Custom Painted Camaro SS - Paint Correction & Opti-Coat

[Wills.WindowsAndWheels]

Hey guys, been a while since I've share some of my work on here, but this was such a cool ride i figured i had to post the write up on here Hope you enjoy.

Hammered...thats what popped into mind when we first saw this car. That, and Hammerhead...because the paint job kinda made it look like a hammer head shark...all in though, this baby needed LOTS of love.

I'm going to apologize ahead of time because this post has over 100 photos, but we really wanted to document exactly what we started with....and what we ended up with...and help show how we got there.

Yup, there she is....lookin pretty damn nice from certain angles. We went out to give the owner a quote....we took one look at a panel in the sun and knew we had some work ahead of us. We explained it needed a multiple step polish-out...serious compounding would be needed to cut the swirls and then final polishing to remove the haze from compounding and brighten the paint up to top notch quality. I told the owner I would send him a link to a write-up I had done so he could put a visualization to what i was describing to him.

After seeing the write up, he said he wanted us to take photos like that of his car and document the work like we had in the write up I sent...my response...of course! A car like this deserves to be documented...and a turn around like this surely does as well! He also opted for the Opti-Coat upgrade to help keep her in good shape.

He was going to have us detail it and then have a SuperCharger installed along with a few other upgrades....but Rick, the man who'd be doing the install...and also a customer of ours, suggested that he have the SuperCharger installed FIRST...and have the detail done second...that way there would be no chance of and swirls etc being put back into the paint AFTER we had polished it....that was fine by us

Now, back to the swirls I was talking about....

She's got hips and she's got swirls on her hips!

There is a quick taste of what we'd be working with, don't worry though, more is to come

First though, we had to wash this baby...so...off with the license plate:

Always some good grime hiding behind there:

The swirls were also in the silver but, were much more difficult to see (as usual, damn light colors hide everything so well!)

The red however...showed every little flaw:

Some nice ones were on the hood:

Even the side mirrors got in on the swirled action:

Front quarter panels told the same story:

Onto the cleaning! The wheels had a nice amount of grime on them:

Nothing we weren't use to though...some cleaners...wheel woolies and a few brushes and we were ready to get to work:

Not bad huh?

Exhaust tips needed some love too:

Then it was time to rinse off the dirt, there wasn't a ton...but there was definitely some wax or sealant on the paint..water beaded up quite well...but this also meant there was a possibility of even MORE swirls that we just could't see because the sealant or wax was filling it. We'd find out either way...it was time to strip it down to bare paint:

Time to foam her up:

Now shes a great white instead of a hammerhead hehe


Then we got to washing ...nice and gentle...but thorough:

Got sudds?

A quick dry to get the bulk of the water off and then we were heading into the garage:

Before we pulled in...we took note of how the paint looked after the prep wash:

Not so nice still! Some areas maybe just seemed worse but, it was hard to tell:

The owner pulled it in the garage for us and was kind enough to allow us all 3 garage bays to work in...check this out !

Awesome...lots of space and very clean.

Next we set up our equipment to get ready to go to battle:

 

[Wills.WindowsAndWheels]

Light em up....we closed down the doors...had a nice dark garage to work in and had our lights to be able to see what we were working with in a controlled environment:

The paint was pretty smooth feeling...but we did clay it anyway just to be safe:

Then it was time to do a test spot and figure out what combo we'd be using...put a tape line down...compound and polish one side and compare it to the other:

This is what we started with :

Then, after compounding with a microfiber cutting disc, Meguiars 105 with a little D300 mixed in to help extend working time...we ended up with this:

Swirls were gone, but micro marring was left....which was expected. These types of marks easily polished out with some 205 Finishing Polish and a polishing pad.

After the 205 polish, we were looking pretty sharp:

A nice close up of the tape line showed us exactly how much improvement we had made...not too shabby:

While it looked quite good and was a huge improvement, there were still some deeper ones i was able to see and wasn't happy with...so i re-compounded the area to see if i could get some improvement. Dani in the mean time was working on the rimes...getting them cleaned and doing an IPA wipe down on them...as well as dressing the tires and wheel wells:

We've found that where usually we'd do tires, wheels and wheel wells last...it really wasn't something we'd look forward to after HOURS of polishing! So, recently Dani has been knocking that out first while i dial in the polishing combo that we need. Most times I can get about a whole panel or so done (usually the hood) by the time she's finished cleaning the wheels, dressing the tires and wheel wells and then coating the wheels with Opti-Coat.

In this case, we weren't so lucky...i was done with only about 1/2 of the hood when she finished...why? Because every section looked like this:

We were just seriously surrounded by LOTS of DEEP swirls...and to top it off...this paint wasn't exactly buffer friendly, it was definitely on the hard side...so the cutting/compounding process was very slow and made you work for ever defect removal. I upped to Meguiars 101 to help with the cut....it did make things work better but man, it was still a SLOW process.

After Dani finished the wheels, she snagged the PC and a 3" cutting pad and started doing the trimming and edging for me. Rockers, mirrors, pillars etc...all the tight areas that required a small pad and concentrated cut, she attacked:

Again, a lot of people don't realize just HOW MUCH time this kinda work takes...doing a very small section like with a small pad can often times take up as much time as a larger panel with a larger pad. It ALL takes time to do right...and trust me time and patience was exactly what was needed for this car.


We found some areas we beyond or repair...specifically, the front bumper. The owner had a SS...and now a SuperCharger....and he USED them. Tracking a car surely shows...one thing we saw was some paint crinkling on the from driver side:

Then of course, rock chips....LOTS and LOTS of rock chips:

We told the owner about Dr. Color Chip ...he ordered some while we were still working lol.

The quarter panel was just wow....just like the rest of the car

With certain areas like this...where i had a little more space to work with...i eventually resorted to the rotary, a Lake Country Synthetic Wool pad and some 105. It helped speed up the cutting process...while many areas still required 2 or more compounding passes....it did help level them out:

When it came time to polish...a bit more pressure and slower passes seemed to help remove any holograms left from the rotary...it cleaned up pretty nice :

In the interest of honesty, there were some deep ones left. I still say we got well over 90% correction of the paint and we had to scratch and claw to get that. But compared to the bazillion-million trillion ones that were there to begin with...this was a pretty good outcome:

And Dani still cut away with the little 3"...man that sure saved me when it came time for me to compound...knowing the little areas were already done.

Panel after panel...more of this:

Turned into more of this:

The drivers door was no picnic as im sure you've all gathered by now! But, it did make for another sweet 50/50 photo:

We had arrived a little before 9 a.m...unloaded and started working right away....well...here we were 12 hours later...the sun was long gone...fast food places (except Filibertos!) were all closed down...and we were still polishing:

Finally...we got to the point to where the polishing was done....now the fun part...we had to wash the car again...do an IPA wipe down (I will now usually spray the panel with my IPA mix...then wash the panel with a rinseless wash...seems to leave less streaks and clean very thoroughly) ...get it dried and ready for coating:

The light helps to be sure no drips are left. And let me tell you..the back side of a Camaro is a DRIP HAVEN! Spoiler, inset back lights...trunk...just drips drips and more drips even with a rinseless wash!

Finally, it began...the coating process:

 

[Wills.WindowsAndWheels]

Many curves, sharp edges and tight corners were all over....in the vents on the hood, under side mirrors...the back end as mentioned before...and every inch had to have sufficient coating applied. Applying a thick amount of coating and NOT ending up with a high spot...is very difficult. We're good, but we know we're not perfect, which is why we always offer a free follow up wash AFTER any coating job we do. So, a couple of weeks after the job is done, we'll go back..do a wash to insure the water beads up as it should (if the water runs flat, it means the area was missed with the coating...or the coating didn't bond correctly) and also to check for high spots that may have been missed.

14 hours later...we had finished. When we got in the car to head home the clock read a few minutes after 11 pm. Whew...long day...but man did this baby look good!

We advised the owner to let it stay as is over night and to give it 12 hours to sit...and to not wash it or get it wet. We set a date a couple weeks in advance for a follow up wash.

When we showed up, it was a little dirty but...nothing crazy. We pulled it out into the sun to take a look at it (since the last time we had seen it, it was almost midnight!) Things were looking good...but we wanted to check to make sure the coating bonded correctly...so it was time to start washing.

First the tires and rims...the rims beaded up nicely:

Then of course...the most important part...it was time to check the beading on the paint:

The water would just fly off lol. To us its actually FUN to wash Opti-Coated cars...just to see the water bead up and then fly off is just...wow, awesome.

The owner had added a little something since we had last seen it...to help advertise what he had under the hood

We thought it was a nice touch:

Serious beading:

Sorry but i think this next picture is just **** lol

Remember how that foam clung pretty good to the paint in the initial prep wash...even though it obviously had a good coat of some sort of wax or sealant on it? Welllll....even the thick foam wouldn't stick to the Opti-Coated paint:

I was spraying it just as thick as i had when we first did the car...and yeah, it just slides right the hell off lol:

We completed the wash...every panel beaded like crazy...then we used free flowing water to sheet most of the water off...used a blower to push water out of the tight spots...dried it and then inspected. The paint looked great...we found a few high spots that needed to be touched up real quick by hand, but other than that...magnifico!


Now for the fun part...the after shots...I'll let em' speak for themselves

Remember these???

No mas!!

Its all good on the hood now!

The reflection were killer:

And remember those **** but super swirled hips of the SuperCharged Super Sport (wow thats a lot of S's!)

They too were beautified:

As I said before, there were a few deeper scratches that were left, but all in all...it was an amazing and hard earned transition:

Love this shot:

Thank God for the 3" cutting discs...it took multiple compounding steps to knock down all those scratches in the vented areas....but the result was well worth the effort:

Got gloss?

I think our logo should be on the rear window too!

Now of course...time for the **** beauty shots:

This was definitely one of our harder details...it did feel good to know that it ended with an awesome result and was protected with Opti-Coat. The owner said he would probably have us come out to do maintenance washes on it to help keep it in good shape. Of course since he likes to track it and drive it like it should be driven...it'll get some wear and tear, but having careful wash jobs done to it is definitely one big step in the direction of keeping the paint looking stellar!


As always, appreciate you guys taking the time to read one of my long write up's, but i hope you enjoyed it. Take care all!

 

[tymbo]

You have the patience of a saint! Awesome detailing
I hope you charge accordingly for your services.

Tim

 

[dragginbalz]

I always enjoy these threads! Awesome job!!!!

 

[Wills.WindowsAndWheels]

You have the patience of a saint! Awesome detailing
I hope you charge accordingly for your services.

Tim

Pay day was pretty good but man did we earn every penny! Glad you liked the write-up

I always enjoy these threads! Awesome job!!!!

Lmao@ "Dragginbalz"...thats awesome...I'm glad you responded just so i could see your sign-on name hahaha (especially since that was my fav. anime show ever)

 

[Travisnd]

Very nice! Wish you guys were on the East Coast!!! haha!!

 

[Wills.WindowsAndWheels]

Very nice! Wish you guys were on the East Coast!!! haha!!

Hahaha, niiiice...i can see why you wish that. You could always take a road trip! Then again if you ever really need something done i know quite a few detailers across the country, a close buddy of mine is in WEST Va....he's cool people and does good work.

 

[iajonesy]

What does a job like this run in dollars? Just ballpark figure. Know any detailers in the midwest? I'm in Iowa. Thanks. BTW that was an amazing transformation and very well presented. Thanks for posting.

Mike

 

[ADSR]

Awesome job!!

Can you show us what you use for tools? I did see what looked like a dewalt drill, but it looked modified.

 

[Wills.WindowsAndWheels]

What does a job like this run in dollars? Just ballpark figure. Know any detailers in the midwest? I'm in Iowa. Thanks. BTW that was an amazing transformation and very well presented. Thanks for posting.

Mike

Mike,

I replied to your email - hope that info helps

As far as price...it ranges region to region but for us, between the 2-step polish (big time eater) which starts at $500 and the Opti-Coat Pro application (additional $200-300 depending on vehicle size), we would be looking at about $700 for most cars this size. Now since this baby was in REAL bad shape, it cost more. The key is making sure you have someone who is about quality, not quantity.

There are TONS of "detailers" out in our area and they are all about production work...as many cars as possible in a day. Some days we can do multiple cars...if they are just washes or wash, clay bar & wax jobs, those are much quicker. But when you get into paint correction like with this baby, you need skill, patience and more patience lol.

Just be careful, lot of guys out there who offer 'paint correction' or 'paint buffing'...and they'll come out with a rotary buffer and a wool pad and you get buffer trails or "holograms" which look like this:


This was a repainted truck and usually after a repaint, they'll sand and 'buff' it out..and thats the kinda results you get. Now there are guys who can use a rotary effectively, but they'll use several different pads/polishes and have good technique.

We use mostly dual action polishers...a bit slower but safer and very effective. We were even able to get that poor truck back into shape :

 

[domain]

You sir are awesome.

 

[Super Sport]

Beautiful work! My car really needs something like that done to it!

 

[oilslick]

Nice work and knowing your materials.

 

[ADSR]

I'm guessing that cost in the 600+ buck range.

 

[Wills.WindowsAndWheels]

You sir are awesome.

Dont know about awesome but, we try . Thank you for reading and commenting.

Beautiful work! My car really needs something like that done to it!

I see you are in Mi. Contact Charles Hahn http://www.cchautoappearance.com
He's very good and thorough at what he does. I believe he usually works from his home but if im not mistaken, will go mobile as well. Just tell him Wills set you his way . What kinda ride are you looking to have done?

Nice work and knowing your materials.

LOTS of practice and learning what works best with what...and then certain paints will STILL throw us a curve ball here n' there lol (Audi Brilliant Black for example!)

I'm guessing that cost in the 600+ buck range.

He was over 600 yes. Initially he was thinking about doing more mods to his ride with the $ he was going to use to hire us...but the guy who does work on his car told him to have us do our thing on it instead because it needed it lol.

 

[inphx]

Thanks - i had to google clay to see waht it offers to a wash process.

 

[Wills.WindowsAndWheels]

What does a job like this run in dollars? Just ballpark figure. Know any detailers in the midwest? I'm in Iowa. Thanks. BTW that was an amazing transformation and very well presented. Thanks for posting.

Mike

I forgot, i don't have anyone in Iowa, i DO know someone in Illinois though who could take care of you if you're interested. If you are, let me know and i'll get you his info.

Awesome job!!

Can you show us what you use for tools? I did see what looked like a dewalt drill, but it looked modified.

For tools, wow, lots of things lol.

The DeWalt drill you saw WAS a drill, but i gutted it, took out the motor and put in a Solux Natural Daylight bulb in it..now it is a home made Sun Gun (for about 1/10th the cost). We use it to spot swirls/defect etc in doors - that along with our LED lights.

For polishers we use dual action. Everything from a Porter Cable 7424 to a Makita 9227, Griots 6" DA, Flex 3401 and now have added Rupes 21 and 15mm polishers to our arsenal lol.

Then you have your different pads, compounds and polishes. Each paint has its own combo it likes. Some need very aggressive compounds and pads up front (like this Camaro) to cut the swirls and then a medium range polish to refine the paint after that. Others need a finer polish and pad combo to get it to finish down correctly. Thats why we always do a test spot to find out what combo is needed.

Thats most of what we use for our polishing, along with different sized backing plates. Technique is insanely important along with working clean and making sure to check each section as you do it to be sure the paint comes out as we wanted it. Mostly we use Meguiars compounds and polish but do have some other ones in our bag just incase the Megs doesn't work. Its just all about finding what the paint likes and sticking with it

 

[Wills.WindowsAndWheels]

Thanks - i had to google clay to see waht it offers to a wash process.

Oh I'm sorry, if you had asked i woulda told ya .

Yeah claying is usually needs 1-2 times a year, jsut depends upon how often the car is outside...unless of course the car happens to get overspray on it

Basically it just removes bonded contaminants (tree sap, pollutants, industrial fall out, baked on bug guts etc) as safely as possible and leaves the paint super smooth. Then when we go to polish, we aren't dragging around those contaminants in our pad at the risk of them marring the paint. Even if you are going to just skip paint correction and seal/wax the paint, it allows the wax or sealant to go on much easier and come off much easier and allows it to completely bond to the PAINT and not have areas where contaminants are blocking the paint

 

[mustanginky]

lots and lots of hard work in this thread. if you've ever done a detail this intensive you know OP earned every penny. car looks great for being a camaro. sad thing is it'll look that rough again in a couple months if the owner doesn't take care of it again. more money than sense. nice work man.

 

[Wills.WindowsAndWheels]

lots and lots of hard work in this thread. if you've ever done a detail this intensive you know OP earned every penny. car looks great for being a camaro. sad thing is it'll look that rough again in a couple months if the owner doesn't take care of it again. more money than sense. nice work man.

Thank you . Luckily he is going to have us do the washes on it, so that should help...just hope he stays away from the dusters and wiping it down with towels lol

 

[Jomo]

Nice work!
The job and the writeup!

 

[Zelatore]

In this case I'm not going to argue 'more money than sense'. The guy is tracking the car - its not a trailer queen. You don't expect a car that's actually used to be perfect.

I do sorta wonder what he did to get it that bad in the first place though. DIY 'detailing' by one of those guys who doesn't know the difference between a compound, a polish, and a wax?

 

[Responder]

Your work is what I would expect when we say "detailing"! Awesome job guys!!

 

[Vicious_Cycle]

Nice work!
The job and the writeup!

 

[Wills.WindowsAndWheels]

Nice work!
The job and the writeup!

Thank you

In this case I'm not going to argue 'more money than sense'. The guy is tracking the car - its not a trailer queen. You don't expect a car that's actually used to be perfect.

I do sorta wonder what he did to get it that bad in the first place though. DIY 'detailing' by one of those guys who doesn't know the difference between a compound, a polish, and a wax?

Yeah he likes to enjoy his car thats for sure. Honestly, a LOT of that type of stuff can be done jsut from bad wash jobs...dirty mitts, water and towels can do a real number on paint. Technique is so important when washing along with clean supplies..otherwise you can end up with this kind of a wreck.

Then of course...wipe downs...if you use a duster you're dragging dirt over the surface of your car..that causes abrasion and thus...scratches. That usually accounts for about 80% of what we have to deal with.

Your work is what I would expect when we say "detailing"! Awesome job guys!!

Thank you! Trying to get more people to understand the difference between a quick wash n' wax and a REAL detail..thats why we refer to it as paint correction or paint restoration rather than just a detail

back atcha!

 

[admranger]

Nice work and Opti-Coat is an excellent product. I used C-quartz on mine before Opti-Coat came out with the 'consumer friendly' version of their product. Pro's like you can use the original version b/c you know what you are doing.

14 hours x 2 people = a bargain for anything less than $1k in my mind. I fully detailed an X5 and it took 2 days by myself b/c I'm a) slower than a pro, and b) not as talented. Then I took on the other car the next weekend. I was sore from kneeling and bending for a couple of weeks. You two certainly earn your money.

 

[941designs]

Amazing results! Too bad you don't do business in Florida, finding a professional detailer is next to impossible. Great work.

 

[flame broiled]

Then of course...wipe downs...if you use a duster you're dragging dirt over the surface of your car..that causes abrasion and thus...scratches. That usually accounts for about 80% of what we have to deal with.

I work with mainly classic cars and we rarely wash them. Often they are just dusted and cleaned with a detail spray. How do you suggest cleaning them??

 

[tc-cad]

Excellent write up, and I love all the pictures. Was the Red paint from the factory? Any write ups/advice on getting rid of orange peel?

Thanks
TC-CAD

 

[dipper]

that is top notch work right there. Nice job!

 

[46Nash]

Can you cut down orange peel with that type of polishing? I just picked up a 13 Boss 302 and its got alot of orange peel in the clear coat and was wondering if it could be dealt with that way.

 

[bop_pa]

Simply fantastic work. Thanks so much for taking the time to photo and share with us. Mind if I ask what work like that would run (cost).

 

[Travisnd]

I work with mainly classic cars and we rarely wash them. Often they are just dusted and cleaned with a detail spray. How do you suggest cleaning them??

Interested to know this as well.

 

[Winmon]

Damn, I am VERY impressed! As has been mentioned several other times, wish you guys lived in my town!!! I'd pay 1k to get results like that....

 

[Jsf721]

Excellent job. I like to detail as well and love opti-coat on my daily drivers. Great protection. To save some time I purchased the nano scrub pad. Since I tried that I have not used clay.

 

[sanddrag]

I'm curious how you handle paint around emblems.

 

[dubber]

Wow, really thorough job and its always nice to see all the documentation through the process although i can appreciate its not always that easy to remember and stop while your in a groove.

 

[stratman1]

Thank you . Luckily he is going to have us do the washes on it, so that should help...just hope he stays away from the dusters and wiping it down with towels lol

Your work and attention to detail is awesome.

Curious. What is wrong with the dusters and wiping it down with towels, because this is what I do with my car.

 

[OldH1]

Fantastic work!! The difference is amazing! If you know anyone in the Southeast please sent that info out if they do your and Dani's quality of work! Alabama / Georgia / Florida...