# Smokey and the Bandit



## AspDet (Mar 10, 2010)

OK, so this wasn't the exact car used in the movie but it is close enough that I considered growing out a Burt Reynolds mustache in honor of having it in my shop.

To be exact, it is 1979 Firebird Trans Am, modified up to a 455 cubic inch power plant with roller cams and Edelbrock headers among other things. It is a beast!

While there was a great deal of positive aspects about the car, the paintwork was absolutely atrocious. As you will see from the pictures, it was hacked beyond belief with swirls and RIDS everywhere. The car had been sitting in the owner's shop and had basically been ignored for years. He is beginning to clean it up, although it won't be a full restore by any means. As such, he was interested in me just 'cleaning it up a bit'. Of course, on a black car with paint that is 30 years old, that would not be a walk in the park.

As for the correction, I started with a rotary, Menz SIP, and an orange uber pad. The paint was fairly soft and lots of progress was made using this method. I later switched the orange pad out for a green polishing pad, as the orange was leaving a huge amount of marring and holos behind. I tried finishing down with 106fa on a rotary, but still had marring and holos left over. I switched to the Flex DA at this point, took it slow, and still ended up with the issues. As I was starting to pull my hair out that things weren't finishing down nicely, I tried po85rd and a blue uber on the Flex. This and many IPA wipes (the paint really soaked up the polishing oils) finally yielded an acceptable finish, although not perfect.

*Edit: Some have correctly noticed and pointed out what appears to be polish residue along some trim pieces and body lines. Initially attacking this with degreaser removed some of the white stuff, but going after the remainder yielded little results. I tried varying levels of degreasers, clay, and 3M GPAR etc...but a great deal of the white stuff was really on there. My best guess is that the remainder is actually some type of primer coat. I say this because in a lot of the white areas, there were chips in the paint where I could see the layers. In others, it seemed to be more of a fade through from the topcoat. Edit*

Although the correction could have gone deeper, the owner was happy with the result and it really did end up looking like a whole new car. Anyway, onto the pics.:bla2:

Car was foamed with CG CW and Dawn. It was hit with the 2BM and an equally aggressive soap combo for a wash.








30 years of tire grime...








After an attack with a stiff brush and degreaser, the tires are black and the lettering white again. 








I was curious how much embedded iron would be in the paint, so I hit it with IronX and look what bled away!








Car was dried with the AirWand and then pulled into the shop for further inspection. Here is a shot of the mucked up front end.








More nasty looking paint








Glass was covered in water spotting, more on that later.








Hood shot, and you can see here that I have started to pull off all of the gold pinstriping as the owner wanted it redone (not by me thank God). Talk about time consuming! Used 3M GPAR and a lot of elbow grease to remove a majority of the adhesive and all of the striping. Any remaining adhesive came away during the correction stage.








This was probably about 60% of the pinstriping removed








You can see some of the pinstriping has been removed here, and the adhesive that was left behind. This was a complete PITA to remove.








Very gently went around all of the remaining decals on the car as there was 30 years of polish/wax/grime residue underneath. The owner was not planning on replacing the decals, so this was the best technique to clean up the edges.








Very subtle, but here is the difference before the (gentle) toothpick cleaning...








And after...








Onto the correction shots- enjoy!








before








after
















This shows on the left some of the bad marring left behind by the rotary on the soft paint. It also shows the correction.








Right side corrected, left side not.

















before








after








Here is what I had to deal with anywhere the car had pinstripes.








After a bit of polish work. 








Another 50/50








After finishing down the trunk








So, here is the final product before LSP (Menz Power Lock). It is much better, but not 100%. 
















So about those water spots...here is a before shot. I used DP High Performance Glass Restorer. Previously on the glass I had tried using Menz Power Gloss and SIP on an orange pad to remove the spotting, just to compare the two. DP was more effective and quicker. 








After DP...









Exhaust tips before...








After








Onto the finished product. Sorrry, sun was setting fast. Enjoy and thanks for reading!


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## recarouk (May 5, 2006)

awesome car. great work.

no interior shots?


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## Dixondmn (Oct 12, 2007)

Nice work. can't say i'm a fan of the car, but the movies were great!


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## AspDet (Mar 10, 2010)

The owner is going to redo most of the interior, so the most work I did inside was to clean the glass.



recarouk said:


> awesome car. great work.
> 
> no interior shots?


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## c16rkc (Apr 15, 2010)

Wow what a beast!!

Excellent results on a fantastic car!


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## Gruffs (Dec 10, 2007)

OOOOFFFFFFFFFF!


Great work

"There is no way, NO WAY you could have come from ma loins. When i get home, I'm gonna smack yo mamma in da mouth!"

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:


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## Bee (Jun 1, 2010)

great turnaround 
I love a good trans am


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## kakeuter (Nov 3, 2010)

Great work, that car was in really bad shape. Certainly couldn't have been a quick job.

-Kody-


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## e4n rs (Dec 2, 2010)

oh......oh........it da bandit!!!!!lol what an awesome job great finish and are'nt they a big beast too!!! well done mate


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## Beau Technique (Jun 21, 2010)

Coooooooooool as fap there kiddo:thumb:


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## RandomlySet (Jul 10, 2007)

stunning work there mate


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## johnnyguitar (Mar 24, 2010)

Tasty work - did you do what they say can't be done?


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## cotter (Aug 31, 2008)

Looking good!


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## Guest (Dec 7, 2010)

cool :thumb:


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## Mr_Scisco (Oct 22, 2009)

That was a real "tick turd" before. Quality post and nice work. I bet that thing makes some noise when it's fired up. :thumb:


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## col8482 (Jul 11, 2010)

Stunning :doublesho


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## Guest (Dec 7, 2010)

i had to post this.


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## Littler (Nov 8, 2010)

You got some great results!!


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## maxtherotti (Mar 2, 2009)

if only my old 78 ws6 looked that good:argie::argie::argie::argie:


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## "SkY" (Apr 21, 2009)

great:thumb:


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## AspDet (Mar 10, 2010)

Thanks. I stopped counting after about 25 hours of work.



kakeuter said:


> Great work, that car was in really bad shape. Certainly couldn't have been a quick job.
> 
> -Kody-


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## AspDet (Mar 10, 2010)

sorry, you'll have to be more specific...



johnnyguitar said:


> Tasty work - did you do what they say can't be done?


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## AspDet (Mar 10, 2010)

It can definitely wake up the neighbors (ask me how I know:thumb



Mr_Scisco said:


> That was a real "tick turd" before. Quality post and nice work. I bet that thing makes some noise when it's fired up. :thumb:


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## AspDet (Mar 10, 2010)

Nice!



swiftjon said:


> YouTube - Smokey and the Bandit Theme
> i had to post this.


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## AspDet (Mar 10, 2010)

Ha ha, that can be arranged...



maxtherotti said:


> if only my old 78 ws6 looked that good:argie::argie::argie::argie:


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## Scatty (Oct 1, 2010)

what a monster !! nice job !!


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## mk2jon (Mar 10, 2009)

Snowman!!!
You got your ears on?

That is a cool car :thumb: Very nice job :buffer:


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## Summit Detailing (Oct 9, 2006)

What a cool car, properly old skool

Super job by the way.

For some reason I wasn't expecting to see that exhaust...thinking it would be a dual or even quad centre exit.


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## paulmc08 (Feb 3, 2009)

Good job fella a big improvement

this is not a criticism,but on the passenger side shot is there polish residue along the edge of the window rubber,and round some of the wing mirror,if i'm wrong then my apologie's :thumb:


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## AspDet (Mar 10, 2010)

Thanks! AFAIK that is the stock look for gas exit on this car. It does have dual tips on each side, btw.



Chris_VRS said:


> What a cool car, properly old skool
> 
> Super job by the way.
> 
> For some reason I wasn't expecting to see that exhaust...thinking it would be a dual or even quad centre exit.


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## AspDet (Mar 10, 2010)

No, you are dead on. Nice spot, I added a blurb to the intro text, check it out. :thumb:



paulmc08 said:


> Good job fella a big improvement
> 
> this is not a criticism,but on the passenger side shot is there polish residue along the edge of the window rubber,and round some of the wing mirror,if i'm wrong then my apologie's :thumb:


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## paulmc08 (Feb 3, 2009)

AspDet said:


> No, you are dead on. Nice spot, I added a blurb to the intro text, check it out. :thumb:


No problem fella:thumb:

somtime's if i come across somthing like that i would use a ****tail stick very lightly,and if that dont shift it i would use a little touch up paint


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## colarado red (Jun 5, 2008)

Stunning.Loved these when I was a kid.


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## paulmc08 (Feb 3, 2009)

paulmc08 said:


> No problem fella:thumb:
> 
> somtime's if i come across somthing like that i would use a ****tail stick very lightly,and if that dont shift it i would use a little touch up paint


oop's forgot to say,great job on the decals with the ****tail stick,and your correct such a small detail can make a massive improvement


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## horned yo (Feb 10, 2009)

stunning


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## maxtherotti (Mar 2, 2009)

AspDet said:


> Ha ha, that can be arranged...


doubt it fella it went to the scrap yard in the sky about 10 years ago after the chap i sold it too stripped it for the engine and trans

went well in a straight line thats for sure:thumb:
had a 440 hemi in it when i got it over the stock 400ci pontiac lump (unknown to me when i purchased it unseen) sold it for double what i paid for it tho so not all bad lol


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## Planet Man (Apr 12, 2008)

Great stuff. Nice to see some original cars about.

Top work:thumb:


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## AspDet (Mar 10, 2010)

Well in that case, R.I.P.



maxtherotti said:


> doubt it fella it went to the scrap yard in the sky about 10 years ago after the chap i sold it too stripped it for the engine and trans
> 
> went well in a straight line thats for sure:thumb:
> had a 440 hemi in it when i got it over the stock 400ci pontiac lump (unknown to me when i purchased it unseen) sold it for double what i paid for it tho so not all bad lol


Outstanding!


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## SeanyBean (Sep 24, 2010)

wow that looks so much better


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## AspDet (Mar 10, 2010)

Thanks!



SeanyBean said:


> wow that looks so much better


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## littlejack (Jun 11, 2008)

Great work!!!! Wouldn't like to put fuel in that


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## AspDet (Mar 10, 2010)

Yes it is a very thirsty car!:driver:



littlejack said:


> Great work!!!! Wouldn't like to put fuel in that


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## burnt-toast (Oct 31, 2010)

that is a beast of a car, great job with the detail of it, tlc went a long way


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## littlejack (Jun 11, 2008)

AspDet said:


> Yes it is a very thirsty car!:driver:


Still want one though


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## AspDet (Mar 10, 2010)

Wouldn't mind having one in the stable myself.



littlejack said:


> Still want one though


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## sargent (Aug 25, 2009)

looks incredible
well done


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## Marc1 (Apr 8, 2010)

Well done, great car.


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## DarrenSTI (Apr 30, 2008)

You've done an awesome job on that. Black always shines up best.

I've also had the pleasure of detailing one of these as my Dad owns one. I done the full correction detail on it, so had to mask up all the gold decals, 1 1/2 rolls of masking tape later it was done lol.

I'll show him these pics later, but he'll want me to say "Hi" to you I'm sure.

Excellent work:thumb:


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## Guest (Dec 10, 2010)

the finished article looks great, nice work :thumb: how did you find working around the remaning decals?


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## Fat Audi 80 (Nov 8, 2006)

Gruffs said:


> OOOOFFFFFFFFFF!
> 
> Great work
> 
> ...


Brilliant, post number 6 and a quote from the film! :lol:

Gimme ahhh, diablo sandwich, and make it fast, I'm in a god damn hurry! :driver:

Nice detail btw. :wave:


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## AspDet (Mar 10, 2010)

Thanks. Decal on the hood was in the worst shape with some parts of the edges coming up. Tried to reduce their ability to hold polish/sealant residue by gently trimming them with an x-acto knife (did not touch the paint!) and otherwise making sure to immediately remove any polish/sealant residue. Also, only fine polish and sealant was machined over them. Decals on the B pillars were in much better shape edge-wise so no trimming but similar technique used.



capri kid said:


> the finished article looks great, nice work :thumb: how did you find working around the remaning decals?


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## AspDet (Mar 10, 2010)

Very cool! Original paint on that as well?



DarrenSTI said:


> You've done an awesome job on that. Black always shines up best.
> 
> I've also had the pleasure of detailing one of these as my Dad owns one. I done the full correction detail on it, so had to mask up all the gold decals, 1 1/2 rolls of masking tape later it was done lol.
> 
> ...


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## chopperreid (May 22, 2010)

Looks awesome. I spent ages trying to get a '78, but could never get one to suit.


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## details (May 13, 2009)

Deputy T justice! JUNIOR...................


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## K3Ks (Feb 16, 2010)

very nice work!

You should give the "Water Spot Remover" from Chemical Guys a try.
One of the best thingies I've found yet to get really hard stuff ou of the glass ...


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## AspDet (Mar 10, 2010)

Thanks. I can never find that product on their website but have heard good things about it. Perhaps you would be kind enough to reply with the link?
Actually was quite happy with the DP product.



K3Ks said:


> very nice work!
> 
> You should give the "Water Spot Remover" from Chemical Guys a try.
> One of the best thingies I've found yet to get really hard stuff ou of the glass ...


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## acprc (Jun 14, 2009)

AspDet said:


> Thanks. I can never find that product on their website but have heard good things about it. Perhaps you would be kind enough to reply with the link?
> Actually was quite happy with the DP product.


http://www.chemicalguys.com/Window_Cleaner_Glass_Cleaner_for_Clean_Windows_p/cld_677_16.htm


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## DarrenSTI (Apr 30, 2008)

AspDet said:


> Very cool! Original paint on that as well?


I believe it had a respray when it came over from Cali, using a wet-sand (making the paint extra super smooth), it looks very deep and wet when it freshly waxed.


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## Sveneng (Apr 20, 2008)

Beautiful!


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