DrEvyl

iTrader: (5)

Man... 2 days of buffing on the T/A and I'm beat. Wondering how long I can keep this up. I have almost all of the cutting done, gonna start in on the polishing tomorrow night... It looks a lot better, but still has A LOT of issues. I am not sure how I feel about showing it at this point, need to give it some thought. The rear bumper definitely will need paint for the car to be what I consider "showable", it has far too many issues... deep scratches, cracked paint, and the rear edge of the fender wells look like they've been sandblasted. And that clutch is getting worse and worse... I'm wondering if it's gonna hold out the rest of the month.

I'm almost thinking it might make more sense to just prep the Formula for the show and call it good... I think it's the only one of the three that actually stands a chance of winning, and even then I think it's a long shot. T/A, no way is it gonna even hit runner up... and without the T/A there, it doesn't make a lot of sense to bring the GTO.

I still have a couple more days to decide what I'm going to do.. but at this point I really dunno if I can pull this one off.

WAHUSKER

iTrader: (4)

It's a lot of work, huh Zeke? Most people really don't know just how much work it is to get a car to look "show quality". Especially if you race the car! But that's the glory (& drawback) of clear-coated cars. They are more resistant to paint damage, so you can abuse them & still clean them up. But once it gets past the clear-coat your screwed.

What are you using to remove the scratches? Zaino? Menzerna?

DrEvyl

iTrader: (5)

I'm using Menzerna, yeah. The issue isn't the method, it's my paint... it's pretty bad. I've managed to get most of it to where you won't see the scratches unless you're at the right angle or you get up real close and start looking...but they are pretty glaring when you do that.

The rear bumper is really beat up. I can count at least 5 spots just on the bumper with visible damage that is through the clear coat. Some that aren't are deep enough that they are pretty glaring, too.. I spent about an hour just doing the passenger side corner, and it's still not all that great.

One spot it's pretty clear that the previous owned backed into something, and there's three cracks about 6" long in the paint. Detailing it is just making them more obvious. It actually looks like the previous owner of this car had issues with the rearward visibility, and backed into things several times.

And like I said, the tail edge of the rear fender wells looks like the paint has been sandblasted. No amount of buffing is gonna make it even look good. Repainting it is really the only way I could improve it... and actually if I did repaint just that it would be a big improvement.

howierd42

I know GM had serious issues with their paint on the fourth gens. The horizontal surfaces tend to bubble and no ammount of buffing can get it out. There is a service letter for the issue but I don't remember all of the requirements. It includes the words "repaint for free" though. Might be worth checking into.

DrEvyl

iTrader: (5)

I don't have any issues with bubbling paint... everything that's wrong with the car is a result of an owner that didn't give enough of a **** about the car to take care of it.

DrEvyl

iTrader: (5)

Man, I would say it really doesn't look like I'm gonna make it... not because of the work, but because of the clutch on the WS6. It's pretty much toast, and it just getting worse and worse... I had a hard time even getting it parked last night.

I think I may just shine up the Formula and call it good.