Not a challenger...just a challenge

[Osok]

Well, I dropped my buddy off at the airport last week and he was off to Florida for the week, leaving his car at my house. His car is a 2003 Impala with just under 197,000 miles on it. To say it's a daily driver is almost an understatement. He commutes 1 1/2hrs each way to work each day. He lives out in the sticks in the southertier of NY state. The car definitely hasn't seen any love in year but I wanted to take it on to practice my technique and see what I could do with this beast.

 

Now mind you I'll state right up front there still is a lot of paint damage/body damage on this car even after I shined her up. As I told my buddy, I can buff/polish it but I can't put paint back onto the car . I was able to get almost all of the endless swirls and scratches out of the car but he has a ton of paint chips and on the hood a whole slew of these 1/4 " straight lines going in all different angled directions. I tried every pad I had, even focus pads on a drill on those spots and it was like I hadn't touched them. He thinks it's actually the paint cracking underneath the clear coat. Who knows..i just know it was beyond my technique and skills. On a side note I'd love to have had me be in town with Dylan to have him use this car as a video series. The challenges, well, are never ending.

 

In the end, I got the clear coat shined back up, the car looking 100 times better than it was and got some great opportunities to practice different things.

 

Process:

- 2 bucket wash with dawn, rinse

- Clayed entire car with Adams claybar and detail spray. This actually brought to light just how bad of shape the paint was in.

- Rewash, 2 bucket wash with Adams foam gun, car shampoo, wash mitt, rinse, drying with Adams white drying towels (love these).

I did these first 3 steps the first day then put her in the garage.

 

Next came trial and error. With the paint so bad I started with 2 passes with Adams orange hex pads + SHR. This actually got a ton of the swirling out. I ended up having to do 4 passes of orange + shr on the bulk of the car.

Trouble spots I busted out the yellow 4" focus pads and SHR and hit the major scratches on the doors, quarter panels, hood (well mostly everywhere). Then followed that up with orange pad SHR and white focus pad FMP.

 

After all the orange pad shr work was done i was saddly still left with a lot of defects in the paint, but it really was beyond my skills at that point. I think some of it would've needed a lot of wet sanding and some of it is some level of actual paint defect.

 

Anyways, I had to just accept that I am no junkman nor do i have the tools/skills to take this further. But where it was at with a hell of a lot less swirls and scratches then when I started and it being an almost 200k miles daily driver, i forced myself to move on.

 

So..proceeded with 2 passes of white hex pad and FMP all over the car. Then followed that up with Machine Super wax and the gray pad. Let it sit for about 30 minutes. The night I was waxing it was about 50 degrees in the garage so it seemed to take little while to set up. Buffed that off then went to bed.

 

Next day was time spent on the windows, using the Adams window cleaner and blue window towel (great combo) and then work on the interior. I vaccumed out the inside and treated a few areas with the carpet/upholstery cleaner, which worked well, but didnt take any after shots. Wiped down all the trim with the leather/interior cleaner and then did the tires/trim with VRT and In/Out. By this time I was pretty happy with the end results and ready to call it a wrap.

 

So next day for some reason, I decided to put a coat of Americana on her. Why? I don't know, other than she's a black car and well, my tub of Americana is very new so hey why not.

 

All in all I worked on it off/on over 4 days and spent about 10-12 hrs on it. A lot of work, but since I actually enjoy the time doing it it really isnt work..right?

 

Here are the pics (note the after shoot of the hood and all the chips in that poor thing).

 

Oh..and this is a BLACK car..not a gray car

 

 

This is pretty much status quoa for the whole car

 

4" focus pads were calling for this baby...and it all came out.

 

 

 

Flash shot of the hood.

 

Here, hopefully you can tell, the top half is where I worked with the orange pad and shr for a couple passes. All of those white spots are paint chips and a couple spots of this kind of zig zaggy spider line looking etching I couldn't touch. At the time i was trying to get some pics to post up for advice but the camera was not cooperating so I said F! it and just moved on...it was late and i was real tired

 

And some after shots....

Flash shots of hood after work were all pretty blurry after downloading them. You can see here..it's not perfect by any means but most of the swirling has gone bye bye..paint chips..not so much.

 

 

Note the shiny hood, but all those 100s of paint chips Sad to look at...wish i knew how to fix all that. My buddy pointed out he drives an hour and a half each way to work every day for the last 4 years behind tractor trailers and worse, lots of salt trucks through the winter.

 

Hey look..it's a Charger

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for listening..and sorry for all the pictures if that crashed anyone's browser.

 

[1anonly]

Nice Job! My wife's car is in similar shape. Other than re-painting, the chips will still be there. You sure did make it shine though.

[70'sChevyGirl]

People need more friends like you.

 

I am sure he will be totally amazed when he gets back.

[Fierce5]

You did a great job especially considering the shape it was in before the correction

[Osok]

People need more friends like you.

 

I am sure he will be totally amazed when he gets back.

 

He got back on Sunday. I had driven the car over to the airport and left it in the short term lot for him as I had to go to Buffalo for the day. I texted him directions to where it was in the lot. When he landed and went looking for it he said he walked by it and didn't even recognize it. I guess that's a compliment.

[70'sChevyGirl]

He got back on Sunday. I had driven the car over to the airport and left it in the short term lot for him as I had to go to Buffalo for the day. I texted him directions to where it was in the lot. When he landed and went looking for it he said he walked by it and didn't even recognize it. I guess that's a compliment.

He was probably looking for the Gray colored car.

[Chewy]

I'm such a jerk... I NEVER offer to do other peoples cars. Bits here and there but NOT the whole car. I have three cars and 2 bikes of my own and have trouble finding the time to do them, let alone others.

 

Job well done Paul!

[Osok]

Thanks everyone.

 

I'm such a jerk... I NEVER offer to do other peoples cars. Bits here and there but NOT the whole car. I have three cars and 2 bikes of my own and have trouble finding the time to do them, let alone others.

 

Job well done Paul!

 

Chewy..I'm quite new when it comes to PC work and all so I look at it as any opportunity to practice and see new things. Granted..the last 3 cars I've done for folks have been black daily drivers so I think I'm definitely putting myself through some extra work.

[Chris@Adams]

People need more friends like you.

 

I am sure he will be totally amazed when he gets back.

:iagree::2thumbs: