GrpA Calais Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 You've been warned, some of you may find the before pics a bit hard of your eyes!! Meet my younger sister's '01 VX Holden Commodore Station Wagon, finished in Phantom Black. Yeah, I know, black, for a daily kiddy transport wagon.... I'm sure some of us have had nightmares about this scenario! That is how it looks now. Here's a run down on what I did during the 25 hours I spent on the paint correction. Day 1: I started with a good hose down with my pressure washer (1900 PSI from memory). I cleaned the engine bay and door jambs with the pressure washer and some APC. Single Bucket wash, with an old "jumbo sponge" - I could have used a pot scrubber, could not have made the paint any worse! Dried the car, and put it in the garage for the night - I'd already used up the day flushing the engine coolant, engine oil, and brake system. Day 2, 3 & 4 (evenings after work): Removed Clear Bra - messy job! I used so much solvent getting the glue off that I unstuck the Holden badge too - opps! Spot treated the worst scratches as best I could with Adam's 4" pads mounted to my 240volt hammer drill. I took to a few defects with some wet & dry sand paper (Meg's Unigrit 1500 - Swirl & Haze Remover & 4" pad took the sanding marks out if seconds!) Applied colour matched touch-up paint to the many scratches I could not sand/polish out. Day 5 (again, after work): Out came the PC 2 or three passes of Severe Swirl Remover Day 6 (Saturday!): 2 Passes Swirl & Haze Remover 1 Pass Fine Machine Polish Re-attach Holden Badge to Hood 1 Coat Machine Super Sealant Day 7 (Sunday - today): 1 Coat Brilliant Glaze 1 Coat Americana Doesn't seem much to write down, but that was around 25 hours of my time. I think it was worth it, but I'll let you judge for yourselves from the pictures...... Clear Bra before.... ...during.... ...after (or course it rains when you get the car outside!) Hood before... ...during... ...after Left Rear Door before... ...during... ...after Right Rear Door before... ...during... ...after Left Front Door before... ...during... ...after Right Front Door before... ...during... ...after Right Quarter before... ...during... ...after Right Guard before... ...during... ...after Left Guard before... ...after (dunno what happened to my during shot?!?!) Roof after (no before or during, opps!) And I'll finish this up with a few after shots outside..... The paint is still far from perfect, but to the average person looking at the car, it looks great. People like us on here will still see the defects. Needless to say, my sister was pretty happy with the result, it came out much better than she was expecting that's for sure. Now, if only she can keep her 8 year old boys (twins, double trouble!!) and their push bikes away from the car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
07RS4 Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 Man Dave...I think it looks great. It looks like you have some on lookers in the reflection that also like it! Nice job man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueGenCoupe Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 Amazing job Dave. you had your work cut out for you. I need to ask, what did you use on the clear bra? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrpA Calais Posted May 27, 2012 Author Share Posted May 27, 2012 Thanks guys!! Dave - Yep, the onlookers sure were please with their "new" car. Anthony - The clear bra was a bit of a P.I.T.A...... or was it just that I was hung over when I removed it?? I started out by using a heat gun to warm it up (not too hot, didn't wanna burn my fingers!). As it was old - I guess original to the car from new - it was kinda delicate, and came off in lots of small pieces. Of course this left me with a ton of adhesive on the hood. I drowned that in K&H Wax & Grease Remover (better known to me as Prepsol), a solvent you would normally use for cleaning prior to any paint work. This softened the adhesive, but there was way too much for a rag to wipe off. So I took to it with a razor blade!! This basically scraped the glue off and left only a minimal residue to remove with a rag. It also put 3 or 4 light scratches in the paint.... but what the hell, I was correcting the whole thing anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marylander Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 Amazing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the1inblue Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 Great job! Looks great! Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mc2hill Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 Wow Dave, great work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Team Adam's Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 Great work Dave! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gencoupe3dot8 Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 <snip> This softened the adhesive, but there was way too much for a rag to wipe off. So I took to it with a razor blade!! This basically scraped the glue off and left only a minimal residue to remove with a rag. It also put 3 or 4 light scratches in the paint.... but what the hell, I was correcting the whole thing anyway In the States they make PLASTIC razor blades that may have worked? Don't know if they have em down under? Awesome job on the car... now all you need to do is upgrade to a Flex! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris@Adams Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 Nice save on that PBM! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Ryan Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 Holy cow! Very nice save! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diffident Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 In the States they make PLASTIC razor blades that may have worked? Don't know if they have em down under? Awesome job on the car... now all you need to do is upgrade to a Flex! A 3M Stripe off Wheel would work without damaging the paint. I used one when removing the moldings and badges off my old truck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chase@InsanePaint Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 CRAZY turnaround bro!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrpA Calais Posted May 27, 2012 Author Share Posted May 27, 2012 Thanks for all the fantastic feedback guys!! Wow! In the States they make PLASTIC razor blades that may have worked? Don't know if they have em down under? Awesome job on the car... now all you need to do is upgrade to a Flex! Yeah, I know the ones..... and agree it would have been a better/safer option. I also thought of grabbing the soft plastic spatula from the kitchen, but would have ruined it. Razor blade just happened to be what I had laying around.... and I'm a sucker for just making do with what I got As for the Flex..... I'd like one, but I'm thinking a cheap rotary might be the way to go. Do the bulk of the cutting quickly, then finish things of with the PC. It's been 10+ years since I've used a rotary thought.... so might have to find a junker to practise on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clayc_989 Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 If I didn't know any different, I would have to guess that thing was taken off road through some heavy brush to make all those scratches. That's a crazy job you did! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug123 Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 Looks like the kid handlebar scratches came out really well. Eesh. Very nicely done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasssc Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 Oh man!! That's great! What an amazing turnaround!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmyzeet Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 Nice work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingDakota Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 Wow! Outstanding work. I guess there is hope for the black Pontiac I have been doing a little at a time for a couple months now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PacificNWBuckeye Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 Looks great! I love wagons. There seemed to be a texture in a couple of the after shots, then I realized it was the reflection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueGenCoupe Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 Anthony - The clear bra was a bit of a P.I.T.A...... or was it just that I was hung over when I removed it?? Ohh you removed it, I thought you had some special polish to remove all those nasty scuffs and scratches Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiloX Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 Unreal. What. A. Turn. Around. I think all of us can tell that a whole lot of love went into that restoration. Nice work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Integrity Detailing, LLC Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 Thanks for the warning beforehand. The smiles that we see in the reflections say it all. Great job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrpA Calais Posted May 28, 2012 Author Share Posted May 28, 2012 Unreal. What. A. Turn. Around. I think all of us can tell that a whole lot of love went into that restoration. Nice work. Love?? Well, I am a Holden man through and through For the most part it was pure determination, determination to surpass what everyone thought was possible. The best reaction was from my old man, he came for a visit on Saturday to see how it was going (he usually looks after sis's car for her). I was just starting on the Swirl & Haze Remover, he walked down the right side of the car looked, paused, looked again and said "Sshhiiiiiiittt!!!! I didn't think it would look anything like that!" - reactions like that are priceless!! Ohh you removed it, I thought you had some special polish to remove all those nasty scuffs and scratches There was no way that clear bra was ever getting fixed, it had started to peel away, it was cracking everywhere, and I sure didn't have the urge to even remove all the bug stains off it Looks great! I love wagons. There seemed to be a texture in a couple of the after shots, then I realized it was the reflection. Your not alone on that mistake, I was going through the shots and resizing them for upload, spotted one with the texture and though "How the **** did I miss that?!?!?!?!" - then somewhere someone dropped a penny and I realised it was the reflection of the textured window Thanks for all the great comments guys, I'm already looking forward to my next project, although the results won't be anywhere near as dramatic as this I'm sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LDM Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 Just to echo what everyone else has said, great results Dave. It's great to see a Holden's finish come back from the dead so to speak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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