# Double Trouble Detailing Projects - 1947 Buick & 1955 Chevy



## Mike Phillips (Jan 26, 2007)

*Double Trouble Detailing Projects - 1947 Buick & 1955 Chevy*

This Thursday night we're tackling two cars at the same time...

*Mike Gelter's 1947 Buick Special Slantback Sedan!*

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I have not seen this car in person but the normal condition is filled with swirls and in dire need of decontamination.

*1947 Buick Special Slantback Sedan*
350 Chevy Small Block Engine.
Turbo 350 Automatic Transmission.
Camaro subframe with power steering and brakes.
Brand new air conditioning, heat and defrost.
Stereo.
Mooneyes gauges.
Dynamat throughout the car.
Flowmaster exhaust.
Custom interior.
Factory fresh air vents.
New gas tank.
Ready to hit the highway.
Great everyday driver.
Runs cool too.

_*And Mike Searl's 1955 Chevy Sedan Delivery...*_














































We're using SONAX on the 1955 Chevy with Dodo Juice Diamond White Hard Wax, haven't decided what to use on the way-cool Buick yet...

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## Mike Phillips (Jan 26, 2007)

1955 Chevy & 1947 Buick Slantback - Show Car Makeover! - Pictures & Videos 

*Mike Searle's 1955 Chevy Sedan Delivery*

Right after Mike arrived we did a Test Spot on the driver's side fender. While most people would look at Mike's 1955 Chevy and think the paint looks GREAT in reality, the paint was completely stained with embedded dirt.

The thing is you can't see the dirt until you buff on a section to remove it. MORE IMPORTANT is it's really only easy to see embedded dirt on WHITE CARS.

But think about it... if the paint on Mike's hot rod has embedded dirt and you can see it... don't you think all colors of car paint gets dirty BUT YOU CAN'T SEE IT?

The answer is YES and that's why periodically, especially if your car is a DAILY DRIVER, besides claying the paint you want and NEED to use some type of paint cleaner to remove the embedded dirt. If you don't remove it, then when you wax you simply seal the dirt into the paint.

The more time that goes by and the more you just wax the paint, the cloudier and cloudier it will get as you continually seal in more and more dirt.

Make sense?

Now let's take a look. Here's Mike's car and in this picture it can be kind of hard to see where I buffed on the top of the front driver's side fender.










It's still hard to see the before and after difference, but for reference, I've taken the same picture above and placed an arrow pointing to the tape-line where I buffed on the front edge of the fender and left the back side of the fender along.










Now look... see what I mean by embedded dirt on and to some level, "in" the paint.










By machine polishing the paint with a high quality compound, polish or pre-wax paint cleaner, you will effectively remove the embedded dirt and restore the *TRUE color* of the paint.

*In this case we're working on a basecoat/clearcoat finish so the dirt is embedded onto and into the clear layer of paint create a dirty cloudy film that blocks your eyes from seeing the true white pigmented color under the clear layer. *

*Robert Diterlizzi* shared the way he explains clear coats to his customers and I really like his explanation so I'm sharing it here and giving him credit for it...

_*"The clear coat is like a window to the basecoat"*_

By that he means in order to see the true color of the basecoat the window, or in specific words, the clear coat needs to be clear. By clear, we mean free from any,


*Above surface bonded contaminants*
*Embedded dirt*
*Swirls and scratches*
All of the above work to cloud your view to the color under the clear layer of paint. So in a way, the clear coat, that is the clear layer of paint over the basecoat is like a window to the basecoat. If you want your car to look great you need to clean and polish the window covering your car's body panels.

By the time we finished buffing out both the 1955 Chevy and the 1947 Buick the colors of the paint jobs literally changed before our eyes.

Besides changing to BRIGHTER white color, we also restored SMOOTHNESS to the finish and *GLOSS COMES FROM SMOOTHNESS*.

This why in the after pictures, you will see amazing gloss and shine.

Before I start posting the process pictures followed by the after pictures, first I would like to thank a few people....

First, I'd like to _*thank*_ Mike Searl and Mike Gelter for *TRUSTING* Autogeek with their hot rods. One of the hardest obstacles detailers find difficult to overcome is to earn the trust of people that own cool cars so that they can "touch" them. And by the word "touch" I mean detail them.

*So thank you Mike and Mike for trusting Autogeek.*

Next I'd like to thank my team of incredibly hard working, talented and passionate "Car Guys". These projects are not only a lot of physical work but there's a certain level of mental work that goes into them because you MUST be focused on the task at hand so mistakes are not made.

Some of the guys left early so they're not in the below picture but you know I appreciate all your hard work too....

*So thanks guys!*










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## Mike Phillips (Jan 26, 2007)

So you can see above how Mike's 1955 Chevy might look good to the average person but in reality it was in dire need of some paint cleaning and polishing.

Now let's take a look at Mike Gelter's 1947 Buick Slantback....

Here's a few shots before we wipe her down and start removing the overspray paint and overspray undercoating. While in these shots, to most people the paint looks really good.

The reality is, the paint is covered in overspray paint and undercoating and as rough as the pavement in the parking lot. The paint is also dirty with embedded dirt just like Mike's 1955 Chevy. So while it looks good to some in the pictures below, the paint on this car is going to go through an amazing transformation.

The white pearl blue paint job is going to change to a brighter white and the gloss is going to skyrocket!

*BEFORE*




























More to come....

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## Mike Phillips (Jan 26, 2007)

First, here's the products we used to transform these two classic hot rods...

Keep in mind, you don't have to own a classic hot rod to get these same kind of results, the key to show car results comes down to quality product and good technique. That means no matter what it is parked in your garage or driveway, if you use these products with good techniques you'll get the same great results and Autogeek carries all of these products.










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## Mike Phillips (Jan 26, 2007)

Here's the after shots... note this is the first time I've used my new Canon Rebel T5i for a Thursday class. It's a little different than the T1i I've been using the last 4 years and I still need to do some tweaking of the settings for the lighting in the garage...

















































































































































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