White75
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2007
- Messages
- 496
- Location
- Kingwood (Houston) TX
- Corvette
- '75 L48 Auto White, '78 L82 4-spd SA
Well I've been wanting to repaint my 78 SA vette for a long time because the original paint was pretty much shot. It was heavily oxidized and my bonding strip lines are in full view. However, I don't have $5000+ bucks for a paintjob and part of me didn't want to get rid of the orginality of my car. So I've had it for a couple years now and haven't done anything to the paint other than a few coats of regular wax that did nothing to the oxidation.
That ended today. I waxed my wife's and my daily drivers and my wife's 4-runner paint was pretty bad and I used some compound and then some Poli-Seal from Optimum. the results were spectacular (I had used this in the past and it did really well on my wife's 75 vette). So 2 cars down I decided to do a test area on my vette (I had borrowed my friend's power buffer which really helps) and I was very happy with it so I went ahead and waxed my third car of the day. I am ecstatic with the results.
So my process after cleaning and claying was to use a cutting cream compound to cut through the very heavy oxidation (I had to clean the cutting pad twice during the process)
Next was a coat of Poly-Seal which is a paint sealant which should hopefully cut down on oxidation. Laid down with a buffer and took off any remaining oxidation.
Last step was a polymer coat called Opti-Seal which is a spray-on clear sealant (I think it's similar to Zaino) I put it down with a clean wax applicator pad.
I hope this lasts a long time and time will tell. Our 75 has really stood up well with this process so I'm hoping the 78 does as well.
Now that I've bored you, here are the pics.
First, these were pics of the oxidation from a while ago:
And here are the aftershots (unretouched)
And there is actual shine to it now!!!! Not bad for 2 hours work. There are areas that are beyond hope, the t-tops and part of the Halo and below the taillights have areas down to primer/fiberglass/urethane so there is no fixing without a repaint but I'm thinking this will at least postpone the inevitable paintjob to when I can do it right.
Hope y'all enjoy it!
That ended today. I waxed my wife's and my daily drivers and my wife's 4-runner paint was pretty bad and I used some compound and then some Poli-Seal from Optimum. the results were spectacular (I had used this in the past and it did really well on my wife's 75 vette). So 2 cars down I decided to do a test area on my vette (I had borrowed my friend's power buffer which really helps) and I was very happy with it so I went ahead and waxed my third car of the day. I am ecstatic with the results.
So my process after cleaning and claying was to use a cutting cream compound to cut through the very heavy oxidation (I had to clean the cutting pad twice during the process)
Next was a coat of Poly-Seal which is a paint sealant which should hopefully cut down on oxidation. Laid down with a buffer and took off any remaining oxidation.
Last step was a polymer coat called Opti-Seal which is a spray-on clear sealant (I think it's similar to Zaino) I put it down with a clean wax applicator pad.
I hope this lasts a long time and time will tell. Our 75 has really stood up well with this process so I'm hoping the 78 does as well.
Now that I've bored you, here are the pics.
First, these were pics of the oxidation from a while ago:
And here are the aftershots (unretouched)
And there is actual shine to it now!!!! Not bad for 2 hours work. There are areas that are beyond hope, the t-tops and part of the Halo and below the taillights have areas down to primer/fiberglass/urethane so there is no fixing without a repaint but I'm thinking this will at least postpone the inevitable paintjob to when I can do it right.
Hope y'all enjoy it!
