My GN after a day of polishing and waxing. Original paint.

[dragrazor]

The owner of greenecosteam spent the whole day polishing and waxing my car. I know he used a mild compound and mild/medium pads to accomplish a nice shine. He did not want to go too aggressive since it is original paint. The hood has some pretty good checking so I know that the only solution for that is to repaint it but the roof and trunk came out awesome. The hood is a five footer. I just wanted to have the paint look good for a while longer(they are only original once). Eventually i will have to repaint the car. What do you guys think?

 

[longball]

looks really nice for original paint! of course, I was looking for a hood shot

 

[dragrazor]

Yes, i figured. I will put one up tomorrow. The cars paint would be really nice if not for the hood but oh well.

 

[megawatt]

Looks great for orginal paint! I grew up in Ft. Lauderdale and it's rare to find one that the sun or salt air hasn't destroyed.

 

[PLAINWHITE T]

Looks great!

 

[Gunmetal87]

Looks really clean and sharp!!
What size tire are you running with stock wheels? Looks beefy.

 

[David Turbo6]

Nice job ....I just started using Chemical Guys products The results are phenomenal!

 

[dragrazor]

Gunmetal, the tires are 235/60's. Not too big, not too small. Megawatt, i shipped the car down from north carolina. I couldn't find a decent one down here in south florida in my price range. I paid 11k for it plus 500 to ship it. The original owner lived in pennsylvania and was always garage kept and believe it or not, no rust. David, what is chemical guys? Any good?

 

[dragrazor]

Here are pics of the hood/front valance. Like i said, from 5 feet, it does not look too bad but if you look at it from the top, it looks pretty bad. I will be painting the car in the future but i bought the car because of its originality. Most cars are repainted by now.

 

[Gunmetal87]

No rubbing with the 235s when you're turning steering wheel all the way? Planning on getting more meat on the 15" Vectors

 

[dragrazor]

No rubbing whatsoever.

 

[Brian Harper]

I'm impressed! My car is similar to yours except I don't think the weather checking on mine is quite as heavy as yours but it's getting there. The rest of your car looks amazing! Do you have any weather checking on the roof and trunk lid?
Paint experts chime in - is it possible to get the front hood and header panel stripped and repainted to match the rest of the car so you can't tell its been repainted?

 

[dragrazor]

No checking on roof or hood. Only other checking is on the tops of the fenders.

 

[longball]

[quote="Brian Harper,is it possible to get the front hood and header panel stripped and repainted to match the rest of the car so you can't tell its been repainted?[/quote]

In a word - no. However, that being said, anything is possible............

 

[Phoneguy]

Here are pics of the hood/front valance. Like i said, from 5 feet, it does not look too bad but if you look at it from the top, it looks pretty bad. I will be painting the car in the future but i bought the car because of its originality. Most cars are repainted by now.

This is exactly what my paint looked like until 3 weeks ago...sent out to get stripped to bare metal and re-painted. Mine looked great from 10 feet but up close was shattered. SUCKS that GM had such crappy paint on these awesome cars. My car has only 43,xxx miles on it and needed a repaint...sad

Bryan

 

[dragrazor]

it is sad!

 

[longball]

My hood looked like that not very long after I bought the car. Perhaps a few years. According to the dealer it was not covered under warranty
According to GM the paint problem was caused by "East Coast Acid Rain"!

 

[dragrazor]

Are most of you having the body shop strip the car to bare metal? Is that necessary? If so, would i need a new front valance?

 

[Brian Harper]

You absolutley have to remove all the original paint and primer from the car before repainting. Stripping is the best option IMHO. The original laquer will continue to shrink and crack and ruin any new paint you spray on top. You can just strip your front header panel too, but get any cracks repaired by a good body shop that know how to properly work on SMC fiberglass or it will crack again after you painted it.

 

[dragrazor]

^^^ thank you very much!