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You've been warned, some of you may find the before pics a bit hard of your eyes!! :help:

 

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!

 

After1.jpg

 

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 :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....

ClearBra-Before.jpg

...during....

ClearBra-During.jpg

...after (or course it rains when you get the car outside!)

ClearBra-After.jpg

 

Hood before...

Bonnet-Before.jpg

...during...

BonnetDuring.jpg

...after

BonnetAfter.jpg

 

Left Rear Door before...

LeftRearDoor-Before.jpg

...during...

LeftRearDoor-During.jpg

...after

LeftRearDoor-After.jpg

 

Right Rear Door before...

RightRearDoor-Before.jpg

...during...

RightRearDoor-During.jpg

...after

RightRearDoor-After.jpg

 

Left Front Door before...

LeftFrontDoorBefore.jpg

...during...

LeftFrontDoor-During.jpg

...after

LeftFrontDoor-After.jpg

 

Right Front Door before...

RightFrontDoor-Before.jpg

...during...

RightFrontDoor-During.jpg

...after

RightFrontDoor-After.jpg

 

Right Quarter before...

RightQuarter-Before.jpg

...during...

RightQuarter-During.jpg

...after

RightQuarter-After.jpg

 

Right Guard before...

RightGuard-Before.jpg

...during...

RightGuard-During.jpg

...after

RightGuard-After.jpg

 

Left Guard before...

LeftGuard-Before.jpg

...after (dunno what happened to my during shot?!?!)

LeftGuard-After.jpg

 

Roof after (no before or during, opps!)

Roof-After.jpg

 

And I'll finish this up with a few after shots outside.....

After2.jpg

After3.jpg

After4.jpg

After5.jpg

After7.jpg

After6.jpg

 

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. :xfingers:

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Thanks guys!!

 

Dave - Yep, the onlookers sure were please with their "new" car. :banana:

 

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?? :willy:

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!! :eek: 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 ;)

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<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!! :eek: 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!

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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.

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Thanks for all the fantastic feedback guys!! Wow! :2thumbs:

 

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 :xfingers:

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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 :lolsmack:

 

:lolsmack: 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 :jester:

 

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 :lol:

 

 

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.

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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.

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