Jayman17
Well-known member
Nice compound lol! The new addition blends in seamlessly, enjoy your new space and Italy. 
Above 1200 Sq/FT Swanny's Garage Expansion Project
- Thread starter Swanny1953
- Start date
Wokspaces above 1200 squarefeet.
TX4runner
Well-known member
Wow is right. Love the compound. So you didn't downsize the house, and the garage just keeps growing. Nice!! So happy to hear that your car collection is for driving!!
OP
Swanny1953
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Nice compound lol! The new addition blends in seamlessly, enjoy your new space and Italy.
Thanks, guys! I don’t have any trailer queens, although the ‘40 Chev was obviously one before it got it. Once I got the brake issue straightened out, it’s fun to drive.
Our architect did a great job of blending the new addition in. I was worried the roof ridge would tower above the existing structure, but she came up with the double tiered roof with the standing seam on the bottom portion. I’m also really happy with her idea to “center” the addition on the back wall of the existing structure.
Electricians are here today doing finish work and the HVAC team is coming either this afternoon or tomorrow. Getting closer ………
OP
Swanny1953
ALLIANCE MEMBER
I have a buddy who owns/runs Legacy Classic Cars (www.legacyclassiccars.net). His wife, Gina, is an accomplished photographer who does weddings and other events and has recently branched out to do car pics. She took these in my garage while Rich and I were swapping serpentine belts out on the Cameo.
zmotorsports
ALLIANCE MEMBER
WOW Gary. I go away for a week and you knock it out of the park. Everything turned out excellent. You have an amazing looking property. 
The build is amazing. The photography, stunning.I have a buddy who owns/runs Legacy Classic Cars (www.legacyclassiccars.net). His wife, Gina, is an accomplished photographer who does weddings and other events and has recently branched out to do car pics. She took these in my garage while Rich and I were swapping serpentine belts out on the Cameo.
Joemctag
Well-known member
You know, alot of contractors would say that the roof could not be framed to successfully be flush with the existing one and would insist on a different roofline. Your guys obviously knew well what they were doing! It’s not as simple or easy as it might appear. You’re one of those guys who all their stuff is clean and neat and in great shape, but of course that doesn’t happen all by itself. I’m glad that you’ve shared the build and the cars with us !
Joemctag
Well-known member
I meant the roof in your first addition with aligning it so no visible hump.
jarhead
Well-known member
just read through all of your post. Cool stuff!
How many square feet is the garage now?
How many square feet is the garage now?
OP
Swanny1953
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Thanks Mike! I took a look at your travel post and photos - looks and sounds like a great trip. Thanks for sharing.WOW Gary. I go away for a week and you knock it out of the park. Everything turned out excellent. You have an amazing looking property.
Thanks for the comments. My main concern with the addition was just what you said - that the ridge line on the addition would be higher than the original structure. My architect solved that by having 2 different pitches to the roof 7-8/12 on the top and 3/12 on the lower where the standing seam is.
Thanks. All in, the structure is about 4,200 sq ft, all is it conditioned.
Let there be light -
And if more is needed for a project -
The floor is being finished today. A little outdoor work to get grade back to normal and we’re done.
Lori and I are headed to Italy today for 13 days - our kids gave us the trip for our 40th anniversary! When we get back, I’ll get the 2 cars that are in storage back home and have the room I need to address a couple projects!! Will be nice to have this wrapped up and not have to open the checkbook anymore!!
OP
Swanny1953
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Went to dinner with some close friends and they gave us a gift “ we know you don’t have!!”
OP
Swanny1953
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Greetings from Rome. After a 10-1/2 hour flight arriving at 8AM Rome time, and with no sleep on the plane (I just CANNOT ), we got to the hotel, dropped our stuff in the one room that was ready and headed out to explore. Hit the Trevi fountain and got a good tour of the Pantheon while walking 5+ miles before heading back to hotel for a much needed nap. Slept too long, so we missed being able to go to the Coliseum (next time, I guess as we’re headed to Florence now), but did get a nice dinner and another view of the Trevi fountain at night.
OP
Swanny1953
ALLIANCE MEMBER
We returned home from our Italy trip on 8/29 with head colds we got the last couple of days we were gone. That’s not surprising, as the kids left us very little downtime with all the tours and activities they crammed into our time away. We had 1 night in Rome (not nearly enough, so I guess a return is required!!), 2 nights in Florence, 3 nights in Tuscany, 4 nights in Sorento and 1 night in Naples in advance of our flight home. We had great experiences, saw wonderful scenery and amazing architecture and structures, not to mention eating really good food and wine!!
I know this is Garage Journal and not a travel blog website, so I won’t post a bunch of pics unless folks are interested. I will show this pic of a small garage in the town of Montepulciano, which is built on the top of a mountain!!
And this one, which I found funny, of an Amazon driver making delivery in that same town.
That’s a very steep uphill climb for him dragging that bag!
We got home very late (make that early morning due to flight delays) Thursday night, and expecting everything to be completed with the garage, I had made arrangements to bring the ‘69 Corvette home from storage and end that monthly bill. I did get that accomplished, but then I took a dust mop to the new floor to make sure the installer had listened to me and all the rough edges were knocked down so a normal dust mop could be used to clean the floor. FAIL!!! The mop wanted to fold over on itself, so couldn’t be used to effectively clean the floor, and I don’t want to brush sweep it to clean. The guy who put the floor down has “ghosted” my GC, so he will have to eat getting it done right. Why is it always the last 10% of a project that takes the longest??
I know this is Garage Journal and not a travel blog website, so I won’t post a bunch of pics unless folks are interested. I will show this pic of a small garage in the town of Montepulciano, which is built on the top of a mountain!!
And this one, which I found funny, of an Amazon driver making delivery in that same town.
That’s a very steep uphill climb for him dragging that bag!
We got home very late (make that early morning due to flight delays) Thursday night, and expecting everything to be completed with the garage, I had made arrangements to bring the ‘69 Corvette home from storage and end that monthly bill. I did get that accomplished, but then I took a dust mop to the new floor to make sure the installer had listened to me and all the rough edges were knocked down so a normal dust mop could be used to clean the floor. FAIL!!! The mop wanted to fold over on itself, so couldn’t be used to effectively clean the floor, and I don’t want to brush sweep it to clean. The guy who put the floor down has “ghosted” my GC, so he will have to eat getting it done right. Why is it always the last 10% of a project that takes the longest??
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OP
Swanny1953
ALLIANCE MEMBER
The week after we got home, the Lone Star Corvette Club, of which I’m a member, provided drivers to the Mecum Dallas auction to move cars from the storage area to staging, from staging across the auction block and then back to storage.
One of the cars I drew to get from storage to staging was a Chevy Spark. No one had paid attention to its exterior for many years - it was a giant POS!! As I’m taking it to staging, everyone I pass just stares at the car. My response - “You know you want it!!!” I’m told they had to beg the crowd to get. $250 opening bid. . . .
There were some nice cars there. I had to keep my hand in my pocket on this clean little ‘34 coupe.
I also liked this little Willys pickup, but my knees were in my chest to drive it!!
This Charger had a full carbon fiber body and 3,000+ hours of labor in it. It bid to $350k and did’t sell.
One of the cars I drew to get from storage to staging was a Chevy Spark. No one had paid attention to its exterior for many years - it was a giant POS!! As I’m taking it to staging, everyone I pass just stares at the car. My response - “You know you want it!!!” I’m told they had to beg the crowd to get. $250 opening bid. . . .
There were some nice cars there. I had to keep my hand in my pocket on this clean little ‘34 coupe.
I also liked this little Willys pickup, but my knees were in my chest to drive it!!
This Charger had a full carbon fiber body and 3,000+ hours of labor in it. It bid to $350k and did’t sell.
Attachments
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zmotorsports
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Looks like a great trip Gary, colds taken out of the equation of course...
***** about the sub-contractor's workmanship and lack of ethical responsibility.
***** about the sub-contractor's workmanship and lack of ethical responsibility.
zmotorsports
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Love, love, love the looks of that '34 Coupe Gary.
OP
Swanny1953
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Two stories from the auction, one a feel good and the other a “can you believe it”
One of the cars I drew to take across the auction block was a really clean first gen Bronco.
I spent a bunch of time talking with the owner/builder - a retired Marine who did everything except paint and interior in his 2-car garage. This thing was well sorted and stunning. I asked him what he hoped to get for it and he said his reserve was $80-85k, but hoped it would go higher. I told him based on what I saw at Barrett-Jackson 2 years ago, there was no doubt in my mind he would get 6 figures for the truck.
As his time on the block approached, I told him he could drive it across if he wanted. He elected to do so, and watching his reaction when the bidding quickly went past his reserve and hammered at $120k was just priceless!! Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy!!
The second story involves a 2019 C7 ZR1 Corvette with 7 (yes 7!) miles on it. The car was a unicorn - not only was it the very last ZR1 produced (and very well documented), but the option package was also one of a kind, based on my research of the Corvette Action Center ZR1 registry. The auctioneer pushed this thing hard - “last manual transmission, last ZR1 produced, etc” - you get the picture. It apparently worked as the bidding quickly want beyond anything I’ve seen one of these cars bring, and I watch ZR1 auctions closely. It pretty quickly got to $360k and stalled there. Now, two thing are going on at this point - the auctioneer is working the crowd - to no avail - and the Mecum staff is working the owner to drop his reserve. Finally, the owner relents under the pressure, but the bid won’t go any higher. It hammers for $360k, the most, by far, I’ve seen any C7 ZR1 go for. I had talked with the owner a lot about the car prior to it going across the block, and congratulated him on the sale when I saw him later. He absolutely blew me off, like he was pissed he only got $360k. I just couldn’t believe the greed this guy showed in that moment. I later learned Mecum gave him $15k of their buyer premium back as part of the negotiation to drop his reserve!! This only solidified my view on him!!
One of the cars I drew to take across the auction block was a really clean first gen Bronco.
I spent a bunch of time talking with the owner/builder - a retired Marine who did everything except paint and interior in his 2-car garage. This thing was well sorted and stunning. I asked him what he hoped to get for it and he said his reserve was $80-85k, but hoped it would go higher. I told him based on what I saw at Barrett-Jackson 2 years ago, there was no doubt in my mind he would get 6 figures for the truck.
As his time on the block approached, I told him he could drive it across if he wanted. He elected to do so, and watching his reaction when the bidding quickly went past his reserve and hammered at $120k was just priceless!! Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy!!
The second story involves a 2019 C7 ZR1 Corvette with 7 (yes 7!) miles on it. The car was a unicorn - not only was it the very last ZR1 produced (and very well documented), but the option package was also one of a kind, based on my research of the Corvette Action Center ZR1 registry. The auctioneer pushed this thing hard - “last manual transmission, last ZR1 produced, etc” - you get the picture. It apparently worked as the bidding quickly want beyond anything I’ve seen one of these cars bring, and I watch ZR1 auctions closely. It pretty quickly got to $360k and stalled there. Now, two thing are going on at this point - the auctioneer is working the crowd - to no avail - and the Mecum staff is working the owner to drop his reserve. Finally, the owner relents under the pressure, but the bid won’t go any higher. It hammers for $360k, the most, by far, I’ve seen any C7 ZR1 go for. I had talked with the owner a lot about the car prior to it going across the block, and congratulated him on the sale when I saw him later. He absolutely blew me off, like he was pissed he only got $360k. I just couldn’t believe the greed this guy showed in that moment. I later learned Mecum gave him $15k of their buyer premium back as part of the negotiation to drop his reserve!! This only solidified my view on him!!
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OP
Swanny1953
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Me too, Mike. It was a no sale, “the bid goes on” at $55k. In retrospect, I should have talked with the owner to see what it would take for him to be unburdened of the responsibility of taking it back home, but I didn’t. Another one that got away!!Love, love, love the looks of that '34 Coupe Gary.
Bob Heine
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Gary, I'm only one vote but I'd love to see more of your Italy vacation. I had a multi-country business trip in 1994 that included two days in Rome. Had very little time to look around but what I did see (and eat and drink) was wonderful. We took a two-week drive through England and Scotland in '96 with our adult daughter and her husband. Liane suggested we find a nice Bed & Breakfast in Fort William and do day trips from there. The youngsters nixed that idea so we went from town to town, staying overnight in different B&Bs. A year later she and her husband talked about going back to Scotland but staying in Fort William, taking day trips from there and climbing Ben Nevis. I'm often amazed how long it takes for an echo to return.
Sorry to hear about the floor but at least it didn't ruin your vacation.
Sorry to hear about the floor but at least it didn't ruin your vacation.
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jon72vega
Well-known member
I also would like to see more of your vacation.
Bummer on the garage floor.
That sure is a nice '34 coupe!
Loved the Bronco story, good for the owner!
OP
Swanny1953
ALLIANCE MEMBER
So, been away from this thread for a while. After finishing with the Mecum auction on Saturday, we left early Tuesday for Portland to spend 4 days at the coast with my sister and brother-in-law. The underlying purpose of the trip was to allow Lori to spend some time with her maid of honor and dear friend since middle school who contracted ALS a couple of years ago, and who is losing her muscular faculties. Lori had another middle school friend from Seattle ride the train down and the 3 old friends had some real quality time together over 24 hours or so!!
We flew back to Dallas on Monday and had Tuesday to do laundry and swap out our luggage before leaving Wednesday for a 24-day road trip. We just returned from that trip 10 days ago. Then, I needed to go back to Portland last weekend for my best friend’s mom’s celebration of life. Most of my free time at home has been spent dealing with office and computer projects.
While we were on the road trip, my GC worked on getting the garage floor into usable condition. When I got home, I still couldn’t use a dust mop to clean as the floor was pretty grabby. Didn’t seem to be an issue with the sharpe edges of flakes grabbing the mop, more a “chemical” thing. We left it alone for a week, and it seems to be getting better. Since we’ll be gone to Cabo for the remainder of the week for a company celebration, hopefully will be ready to go when we get home Saturday.
Here’s a pic of the”hopefully” completed floor.
Did get a chance to put up some “mementos” of our car trip - more to come!!
We flew back to Dallas on Monday and had Tuesday to do laundry and swap out our luggage before leaving Wednesday for a 24-day road trip. We just returned from that trip 10 days ago. Then, I needed to go back to Portland last weekend for my best friend’s mom’s celebration of life. Most of my free time at home has been spent dealing with office and computer projects.
While we were on the road trip, my GC worked on getting the garage floor into usable condition. When I got home, I still couldn’t use a dust mop to clean as the floor was pretty grabby. Didn’t seem to be an issue with the sharpe edges of flakes grabbing the mop, more a “chemical” thing. We left it alone for a week, and it seems to be getting better. Since we’ll be gone to Cabo for the remainder of the week for a company celebration, hopefully will be ready to go when we get home Saturday.
Here’s a pic of the”hopefully” completed floor.
Did get a chance to put up some “mementos” of our car trip - more to come!!
OP
Swanny1953
ALLIANCE MEMBER
I do intend to post up some details of the Italy trip along with our road trip as time allows.
zmotorsports
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Looks amazing Gary. I'll bet you are pleased it is finally finished. Hope it's ready to start moving in by the time you return. Looking forward to seeing it outfitted with cars and accessories.
OP
Swanny1953
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Thanks, Mike. I am pleased it's nearly ready to go, just hope another week of allowing the floor covering to cure will alleviate my issue. The Woodie has been sitting at Lori's mom's since early June, and I know it wants to get its legs stretched!!
Howdy Gary. Sounds and looks like your road trip covered the same territory we did for a couple weeks with the only exception being Kansas. I had planned on the world largest ball of twine but the wife wanted Graceland so we headed south when we left north Kentucky instead…
I’d have much rather seen the twine
But we did hit everything possible on Route 66 during our trip. Where did you two go?
I’d have much rather seen the twine
But we did hit everything possible on Route 66 during our trip. Where did you two go?
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OP
Swanny1953
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Cam, sorry for the delay in responding.Howdy Gary. Sounds and looks like your road trip covered the same territory we did for a couple weeks with the only exception being Kansas. I had planned on the world largest ball of twine but the wife wanted Graceland so we headed south when we left north Kentucky instead…
I’d have much rather seen the twine
But we did hit everything possible on Route 66 during our trip. Where did you two go?
I’ll get into greater detail in future posts. We were on a tour curated by Austin Coop at 2 Lane America (www.2laneamerica.com). We started in Chicago at The Palmer House a block or two from the start of Route 66 and spent 13 days driving as much of the “Mother Road” as possible across all 8 states, ending with dinner at Mel’s Diner at the official end sign. All in, it was nearly 50/50 “Mother Road” and interstate, much of which has supplanted Route 66. We put 5,380 miles on our 2016 Cadillac CTS-V, with the only issue being a flat on I25 outside of Santa Fe that destroyed the tire (again, more later).
I would unreservedly recommend Austin to anyone who wants this experience. He takes care of all the lodging, all breakfasts, several lunches and dinners and admission to all the attractions along the way. We had a great group of fellow travelers and remain in touch with all of them.
Beginning -
End -
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OP
Swanny1953
ALLIANCE MEMBER
One of the things I like most about my ‘40 Chev coupe is how clean the engine compartment is - almost no visible wires or hoses, radiator and alternator/ps pump/ac compressor hidden. However, for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how to get the accessory cover off. I could find a couple of the fasteners, but the front attachment mechanism was a mystery.
A call to the builder revealed he had used several dabs of silicone to adhere the cover panel around the hood latch. A little hot air from the heat gun softened the silicone enough to pry the cover off with a plastic pry bar.
Now I can address the belt squeal and have access to the alternator so I can diagnose whether I have an issue.
A call to the builder revealed he had used several dabs of silicone to adhere the cover panel around the hood latch. A little hot air from the heat gun softened the silicone enough to pry the cover off with a plastic pry bar.Now I can address the belt squeal and have access to the alternator so I can diagnose whether I have an issue.
OP
Swanny1953
ALLIANCE MEMBER
OP
Swanny1953
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Well, now that we have been home for a few weeks, the garage floor has “off gassed” to the point it is no longer hanging up a commercial dust mop when in use. So I have loaded some cars and other items so my work area will have more room. 
I periodically attend car shows, not to compete for trophies, but to spend some time with other gear heads. However, I do sometimes pick up an award. I picked up a 1x12x16’ pre primed shelf board and ordered some brackets from Amazon, painted everything and got it put up over the windows.
Pirated the Sonos speaker from the original garage (no longer needed as I have a Sonos soundbar for the simulator), found an outlet cover/speaker stand/wire organizer, so now have music in new section when wanted. Also picked up a white board.
Hung a hose reel, but didn’t realize it only has 25’ of hose, so will either replace hose or get a new reel as 25’ is near worthless.
Lastly, Walmart had Black Friday pricing in their Samsung 55” TV’s, so one came home and got mounted where we put the blocking while doing the framing.
I periodically attend car shows, not to compete for trophies, but to spend some time with other gear heads. However, I do sometimes pick up an award. I picked up a 1x12x16’ pre primed shelf board and ordered some brackets from Amazon, painted everything and got it put up over the windows.
Pirated the Sonos speaker from the original garage (no longer needed as I have a Sonos soundbar for the simulator), found an outlet cover/speaker stand/wire organizer, so now have music in new section when wanted. Also picked up a white board.
Hung a hose reel, but didn’t realize it only has 25’ of hose, so will either replace hose or get a new reel as 25’ is near worthless.
Lastly, Walmart had Black Friday pricing in their Samsung 55” TV’s, so one came home and got mounted where we put the blocking while doing the framing.
zmotorsports
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Looks awesome Gary. What a nice new garage space.
OP
Swanny1953
ALLIANCE MEMBER
As mentioned earlier in this thread, our family suffered a great loss 2-1/2 years ago when my father-in-law suddenly passed just before their scheduled move to Texas. When I first met Jack nearly 41 years ago, he had 5 Corvettes, including a ‘70 race (autocross) car that he let me drive in an event shortly after Lori and I were married and in which I “waxed” his *** with his own car! I’m not sure he ever forgave me for that. He also had a ‘69 big block (which Lori and I have owned since 2014), a 1962 he restored and which consistently won people’s choice every time he showed it (he sold it to a buddy in the late 80's for $14,500 - oh, he wished he had never sold it!!), a ‘79 that was Mom’s daily driver and a ‘75 Convertible (covered below). I guess my affliction for Corvettes was initially nurtured through my relationship with Jack!
My 2 girls loved their Bampa dearly and each wanted something to remember him by. So, the eldest is buying his ‘75 Convertible and the youngest made a deal to buy his 2004 Convertible from their grandmother. Before they take possession, I promised to get them properly detailed.
The ‘75 hadn’t had much cosmetic love over the last many years. It was originally purchased because 1975 was the year my in-laws were married (2nd marriage for each). It only has 15,000 miles. The car was originally white, but Jack wanted a black car, so he commissioned his buddy to do a repaint nearly 50 years ago. (As a side note, I really dislike black cars. We’ve had 1 which we bought before our eldest was born. I liked the color for about 10 minutes before I had to continually try to keep the swirl marks away!!)
As mentioned, the paint needed some love. I began by washing, and followed up using Griot’s fine surface prep mitt and Speed Shine to remove impurities from the surface. I was left with a babies **** smooth surface, but it still had a ton of swirls and scratches. Here’s what I had prior to paint correction -
I then attacked the surface with Griot’s BOSS correcting cream and a 6” DA. Other than a few instances of orange peel and a couple of pretty deep scratches, the paint really responded. Here’s the same panel after initial paint correction-
Sunday I applied Griot’s Ceramic All-In-One Wax, which also include some mild abrasives. This is the finished product -
I’m really happy with how this one turned out.
The 2004 was a little easier. After washing and decontamination as described above, I was left with a finish with almost no swirls or scratches. So, I skipped the paint correction and went straight to application of the ceramic wax. This is the final result on that one -
I’m too old to be doing this much polishing and waxing!! It has taken the last 2 days for my shoulders to stop aching, but the results are well worth it. I just hope my girls get many miles of smiles and memories from their cars!!!
My 2 girls loved their Bampa dearly and each wanted something to remember him by. So, the eldest is buying his ‘75 Convertible and the youngest made a deal to buy his 2004 Convertible from their grandmother. Before they take possession, I promised to get them properly detailed.
The ‘75 hadn’t had much cosmetic love over the last many years. It was originally purchased because 1975 was the year my in-laws were married (2nd marriage for each). It only has 15,000 miles. The car was originally white, but Jack wanted a black car, so he commissioned his buddy to do a repaint nearly 50 years ago. (As a side note, I really dislike black cars. We’ve had 1 which we bought before our eldest was born. I liked the color for about 10 minutes before I had to continually try to keep the swirl marks away!!)
As mentioned, the paint needed some love. I began by washing, and followed up using Griot’s fine surface prep mitt and Speed Shine to remove impurities from the surface. I was left with a babies **** smooth surface, but it still had a ton of swirls and scratches. Here’s what I had prior to paint correction -
I then attacked the surface with Griot’s BOSS correcting cream and a 6” DA. Other than a few instances of orange peel and a couple of pretty deep scratches, the paint really responded. Here’s the same panel after initial paint correction-
Sunday I applied Griot’s Ceramic All-In-One Wax, which also include some mild abrasives. This is the finished product -
I’m really happy with how this one turned out.
The 2004 was a little easier. After washing and decontamination as described above, I was left with a finish with almost no swirls or scratches. So, I skipped the paint correction and went straight to application of the ceramic wax. This is the final result on that one -
I’m too old to be doing this much polishing and waxing!! It has taken the last 2 days for my shoulders to stop aching, but the results are well worth it. I just hope my girls get many miles of smiles and memories from their cars!!!
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They turned out great not to mention the heart warming story! Love griots products, I haven't used the ceramic wax myself. The correcting cream is great though, I've always used the best of show wax after correction.
Is that the m12 detail light in the reflection?
Is that the m12 detail light in the reflection?
OP
Swanny1953
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Thanks. Good eye on the light - I use it a lot in detailing.
Outstanding work young man! Both on the paint finishes and the continuation of memories. Blessed!As mentioned earlier in this thread, our family suffered a great loss 2-1/2 years ago when my father-in-law suddenly passed just before their scheduled move to Texas. When I first met Jack nearly 41 years ago, he had 5 Corvettes, including a ‘70 race (autocross) car that he let me drive in an event shortly after Lori and I were married and in which I “waxed” his *** with his own car! I’m not sure he ever forgave me for that. He also had a ‘69 big block (which Lori and I have owned since 2014), a 1962 he restored and which consistently won people’s choice every time he showed it, a ‘79 that was Mom’s daily driver and a ‘75 Convertible (covered below). I guess my affliction for Corvettes was initially nurtured through my relationship with Jack!
My 2 girls loved their Bampa dearly and each wanted something to remember him by. So, the eldest is buying his ‘75 Convertible and the youngest made a deal to buy his 2004 Convertible from their grandmother. Before they take possession, I promised to get them properly detailed.
The ‘75 hadn’t had much cosmetic love over the last many years. It was originally purchased because 1975 was the year my in-laws were married (2nd marriage for each). It only has 15,000 miles. The car was originally white, but Jack wanted a black car, so he commissioned his buddy to do a repaint nearly 50 years ago. (As a side note, I really dislike black cars. We’ve had 1 which we bought before our eldest was born. I liked the color for about 10 minutes before I had to continually try to keep the swirl marks away!!)
As mentioned, the paint needed some love. I began by washing, and followed up using Griot’s fine surface prep mitt and Speed Shine to remove impurities from the surface. I was left with a babies **** smooth surface, but it still had a ton of swirls and scratches. Here’s what I had prior to paint correction -
I then attacked the surface with Griot’s BOSS correcting cream and a 6” DA. Other than a few instances of orange peel and a couple of pretty deep scratches, the paint really responded. Here’s the same panel after initial paint correction-
Sunday I applied Griot’s Ceramic All-In-One Wax, which also include some mild abrasives. This is the finished product -
I’m really happy with how this one turned out.
The 2004 was a little easier. After washing and decontamination as described above, I was left with a finish with almost no swirls or scratches. So, I skipped the paint correction and went straight to application of the ceramic wax. This is the final result on that one -
I’m too old to be doing this much polishing and waxing!! It has taken the last 2 days for my shoulders to stop aching, but the results are well worth it. I just hope my girls get many miles of smiles and memories from their cars!!!
OP
Swanny1953
ALLIANCE MEMBER
I think it's a great light. You can choose the color output, and it's very bright. I use it for more than just detailing, but it's particularly goo for that.
Thanks for the kind words. I do recognize that I'm beyond blessed!