This vehicle belongs to a good friend, he purchased the vehicle and restored and stayed some what within budgets :giggle: I don’t have pictures of how the vehicle looked like before the restoration but I was quite impressed with the work put into this vehicle, you’ll see what I mean shortly. Well the vehicle was brought to me to bring it back to life. You see my friend had the front portion of the vehicle repainted, more then 60% of the vehicle is factory paint and it’s single stage paint. Well the vehicle is a: 1970 Mach 1 Mustang Here is the vehicle upon arrival: We’ve been getting a bit of rain the past few days, so the lower panels got a bit dirty. This is going to take some time to restore. Some lovely tar spots. Like I said, the entire front end was repainted, the rest of the body does not match the front though, but that’s where I come in :thumb: The engine bay was very, very impressive. Everything looked like new, I assumed that’s where most of the funds were dedicated. Well after I was done admiring the vehicle it was time to get to work, first up the vehicle was washed via ONR and two bucket method: Followed up with Yellow Riccardo Clay: This is jus a small area I clayed, the surface felt like sand paper, so much contamination on this vehicle. It took an entire bar of Riccardo to clay this vehicle. Next it was time to take some paint gauge readings, for this I used my PosiTector 6000: I took quite a bit of readings on this car as there were some signs of thin paint all over the vehicle, more so on edges. Edges were extremely thin. With the help of my 3M Sun Gun I proceeded to inspect the vehicle: Here is what I was up against: Some deep scratches on this panel. The newly painted areas needed only minor correction: As seen on the pictures the vehicle was taped up as much as possible so avoid any further damage to the paint. Now to find a suitable polish and pad combo. As some of you may know single stage paint for the most part is quite easy to correct, so I decided to start off with Menzerna Intensive Polish partnered up with a Black 3M UK Polishing pad: Now to see how this combo stacked up against all the oxidation/imperfections on the vehicle, before: Now how can you tell if it’s single stage paint, easy: Paint gets transferred over to your foam pads. After, with just one pass of Menzerna intensive Polish: This combo delivered acceptable results so for the most part this combo was used but there were a few deep scratches that required a more aggressive combo, for this I settled on: This combo removed a significant amount of paint on the vehicle, so it was used only where required. Nice thing about single stage paint is that results are drastic here is what I mean, before: After: Here are some 50/50: Like I said, very rewarding considering that was only one pass. Here is a before of the rest of the section: After: Now remember how I said I found the paint to be thin, well here is what I mean: The edge was very, very thin, so I taped up the area so I didn’t cause any more damage. I made a video to visually show what I’m referring to: http://www.detailingbliss.com/downloads/desktops/Thinedges.mov All tight areas were polished with: This vehicle turned out to be quite a challenge, as there were signs of thin paint through out all edges. Well that’s where experience and patience paid off, best part I was in no rush to get this vehicle done so I took my time, which helps tremendously. Well pressing on, the trunk area was polished the following way: There were some deep scratches on the trunk area. Here are some 50/50 of the trunk area: Now before I proceeded on polishing the rest of the trunk I found yet another area that cautioned me: Not only was the paint thin, the paint has faded away revealing the bare metal. Not that this would hinder me from polishing the area, I just taped it up like so: Leaving me with the following results: Driver side mirror before: After: Before: After: 50/50 of driver side rear quarter panel: Now back to the trunk area once again yet another thin area: Once again area was taped up: Tape sure came in handy for me on this vehicle. Now here was an opportunity to satisfy my curiosity. I’ve always been curious what exactly happens to Black matte paint when polished. Doest it go glossy? Is it as shiny as the rest of the vehicle? Well I finally have opportunity to answer all my curious questions. You see the rear of the trunk had some nice Black matte: I tape up the area to do a 50/50 comparison. Here is how the area looked before polishing, keep in mind there is lots of contamination/oxidation on the vehicle. Polished apply directly on to panel: Area was polished, tape removed and here is the end result: Well as you can see after removing the oxidation the colour is not only brought back to life but the black matte never really gets a shiny/glossy look to it. Now you might be wondering, how do you know it’s matte black paint. Well my pads confirmed it: So there you have it, if you polish a matte paint you’ll get some gloss but not as much as you would on traditional paint. Well one last door panel to polish and the correction process is complete. During the paint correction I used various foam pads and as I used them I kept brushing them off, removing polish building and in this case paint build up. Here is how the pads looked like: As I brushed off the pads, I let all the dust fall into a garbage can I had near by and this is how the garbage can looked like at the end: Lots of dust. Well with the correction process complete it was time to refine the finish. First I decide to go with Menzerna 85RD partnered up with another 3M UK Black Polishing pad: Here are the results this combo provided, before: After: Before: After: I tried getting a 50/50 of this combo and this is the best I could do: After the entire vehicle had been refined with the Black 3M UK Polishing pad, it was time to give the vehicle yet another pass with Menzerna 85RD partnered up with the Blue 3M UK Finishing pad. All this polishing was leaving quite a think layer of dust on the vehicle: Not that I was worried, I got my Zymol Duster out: With it I removed all the dust: The paint was given a final wipe down with Menzerna Final Top Inspection. Once that was done the first coat of Vintage was applied. Wile Vintage was left to bond it was time to concentrate on all the metal trim. For this I used Autosol with various yellow micro fiber towels. Here is a 50/50 picture of the chrome trim around the passenger door: Before: After: Before: After: Before: After: Even the center pillar was chrome, it too got polished, before: Well the chrome trim took quite a bit of time to complete but it was worth every effort as it changed the appearance of the vehicle, like they say hard work always pays off :thumb: Now there were area that I could not polish with my metabo due to tight space such as these: Such areas were done by hand. Almost forgot, even the rims required some Autosol. Before: After: The interior was given a steam bath: Wiped down with several yellow micro fiber towels. Glass was cleansed with Stoners Invisible Glass partnered up with a glass micro fiber towel. The interior was dressed with 303. Tires received a coat of Optimum Tire. At the end two coats of Vintage were applied, each coat left to cure for 24hrs and final wipe down with Zymol Field Glaze. All exterior plastic trim was treated with Black WOW. Engine bay was also dressed with 303. That just about completes this vehicle now for after pictures. Regrettably the weather was not co-operating, so no outside pictures :sorry: Well this concludes this detail, hope you enjoyed it. Now if your wondering how long this took, well the vehicle was dropped off on a Friday and was picked up on a Wendesday, so that's about six days. I didn't take full six days though, it was more like 48hrs, my friend was in no rush to get the vehicle back so I was able to take my time and do the job right :thumb:
You could use more pics in your next write up! lol I bet your friend was ecstatic, that was a great save! Your garage floor looks great! Did I miss the write up on it? How is it when wet?
:giggle: yea I went a little overboard with the pictures on this one, I just purchased a few lenses for my camera so I put them to good use Wait till you see the next write up :whistle: My friend was thrilled with the end results and said that he would bring me more vehicles that he's planning on purchasing :thumb: As for the garage floor, the floor is not slippery at all when wet I made sure of that. No write up just yet, I'm saving the garage to when I'm completely done...may take a few years to get it all done but it will be worth it :shrug:
A stunning machine and equally impressive work. Isn't single stage paint a joy to work on? What's less of a joy is cleaing your pads and MFs afterwards though...
:yikes: 30 minutes later I get to the end...:thud: Man you really saved that Beast, great job Nica and very informative.:applause: That thing has sharper edges then a 68 Stingray.:giggle:
I must say very very nice work my friend how long did it take you? An how many pads did you go thru lol?
Carlos..brings back memories seeing those stained pads!! Great job on the Stang.:applause: Maybe I missed it..what did you use along the bottoms of the doors? Again, great job!
Stunning work, Carlos! Car came out beautiful! That's one beautiful classic! Optimum tire looks nice on tires!
Man I loved seeing and reading this one. I just love older cars and the older muscle cars are the best. You did some fantastic work on this one. I also really love seeing the interior of a classic car that has actually shows some signs of use. I bet it even had that smell from cars of that era do after so long. I love that smell.
Amazing write up Carlos. I very much enjoyed the detailed step by step info particular the info about the matte black paint. What combo of pads did you use for the hand polish? also for the tight areas you used the 3M 3inch bp but with what pad? Is that menzerna?
Glad you enjoyed it Rocket eace: To be honest I don't know much about muscle cars but I enjoyed the curves on this vehicle. I enjoyed the engine bay though, it's old school and I used to tinker around on old school engine bay cars :thumb: Oh yes, single stage paint is wonderful to work with isn't it :roll: and yes cleaning up the pads is fun too :giggle: Glad you enjoyed it. Yea, I kinda went a little overboard with the pictures on this one...but I couldn't help it I'm using some new lenses, so I'm trying to get used to them. I went through quite a few foam pads, I honestly don't know exactly how many foam pads I went through but I just finished cleaning about 10 foam pads. I honestly don't keep track of exactly how long it takes me to detail a vehicle, my friend left the car for me to work on and take my time but it probably took me approximately 48hrs give or taek a few :shrug: Glad you enjoyed it richy eace: Yea, it's been a wile since I last polished a single stage paint vehicle...my pads sure didn't enjoy it though lol. The lower panels received Black WOW. Now from what I could see/feel the lower panels were metal, I tried Black WOW and it delivered the best results not to mention the only product that actually worked on this section....the only draw back is I don't know how long it will last. I told my friend to keep an eye on it for me and let me know how long it lasts. Thank you super, glad you enjoyed it. :nod: I'm happy with Optimum Tire but when I run Glad you enjoyed it billy and thank you for the feed back eace: Oh come on now :flirt: Glad you enjoyed it. Single stage paint makes for great 50/50 pictures :thumb: Like I said I honestly don't know much about muscle cars but I enjoyed my self detailing this one :thumb: Glad you enjoyed it Denzil eace: :nod: completely agree, great vehicle to detail, I had a good time :thumb: Glad you enjoyed it JL eace: The interior was quite neat to look at, the gauges were in good shape and the clock which, was on the passenger side looked great. Regardless, very nice interior :thumb:
I too found the matte part of this vehicle very informative and kinda what I expected at the same time..but it was good to prove it and physically see the difference made to the matte black area. As to the polished I used on the tight areas, I went with Menzerna Intensive Polish with a Tornado Buffing Towel. The small foam pads are called Ultamate foam pads, they too are from the UK. I have some Menzerna pads but they are 5inches in diameter and I didn't want to use them on this vehicle because I didn't wan to scarifies them...I only have a limited amount of Menzerna pads so I take good care of them....till I get my other batch of foam pads that is :whistle:
