This 1961 Corvette was the customer’s family heirloom and was in need of some serious attention. Having been restored approximately sixteen years prior, the paint showed significant marring, swirls and light scratches from numerous improper wipe-downs and buffing. While the overall design and heritage of this car made it beautiful even before detailing, a proper multi-stage paint correction would make it truly stunning.
Note how the marring significantly dulls the paint’s color and reflection in these before pictures:
Given the severity of the marring we decided to shoot for an 80+% correction rate to improve the gloss, depth and reflectivity of the paint while not going for perfection since the owner isn’t obsessive about keeping the paint in pristine condition. Given the age of this car I used ONR to wash, making sure to keep excessive water out of all cracks or crevices. The paintwork was then clayed, all trim was taped off and I began identifying areas of the body where gaps and edges didn’t align. Where panel heights differed I taped off edges and corrected one area, then taped the corrected area and moved onto a new panel to ensure that the edges were protected from over buffing. Correction was performed using the Rupes 21 & 75E polishers, with Optimum’s MF cutting pads and a M101/D300 mix used for compounding work, followed by two stages of finishing via Lake Country polishing and finishing pads with HD Polish. Protection was provided by two coats of DoDo Juice Supernatural.
Some pics during the correction process:
Afters:
