Pictures from Thursday Night Open Garage - August 20th, 2009

[Michael Stoops]

Pictures from Thursday Night Open Garage - August 20th, 2009


The garage doors will open in less than 3 hours and we've got a packed house tonight. Pictures to follow as they become available.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Pictures from Thursday Night Open Garage - August 20th, 2009

Another packed house last night, but with a bit of a recurring theme: bad body shop paint jobs! A big thank-you to everyone who came out and made this another great TNOG.

A little headlight restoration work:


And the owner jumps in with the Headlight Restoration Kit:


Before/After - the hazy, yellow and rough texture is gone and the lights are clean and clear once again.


Bad body shop paint, Take 1: A little rotary work to remove what looked like brush strokes in the paint. This was nasty stuff.


On the right you can clearly see the "brush strokes" in the paint, and on the left the result of rotary buffing. Close as we could figure the defect was in the color coat but as the clear dried it shrank into the defect, allowing us to level the clear and correct the problem.


Bad body shop paint, Take 2: This 350Z was delivered to the customer with dull, hazy looking paint that was also full of holograms. Here the owner gets some instruction on proper use of the G100:


Now this is how the car should have been delivered back to the customer!


Not too shabby, huh? Ultimate Compound on a G110 and that 350Z once again has beautiful, clear, shiny paint!


Bad body shop paint, Take 3: This Jetta looked as though it had just been shot with clear and turned back to the customer without even a thought to a cut and buff process. And this was roughly three years ago!! We got at with the rotary and some M105 on a WWHC7 wool cutting pad at about 1500rpm, then followed with M205 on a W9207 foam finishing pad at about 1000rpm as shown below. That M205 pass took out all the holograms and really cleared things up a lot. We didn't take the paint to the fullest due to time constraints, but the owner now knows what's needed to make a huge improvement to the look of his car. And he's found just the man to finish the job as well, thanks to Jesse (aka Hemin8r) agreeing to take on the full project at a later date.


This split image shot is NOT out of focus - the image on the left shows just how bad the paint was before rotary buffing. There was just no clarity to the paint and we all described the reflections as being "out of focus". In person, this is how it looked. The side on the right is after a quick rotary buff, and the increase in clarity is noticeable. Jesse is going to complete the task and get the repainted panels back up to a nice, glossy finish.


And, yes, it was indeed a full house last night!


Later in the evening we had a beautiful 1973 Boattail Riviera pull into the garage. We didn't work on it, we just ogled it. What a beauty!!




No, that isn't dirt or a defect in the paint, its a reflection of our garage floor!

[Mike Pennington]

Re: Pictures from Thursday Night Open Garage - August 20th, 2009

Great night, great fun !

Thanks to everyone who attended

[Eddie6th]

Re: Pictures from Thursday Night Open Garage - August 20th, 2009

Very nice Michael.

The last car was a cracker! Nice color

[cnfowler]

Re: Pictures from Thursday Night Open Garage - August 20th, 2009

Beautiful work. Why can't I live closer to Meguiar's Headquarters?

Colin

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: Pictures from Thursday Night Open Garage - August 20th, 2009

It looks like a great night.

What a great looking Riviera. looking at the engine it appears that it still has the original "Delco" battery.

[Nappers]

Re: Pictures from Thursday Night Open Garage - August 20th, 2009

Good times!

Good to see that Z get proper treatment!

Good show

[love67]

Re: Pictures from Thursday Night Open Garage - August 20th, 2009

thanks for teaching us!