OK, so my Firebird has been sitting out in the weather for the past year. It's been about 6 months since I last washed it.

Tomorrow, I'm going to give it a thorough washing, but from the last couple of times I washed it, I know there will still be some embedded dirt and crud, hazing, etc.

Is the next step the clay bar, or do I need to do something else before going there?

 

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Deep thorough washing, and then yes clay bar. After the clay bar you should plan on doing a polish and wax to get the best shine and results.

I just posted some before and after I did with my 92

 

Do you have a buffer or is this going to be done by hand? I strongly suggest you get some quality products to use. What color is the car? once you deep clean there will be swirl marks left and that is really noticeable on a dark color, I like Chemical Guys products. For about $50 you can get all the products you need and enought to do 15 cars with it.

 

Just two pics of the cars after being washed, Check out Puma's thread in the detail section he does an incredible job.

 

Your car looks amazing!

Mine is black, too. It was repainted sometime prior to my buying the car in 2003. I don't know whether it's a base/clearcoat finish, or not.

The paint is in decent shape. There are some chips and scratches, and it is horrible on the rear wing, but that wasn't a problem as I was planning on replacing the wing, anyway. There's also a big spot that came off on the passenger mirror, but I have a set of power mirrors for it, so, again, no big deal.

My plan was to first get it completely clean.

Then I want to see if I can touch up some of those chips and scratches.

Next I plan to buff/polish. I have an orbital waxer/polisher, but I have access to a buffer, if I need it.

Going back to the first step; getting it completely clean, I've broken that down into several steps.

5 weeks ago, I got in a wreck on my motorcycle, and broke my right distal raduis (the larger of the two bones in your forearm) at the wrist. They had to put a plate and 8 screws in. I'm still in a cast, and it really smarts when I try and use it.

I also fractured my left radial head (top of the big bone in your forearm, at the elbow. They wanted to cast that, too, but I live alone, and just couldn't have both arms in casts. I've been gutting it out without one.

So, everything I do has to be with my left arm, and I can't use it that much. What I do have is time; I won't be able to go back to work till the end of July, so I can break this up into small pieces, doing a little each day.

So my plan for the getting the car completely clean step was to give it a nice wash on the first day, just to get all the surface dirt and crud off and let me see where I am. I did that today, and both arms are pretty sore. I'll take a few pics tomorrow and post them.

Tomorrow (or whenever my arms quit aching), I'm going to work on the wheels.

Next, I'll give it a very thorough wash.

It's the next step where I have questions. By that point, the car will be as clean as I can get it with just washing. I'd already seen Puma's thread ... it's awesome, but he goes straight from washing to polishing. I think I have too much embedded dirt and oxidation to do that.

 

Wow, those results are amazing, and address my issues directly.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/auto...er-my-new.html

 

In my case I didn't need to clay, but you will definitely need to clay after the wash. Make sure that you are using a stripping wash soap to remove any wax that may be on the car (I realize having sat that it surely has none on it but I would still do it this way); this can be either a dedicated stripping wash (CG Citrus Wash/Gloss) or just some Dawn dishwashing soap. After that, you will want to clay. Knead your clay into a flat disc, and spray both it and a 2'x2' area of the car generously with clay lubricant (quick detailer can work for this). Then just run the clay back and forth at a moderate pace, using the weight of the clay to do the work--you shouldn't have to use much/any pressure beyond the clay weight. You will hear the bonded contaminants being picked up by the clay. Every so often, knead the clay so that it is clean, apply more lubricant, and continue until you can't hear the bonded contaminants being picked up anymore. Then wipe the remaining lube off the car, and move to another spot.

They do sell different grades of clay as well, depending on how bad the paint surface is.

 

OK, so here is the car after wash #1



It looks pretty good in the pic, but when you get up close, you see tons of embedded dirt, streaks, etc. I tried a close up.



It doesn't do it justice. The dirt and crud just doesn't show up.

My next step is to do the wheels.



While they're dirty in this pic, even when they're clean, the front wheels are uniformly darker than the rear ones. I assume it's embedded brake dust.



My arms are still pretty sore today, so I'm going to wait until tomorrow to go after them.

What is the best way to clean them?

 

Not a bad start, I expected it to be worse from the description