Pictures & Comments - 1954 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 Convertible Extreme Makeover - May 21

[Mike Phillips]

Pictures & Comments - 1954 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 Convertible Extreme Makeover - May 21st, 2009


Bob just arrived with his beautiful 1954 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 convertible and we've taken some pictures to document the swirls and next up we're going to start doing some Test Spots to dial in a system to polish to perfection.

[Erik Mejia]

Re: Sign-up: 1954 Oldsmobile Extreme Makeover - Thursday Night, May 21st

Had a lot of fun Mike. It was a pleasure seeing you, and all the guys again. Hope to see you all again in a few.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Pictures & Comments - 1954 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 Convertible Extreme Makeover - Ma

Process Photos

We felt the paint and we could feel little bumps sporadically here and there so we went a head and clayed the paint and found a few contaminants which claying removed.



We used the rotary buffer on the hood to knock out the swirls and most of the more shallow RIDS.







Here's Mike aka C30-Mike taking a self-portrait shot...




We stayed on the safe side of aggressive using a W-7207 foam cutting pad with M105 for the rotary work.





For everything except the hood we used our W7207 Foam Cutting pad with Ultimate Compound on the 5.0 Speed Setting.

Note that we tested the W7207 with the Ultimate Compound first and made sure we were getting GREAT results before using this cutting pad over the entire car.







Here's Bob the owner working some SwirlX on the outside rear driver's fender. Behind him are the usual suspects.



Here's Andrew aka andrewc_11890 on the forum doing some final polishing work...





Here's Erik aka Erik Mejia demonstrating the proper position to tackle lower panels.






Here's Jim using the Brinkman Swirl Finder Light to inspect his progress...







Here's Maserati Mario and Ryan L. applying some Tech Wax to the front clip...







Here's Andrew applying NXT Tech Wax to the rear trunk lid...



Here's ARTHUR working on the rear fender...






Erik applying wax with the G110





Here's ClearlyCoated and Maserati Mario talking about the old days as they gently remove the dried wax...





Here's Art helping us to remove the wax and wipe the car completely down...







Paul aka the other pc uses a brush to remove some dust and wax residue from some trim...



Here's Paul removing a wax smudge we couldn't see under garage lighting...

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Pictures & Comments - 1954 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 Convertible Extreme Makeover - Ma

Here's a few after pictures...















Here's our Transformation Team!

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: Pictures & Comments - 1954 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 Convertible Extreme Makeover - Ma

looks fantastic. Great work guys.

Notice on the speedometer, the gear range. From the left it is N Dr. S Lg R.

No P for park at all. It would be confusing at first. lol

[ClearlyCoated]

Re: Pictures & Comments - 1954 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 Convertible Extreme Makeover - Ma

The guys in the front row did most of the work. I was asked to step into the picture to fill a missing back row space for balancing out the photo!

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Pictures & Comments - 1954 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 Convertible Extreme Makeover - Ma

Fun shots...

[Tuck91]

Re: Pictures & Comments - 1954 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 Convertible Extreme Makeover - Ma

very cool,

what was the process/products used.

I saw some SwirlX in the "during" pictures.

Were SMAT or DAT products used?

again, looks great!

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Pictures & Comments - 1954 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 Convertible Extreme Makeover - Ma

what was the process/products used.

I saw some SwirlX in the "during" pictures.

Were SMAT or DAT products used?

again, looks great!

We followed Meguiar's philosophy of using the least aggressive product to get the job done while doing our test spots, so we tried,

SwirlX with a W9702 Finishing pad - Removed light swirls but left too many of the deeper swirls.

SwirlX with a W8702 Polishing pad - Removed more swirls than the finishing pad but still not working fast enough or effectively enough.

Tried Ultimate Compound with the W8207 Polishing Pad and saw a huge improvement in swirl removal.

Next we tested our W7207 Cutting pad and inspected for swirl removal and quality of finish left behind and both were stellar so after first testing all our options we proved the Ultimate Compound with a W7207 Foam Cutting pad on our G110 on the 5.0 Speed Setting produced the best results so that's how the paint was tackled for the first step.

After the compounding step we re-polished each square inch using SwirlX with our W9207 Foam Finishing Pad and then after that applied one coat of NXT Tech Wax using a new, dedicated pad for waxing.

• We kept it simple.
• We tested thoroughly before choosing an approach
• Our end results mimicked the results from our Test Spot

[Tuck91]

Re: Pictures & Comments - 1954 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 Convertible Extreme Makeover - Ma

We followed Meguiar's philosophy of using the least aggressive product to get the job done while doing our test spots, so we tried,

SwirlX with a W9702 Finishing pad - Removed light swirls but left too many of the deeper swirls.

SwirlX with a W8702 Polishing pad - Removed more swirls than the finishing pad but still not working fast enough or effectively enough.

Tried Ultimate Compound with the W8207 Polishing Pad and saw a huge improvement in swirl removal.

Next we tested our W7207 Cutting pad and inspected for swirl removal and quality of finish left behind and both were stellar so after first testing all our options we proved the Ultimate Compound with a W7207 Foam Cutting pad on our G110 on the 5.0 Speed Setting produced the best results so that's how the paint was tackled for the first step.

After the compounding step we re-polished each square inch using SwirlX with our W9207 Foam Finishing Pad and then after that applied one coat of NXT Tech Wax using a new, dedicated pad for waxing.

• We kept it simple.
• We tested thoroughly before choosing an approach
• Our end results mimicked the results from our Test Spot

and mostly done will all consumer line products available at the store

[Maserati Mario]

Re: Pictures & Comments - 1954 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 Convertible Extreme Makeover - Ma

As usual, we all had a great time!
THANKS MEGUIAR'S for opening up your garage for us!
After a hard days work I was very tired and was not in the mood for another car, but this was a pleasure to work on and my dreams were full of TNOG again!
Thanks again Meguiar's

[john m.]

Re: Pictures & Comments - 1954 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 Convertible Extreme Makeover - Ma

Awesome job guys! car looks great! I really like how so many consumer products were used, it really shows what can be done Yall need to place an alternate headquarters in Dallas so I can make some of these

[akimel]

Re: Pictures & Comments - 1954 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 Convertible Extreme Makeover - Ma

Shazam!

Instructive write-up and outstanding results. Thank you for sharing this.

[Andrew C.]

Re: Pictures & Comments - 1954 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 Convertible Extreme Makeover - Ma

It was a ton of fun! Thanks again Mike for setting up such a cool night

[xerxesdiego]

Re: Pictures & Comments - 1954 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 Convertible Extreme Makeover - Ma

I had a great time! even though it was my first to attend the makeover, everybody was very friendly to everyone!!!
That is why i am going to attend another Thursday night Garage Open this coming June 4th!
Meguiars rock!