Flawless


Flawless



Flawless


Customer was working on the car as i worked.


Removing pre existing dried wax with detailing brush.


Trim needed dressing.


SCG Trim Gel. Gloss is from flash and because it's still wet.






After Polishing Chrome



Before Polishing




Before Polishing Left Side Chrome


Polished Right Side First


Another one of the customer requests was to remove these Water Spots. I used NXT Metal Polysh with foam applicator pad.

After 12 hours of work, I initially finished the polishing off with Prima Epic, but the paint was so scratch sensitive that even slight wiping with a Monster Fluffy left scratches behind. So out came the PC with W8006 pad and M66 Quick Detailer--one step cleaner/wax. Two more hours later of buffing, I was able to leave the finish mostly flawless. I couldn't believe how soft the paint was. Working under intense lights in darkness is a great way to see the true quality of your finish as you work, but with scratch sensitive paint like this, you could be buffing forever.

When the customer asked me whether he should Quik Detail the paint on the day of the show, it was pretty difficult to give him a solid yes, knowing just how easily the paint is scratched!

Here is some additional info about this car.

[SIZE=+2]First West Coast 1996 Twin Turbo / Alcohol Impala SS

[/SIZE]Engine

• MPE Custom TwinTurbo
• Alcohol Injection
• Custom intercooler
• Modified engine components (too many to list!)
• Autolite AR103 Race Spark Plugs
• Magnecor 8.5 mm Plug Wires
• Walbro fuel pump
• Fuel pump hot wire kit
• Custom oil pan
• Custom water pump
• PCM for less program
• Hypertech 160 degree thermostat
• Air pump delete
• B&M race oil cooler

Drivetrain

• Trans Go shift kit
• Corvette servo
• Lingenfelter 3.73 rear end

Suspension and Wheels and Tires

• Rear frame notched
• Weld draglite front and rear
• Hoosier quick time pro rear tires
• Mickey Thompson "skinnys" front tires

Interior/Exterior/Miscellaneous

• Roll Cage
• Simpsons 5 pint safety harness driver and passenger
• Kirky Pro Street Race seats with custom rails
• A-pillar 3 port gauge pod
• Greddy turbo timer
• Greddy boost controller
• Moroso quick disconnect power switch
• BBB with Silver Shelby style racing stripes

 

very nice job... great job

 

I would say nice job, but that car is just to Hick for me.

you work like a nut octanedude. Your arms must be worn to nubs. sure is shiney

 

That is amazing work OG!

 

nice nice nice!

 

Haha thanks guys.

re: too Hick
Hahah, how about this one? I did an evaluation on it yesterday--will be restoring it next Monday.

 

OG - Very nice results. Can you tell us what you used to apply and work the metal polish? Is the reason the paint was so soft because it is a layered lacquer?

 

Yeah, too much of a hick car for me, too - but the paint looks FLAWLESS!!!

Quick question - in the picture that has the on/off switch moroso....how in the world do you polish in between that switch and the headlight? That space is so small!

 

I used a little round foam applicator pad and worked it in by hand with lots of elbow grease. The water spots came out without any issues.

As for the paint, it was a standard multistage basecoat/clearcoat system. As for why it was so soft, I don't know enough about how painters determine hardness to say.

That is, I've done some research and painters at body shops have told me that they have a choice of specifying the paints to be ultra hard or soft, and nobody specifies, they will use the hardest--thinking its the most durable-but hard paint is like trying to buff glass. It's very hard.

The car was painted over 7 years ago---has been in that bubble ever since.

Not to be too picky, but I think you mean headlight.
I use the PC. It's not that small really. For the area directly below the lever, ScratchX by hand is one option, though for me I just made things work.

re: hick car
Haha I don't pick em, as long as it's not an Suburban, school bus, airplane, boat, or a trashed daily driver, I'll work on it.

 

wow.

That's all I can say. U rok.

Hard to believe that a Monster Fluffy could scratch it - that's some SOFT paint... I'm sure you had a few choice words when you saw that...

 

Richard - you have more patience than anybody I know. Wow - you do good work...

Donna

 

About time another write-up comes along. I have missed these.

Thats a beautiful car. I almost bought one instead of the MINI. Ironic, i know.

 

Thank you Donna!!!

re: BlimeyCarbrio Monster Fluffies
Yeah agreed. I thought they would never scratch anything, but I used my whole stash of Monster Fluffies--well that's only 5 of them...but still each was carefully washed and checked for foreigh matter, and I used them with a very light touch, and still very fine scratches were left behind everywhere I wiped. Not the towels fault.

re: Writeups
Yeah would you believe that there are slow months in California too??? LOL It's not sunny year round. Dec to March are the slowest months, and when jobs do come in, I'm selective about which cars I want to talk about. I've got 5 other cars in the queue to be worked on, and I'm sure more will be on the way after that.

 

I grew up in Sacramento, two seaons, sunny with heat and then fog.
I understand, I just figured it was because you had alot going on...like starting some shop or something. Not to mention AMVIV. So I will continue to wait.

 

Well, he has been formulating his trim sauce .


Amazing results Richard, sometimes I wish I could pay you enough to get you to come out to Maryland for a day or two .

 

Hahah, well yeah that too. Lots of stuff going on. Last minute product stuff for AMVIV..going crazy---squeezing in details days before AMVIV--got one Mon, Tues, Wed, then Thurs morning I'm driving up to Vegas.


Who says you can't pay me enough? I just need airline tickets, a ride from the airport, and some spare cash. LOL. Get a few friends with cars together, and maybe we could make it a reality.

 

But that whole, no liquids on airplanes fiasco would make it very tough to get all your juices over here...I'll have to get a DCMM 'group-buy' together

 

You named the trim gel?!?!?! I thought we got to vote on these things. Did I miss it?

 

Incredible is all I can say...wanna come detail mine?

 

$15k paint job???? Somebody got hosed, to the nth degree.
In my bodyshop days, we could have done that (in impeccable detail) for 1/3 of that. And NOT had paint so soft that a MF would tear it up!
Nice job OG. Good to see what a guru can do for the hopelessly uninformed.

 

That new black car.... what on earth does it need???? it's like glowing black....

what is it?

 

Nice job Richard. Very impressive results. Keep up the good work!!

 

Oh I would ship my products ahead of time and just pack my power tools.
Nope, haven't named it yet. I had to call it something in the article. Last night I went through all the posts and entered everyones entries into a database I made. Then I sorted all the posts by the order they were posted in, and returned just the names. I then filtered them down to top 15. I should have a Poll up by tomorrow for voting the top 3 of those 15.
That new black car is from 1994 and although repainted, looks like this up close. (looks can be deceiving and that's why when people don't post direct sun shots of their work, the finish could still be in horrible shape)




And after my test spot (not perfect but much improved)