My first post: thought I'd show off the clean up
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Joined: 05-08-09
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From: Trabuco Canyon, CA
My first post: thought I'd show off the clean up
Hi guys (and ladies), I'm Mike and I live in Orange County, CA (as if you had zero clue from my forum name here). I work full time for Meguiar's so detailing cars is not only fun/enjoyable/relaxing for me, it's also a big part of how I make my living. I'm not here to be a Meguiar's shill, but I'm willing to answer any and all questions.
In any event, we recently sold my wife's 1992 Camaro RS to her brother as a first car for our nephew. By the way, she was the original of that '92 RS and it only had 85,000 miles on it. That meant we needed to replace it and ultimately the replacement vehicle was totally up to my wife. Well, not totally - I did have some say in the deal. This is the first used car I've bought in quite some time and I'd forgotten that most people consider a car to be just another appliance and they really don't take very good care of the finish. In our search we found some cars that actually needed a full repaint even though the interior, engine etc were in very good condition. This includes one Chrysler sedan who's paint looked as though it had tried to keep up with a group of Jeep guys running through the scrub brush!!
So anyway, my wife falls for this Victory Red 2008 Cobalt LT that's in great shape, is a Certified Pre-Owned car so we get an extended warranty, and the dealer was willing to deal - after I started to walk out. Twice.
But the paint... oh, the poor, poor paint. And to think this was actually one of the better finishes we came across in our search. Just sad. Horrible swirls, scratches, some holograms, everything. How do you rotary buff a car to the point of inflicting holograms yet you still don't pull out the swirls? :dunno So here's what we started with:
This is the trunk lid at the base of the rear window:
Here's the hood:
Roof just above the passenger door:
Another hood shot, this time with the Swirl Finder light as a light source, with the same nasty swirls plus a big ol' scuff/scratch thrown in for good measure:
And the rear 1/4 panel showing horrible swirls and some random scratches:
So I started out with a gentle approach to see where it would get me - my trusty D/A buffer and a good quality paint cleaner. Nothing. I tried to get more aggressive with this machine but the paint was surprisingly hard and the defects really, really severe. I ended up stepping to my Makita rotary and going hard core on the thing. I also decided to strip the factory door guards off (ugly things they were, too) and my wife liked the look of the painted calipers on my car so I did those too, and threw in some Cobalt decals to finish it off. Oh yeah, the wheels were a mess, the wheel wells were downright nasty, and the interior was clean but too darn shiny (stupid dealership dressing). No interior pix at this time but I can get some if you really, really need to see 'em - but you guys sorta know what a Cobalt interior looks like, huh? Oddly enough, the engine bay was pristine - go figure.
So here's the result after waaaaaay too many hours of work:
Clean wheels and red calipers set off the whole package:
Gee, did I mention we had the windows tinted too?
All clean and shiny:
But here's the real test - this is that same roof area just over the passenger door, still in direct sunlight. A couple of minor RIDS here and there but some are deep enough that I'm not about lose any sleep over 'em:
That nasty hood, again in direct sunlight, again with the odd RIDS here and there. Hey, it's a daily driver used Cobalt, not a Pebble Beach winning Pre-War Alfa Romeo!!
I'll probably tweak it here and there over the next few weeks, but all in all it's not a bad turnaround for a neglected ride.
Anyway, I'm glad to be here and looking forward to learning more about this car, and getting to know some of you better along the way.
In any event, we recently sold my wife's 1992 Camaro RS to her brother as a first car for our nephew. By the way, she was the original of that '92 RS and it only had 85,000 miles on it. That meant we needed to replace it and ultimately the replacement vehicle was totally up to my wife. Well, not totally - I did have some say in the deal. This is the first used car I've bought in quite some time and I'd forgotten that most people consider a car to be just another appliance and they really don't take very good care of the finish. In our search we found some cars that actually needed a full repaint even though the interior, engine etc were in very good condition. This includes one Chrysler sedan who's paint looked as though it had tried to keep up with a group of Jeep guys running through the scrub brush!!
So anyway, my wife falls for this Victory Red 2008 Cobalt LT that's in great shape, is a Certified Pre-Owned car so we get an extended warranty, and the dealer was willing to deal - after I started to walk out. Twice.
But the paint... oh, the poor, poor paint. And to think this was actually one of the better finishes we came across in our search. Just sad. Horrible swirls, scratches, some holograms, everything. How do you rotary buff a car to the point of inflicting holograms yet you still don't pull out the swirls? :dunno So here's what we started with:
This is the trunk lid at the base of the rear window:
Here's the hood:
Roof just above the passenger door:
Another hood shot, this time with the Swirl Finder light as a light source, with the same nasty swirls plus a big ol' scuff/scratch thrown in for good measure:
And the rear 1/4 panel showing horrible swirls and some random scratches:
So I started out with a gentle approach to see where it would get me - my trusty D/A buffer and a good quality paint cleaner. Nothing. I tried to get more aggressive with this machine but the paint was surprisingly hard and the defects really, really severe. I ended up stepping to my Makita rotary and going hard core on the thing. I also decided to strip the factory door guards off (ugly things they were, too) and my wife liked the look of the painted calipers on my car so I did those too, and threw in some Cobalt decals to finish it off. Oh yeah, the wheels were a mess, the wheel wells were downright nasty, and the interior was clean but too darn shiny (stupid dealership dressing). No interior pix at this time but I can get some if you really, really need to see 'em - but you guys sorta know what a Cobalt interior looks like, huh? Oddly enough, the engine bay was pristine - go figure.
So here's the result after waaaaaay too many hours of work:
Clean wheels and red calipers set off the whole package:
Gee, did I mention we had the windows tinted too?
All clean and shiny:
But here's the real test - this is that same roof area just over the passenger door, still in direct sunlight. A couple of minor RIDS here and there but some are deep enough that I'm not about lose any sleep over 'em:
That nasty hood, again in direct sunlight, again with the odd RIDS here and there. Hey, it's a daily driver used Cobalt, not a Pebble Beach winning Pre-War Alfa Romeo!!
I'll probably tweak it here and there over the next few weeks, but all in all it's not a bad turnaround for a neglected ride.
Anyway, I'm glad to be here and looking forward to learning more about this car, and getting to know some of you better along the way.
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From: Huntington, Texas
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Joined: 05-08-09
Posts: 13
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From: Trabuco Canyon, CA
Thanks for the welcome guys, and just so you know.... I am NOT here to compete with anyone detailing wise. Yeah, I work for Meguiar's and can hold my own with both D/A and rotary buffers, and I do like to show my "after" pictures in full sun with some close ups rather than just nicely shaded overview shots - anything looks good under those conditions, but direct sunlight doesn't lie.
I've been lucky to get my hands on some really nice cars in some very interesting settings - I've helped prep 45 cars in one day for SEMA (yeah, that was fun) as well as prep some Ferraris, Porsches, Audis, and Bentleys for an auto fashion show hosted by CEC Wheels at SEMA in 2007. I was also involved in the Alpine Electronics CES custom boat and tow vehicle project a couple of years ago (there's a huge thread on this over at meguiarsonline.com). I've even had the chance to work on some museum cars, which is interesting. I basically get paid to have fun, which ain't bad work if you can get it!
I've been lucky to get my hands on some really nice cars in some very interesting settings - I've helped prep 45 cars in one day for SEMA (yeah, that was fun) as well as prep some Ferraris, Porsches, Audis, and Bentleys for an auto fashion show hosted by CEC Wheels at SEMA in 2007. I was also involved in the Alpine Electronics CES custom boat and tow vehicle project a couple of years ago (there's a huge thread on this over at meguiarsonline.com). I've even had the chance to work on some museum cars, which is interesting. I basically get paid to have fun, which ain't bad work if you can get it!
Senior Member
Joined: 12-28-05
Posts: 3,443
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From: Birmingham, Alabama
Thanks for the welcome guys, and just so you know.... I am NOT here to compete with anyone detailing wise. Yeah, I work for Meguiar's and can hold my own with both D/A and rotary buffers, and I do like to show my "after" pictures in full sun with some close ups rather than just nicely shaded overview shots - anything looks good under those conditions, but direct sunlight doesn't lie.
I've been lucky to get my hands on some really nice cars in some very interesting settings - I've helped prep 45 cars in one day for SEMA (yeah, that was fun) as well as prep some Ferraris, Porsches, Audis, and Bentleys for an auto fashion show hosted by CEC Wheels at SEMA in 2007. I was also involved in the Alpine Electronics CES custom boat and tow vehicle project a couple of years ago (there's a huge thread on this over at meguiarsonline.com). I've even had the chance to work on some museum cars, which is interesting. I basically get paid to have fun, which ain't bad work if you can get it!
I've been lucky to get my hands on some really nice cars in some very interesting settings - I've helped prep 45 cars in one day for SEMA (yeah, that was fun) as well as prep some Ferraris, Porsches, Audis, and Bentleys for an auto fashion show hosted by CEC Wheels at SEMA in 2007. I was also involved in the Alpine Electronics CES custom boat and tow vehicle project a couple of years ago (there's a huge thread on this over at meguiarsonline.com). I've even had the chance to work on some museum cars, which is interesting. I basically get paid to have fun, which ain't bad work if you can get it!
Senior Member
Joined: 03-04-08
Posts: 3,672
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From: Mo Val, CA
welcome man..yes another socal member haha....so when u going to detail my car lol...oh and dont 4get to check out our meet coming up this sunday...HERE which would be great so u can meet alot of us socal dudes lol...
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Joined: 06-15-08
Posts: 4,339
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From: Maple Ridge, B.C Canada
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