Next Up: 2006 Pontiac GTO - Full Correction and Ceramic Coating!

[Dan@Adams]

I joke a lot saying I want to be like Dave @BRZN, or that he's the master and I'm the apprentice, but now I really can be like him:



All joking aside, a friend brought over this 2006 Pontiac GTO in Brazen Orange as he picked up a family member's black Corvette, so I started on it a few nights ago. Overall it's in very good condition - light swirls, a few deeper scratches, excellent interior, clean engine bay,   

I did a full inspection of the vehicle for any issues first, and then washed the car. I documented all issues with photos for the owner - a few deep scratches, 2 very small dents, tiny paint chips on the edge of the gas cap, and very oxidized headlights to the point of clear coat failure on them. I will be fully sanding and polishing the headlights. There are some sanding marks under the paint in one spot of the hood too. I can tell that the hood was repainted on this car, but it is an excellent color match. 









After inspection, I clayed the car Monday night. The roof was in much worse shape than the rest of the vehicle, with some sort of deposit on it that looked to be soot or black over spray. Other body panels did not show up anywhere near as bad as this on the Fine Grade Clay Bar:





Perhaps if I had done an iron decontamination with Iron Remover, there may not have been as much contamination in the clay.

[Dan@Adams]

Tuesday night, I compounded the whole passenger side of the vehicle. It turned out excellent with just the Blue Foam Compound Pad and blue Compound on speed 5 on the SK Pro 15MM Swirl Killer Polisher, but I will still go over the car with the White Foam Pad and white Polish when I'm done compounding it. 



Then last night I began sanding the passenger headlight (need to go buy more sand paper) and then compounded out the hood, same process:

 

I hope to compound the driver side and roof tonight, then that will leave the bumpers and trunk for Friday night and coating Saturday morning!

[Rich]

When I first saw it, I thought it was Dave's!    That's a lot of work Dan, and it looks great!  

[Dan@Adams]

Thanks Rich! I made a lot more progress tonight. I finished compounding the driver side of the car, the top of the trunk, and the rear spoiler. That leaves the bumpers, roof, and back of the trunk for tomorrow night. This one is going to turn out awesome. I'm excited to take some finished pictures with how well it is correcting. Here are a few more nice before and after pictures from tonight:

[BRZN]

Nice!

Gotta love that color, huh?

[Chris@Adams]

Nice, Have fun!

[Captain Slow]

Great work Dan! 👍🏼👍🏼

[Dan@Adams]

4 hours ago, BRZN said:

Nice!

Gotta love that color, huh?

It was my original color choice for the GTO and I was going to hold off to get one, but when I saw the blue interior on the Impulse Blue in person, I knew I had to have it.
 

2 hours ago, Chris@Adams said:

Nice, Have fun!

Thanks, this car has been a pleasure to work on so far!
 

2 hours ago, Captain Slow said:

Great work Dan! 👍🏼👍🏼

Thank you, more pictures tonight 😎

[RayS]

Very sharp looking.

[Dan@Adams]

Thanks Ray!

Next update: the headlights were certainly a challenge. As mentioned earlier, the clear coat on the headlights was peeling and yellowing, with a very rough texture. I did a test spot with Compound and the Microfiber Pad on the Mini and I knew this would not be enough to repair them - they needed to be sanded down smooth first, and then polished out.

I started with 1,000 grit just to see what it would do, and because that it what I hand in the garage. This was taking far too long, so I picked up some 400 grit and 800 grit at my local home improvement store. It was very crowded but at least everyone was being respectful of each other. In and out in less than 4 minutes.



Here you can see the left side of the light sanded and polished out, and the right side untouched:

 

And the finished result. The 3.5" One Step Pad and blue Compound it looking very nice. There are a few very faint sanding scratches, but a big improvement overall:



Then I sanded down the driver-side headlight last night. My elbow was pretty sore afterward 😂





I'll finish polishing it out tonight, then onto prep and UV Ceramic Paint Coating!

[Dan@Adams]

Headlights are done, and I finished polishing the passenger side body panels. Then I cleaned the engine bay, underside of the hood, and all of the wheels and tires tonight. 

 

It's ready for prep and coating tomorrow evening.

[Chris@Adams]

Looking good Dan!

[RayS]

The headlights really came out nice.  Are you going to ceramic coat them or put actual clear coat on them since you had to sand them?

[Dan@Adams]

6 hours ago, RayS said:

The headlights really came out nice.  Are you going to ceramic coat them or put actual clear coat on them since you had to sand them?

I still need to do a little more compounding around the edges of the headlights, but I am going to ceramic coat them. I will recommend to the owner to have them professionally clear coated, but that will be up to him. I don't have a paint gun or paint booth to do things like that 😞

I did however prep the vehicle tonight with Surface Prep and then applied Adam's UV Ceramic Paint Coating onto all body panels. No in-process pictures of the application this time, since I wanted to get it done before 1:30AM, which I did. Here's a picture of it applied and curing though 🙂

 
Tomorrow night - interior cleaning, one more compounding step on the headlights, then coating the headlights and wheels. It should be ready for the owner by Thursday or Friday evening, and then I have another Holden next in line after this one!