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1969 Camaro Z/27 Rally Sport. I've been itching to detail this car since my customer bought it off a dentist (who was going through a divorce) back in 2005. The car is a numbers matching (with the original DZ302 engine) car and the interior is original. It also has the optional chambered exhaust, which instead of mufflers, has crimps in the pipes about 18" apart all the way down the exhaust.
The car had been repainted and since it was not the correct Hugger Orange, my customer sent the car to be painted. The car had no rust (I believe it is an original Texas car) and needed very minimal work to be made perfectly straight. Unfortunately, the shop doing the work was taking in money from new customers to finish the cars already in the shop and my customer happened to show up the day the county Marshall's office was raiding the shop. He was able to get the car out that day. The body work had been done, the exterior primered and the door/trunk jambs painted, along with the engine bay.
Off to House of Hot Rods in Mansfield (TX) to be finished. Eventually. The shop appears to do top quality work but it takes them forever. The owner of the Z/28 decided to have the engine gone through while the car was down having the paint job finished and by late 2007, the shop called and told him the car was ready. He picks up the car, and 3 miles from the shop, the engine throws a rod. Turns out whoever built the engine (not sure if it was House of Hot Rods or they farmed it out) left off a rod bolt. How is that even possible to miss something like that? Anyway, the block wasn't ruined so it was gone through a second time and was back at the shop in November of last year. No idea why the engine wasn't put in until March and it then took another 8 months to finish what little else the car needed. The owner of the car is obviously a bit PO'ed at how long it took to get the car.
He called me yesterday to confirm he had the car and wanted me to come out and clean it up. I wasn't sure what to expect when I saw the car since I had no idea how well the shop buffs out paint. Well, now I do. They definitely have someone there who knows what they are doing. Zero rotary swirls and only very minimal spider swirls plus some light marring on the trunk lid. The quality of the paint job itself is superb. Other than some minor orange peel on the right front fender (may have been marred up during the engine installs and reshot), the paint is pretty close to perfect. Door and trunk jambs look superb as well. If the owner decides to sell the car, he's going to have me wetsand the right front fender (could be the difference between a #1 and a #2 car), otherwise for now he will live with it seeing as he didn't even notice it until I pointed it out and even then it didn't seem to bother him.
I went over the car with my G110, Meguiars yellow polishing pad and #205 and it cleaned it up very nicely. I then applied a coat of Optimum Opti-Seal followed 30 minutes later by a coat of Optimum Car Wax. The bumpers were polished with Optimum Metal Polish.
You'd think after waiting 4 years to detail this car, I would have charged the battery in my camera (especially after noticing yesterday it was getting low on juice), but you'd be wrong.
I got all the pictures possible before my camera died.
The engine bay needed nothing but a quick wipe-down.
The interior just needed vacuuming and wipe-down. Had to take this picture with my camera phone.
The car had been repainted and since it was not the correct Hugger Orange, my customer sent the car to be painted. The car had no rust (I believe it is an original Texas car) and needed very minimal work to be made perfectly straight. Unfortunately, the shop doing the work was taking in money from new customers to finish the cars already in the shop and my customer happened to show up the day the county Marshall's office was raiding the shop. He was able to get the car out that day. The body work had been done, the exterior primered and the door/trunk jambs painted, along with the engine bay.
Off to House of Hot Rods in Mansfield (TX) to be finished. Eventually. The shop appears to do top quality work but it takes them forever. The owner of the Z/28 decided to have the engine gone through while the car was down having the paint job finished and by late 2007, the shop called and told him the car was ready. He picks up the car, and 3 miles from the shop, the engine throws a rod. Turns out whoever built the engine (not sure if it was House of Hot Rods or they farmed it out) left off a rod bolt. How is that even possible to miss something like that? Anyway, the block wasn't ruined so it was gone through a second time and was back at the shop in November of last year. No idea why the engine wasn't put in until March and it then took another 8 months to finish what little else the car needed. The owner of the car is obviously a bit PO'ed at how long it took to get the car.
He called me yesterday to confirm he had the car and wanted me to come out and clean it up. I wasn't sure what to expect when I saw the car since I had no idea how well the shop buffs out paint. Well, now I do. They definitely have someone there who knows what they are doing. Zero rotary swirls and only very minimal spider swirls plus some light marring on the trunk lid. The quality of the paint job itself is superb. Other than some minor orange peel on the right front fender (may have been marred up during the engine installs and reshot), the paint is pretty close to perfect. Door and trunk jambs look superb as well. If the owner decides to sell the car, he's going to have me wetsand the right front fender (could be the difference between a #1 and a #2 car), otherwise for now he will live with it seeing as he didn't even notice it until I pointed it out and even then it didn't seem to bother him.
I went over the car with my G110, Meguiars yellow polishing pad and #205 and it cleaned it up very nicely. I then applied a coat of Optimum Opti-Seal followed 30 minutes later by a coat of Optimum Car Wax. The bumpers were polished with Optimum Metal Polish.
You'd think after waiting 4 years to detail this car, I would have charged the battery in my camera (especially after noticing yesterday it was getting low on juice), but you'd be wrong.
I got all the pictures possible before my camera died. The engine bay needed nothing but a quick wipe-down.
The interior just needed vacuuming and wipe-down. Had to take this picture with my camera phone.
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