It was a good 72°F in my garage today, so after a few deeper projects, I decided to do the 2x/year clay & wax job on my ‘66 Starfire.

Much owed to Pele Plantations coffee. (Not associated, just like their stuff. Plus husband & wife team making great stuff!)

This car was well repainted in Autumn Bronze in 1998 and has been babied as a driver since. I probably do a couple of thousand miles a year in it. For a few years now I’ve kept a good coat of wax on it, so it’s shiny most of the time. I drive it, so it collects dust, bird p**p and cr*p like a normal car. Plus here & there it gets a rock chip or 2, nothing embarrassing. Well, at least not to me.

Since it’s a hobby car, there’s not a lot of oxidation or swirls on the paint finish. Sure there are a few chips & dings, but that’s driver. Those imperfections are little annoying “badges of honor”, if you will.

Since the paint wasn’t really damaged, I clay-barred the horizontal surfaces for an hour or so. A ‘66 Starfire has about an acre of horizontal surfaces. Step 2 was Mother’s/Meguairs liquid glaze/was applied with a cross hatch patten 4x. By this I mean 4 x 7” rotary polisher passes: 1st side to side, 2nd front/rear, 3rd side to side, 4th front rear at low speed (1.1.5 speed on my corded makita rotary polisher) I use the cross-hatch pattern to avoid wax swirls which I hate. Is my process somewhere near right?

I also waxed the chrome + stainless steel trim & buffed with a lambs wool 7” pad. Then since I had the pad on the buffer, I thought why not hit the glass too? The pad was damn near clean and it seems to have helped the glass look cleaner/clearer.

Hell, I even hand polished the ‘66 Stafire fender fins. It was deep detail day! Then I Zymol hand-waxed all the brightwork (chrome & stainless) in the interior.

So, that was 3/4 of my day.

What would you have done differently? I’m no pro, so I’m interested in what I might do better. To me, the car looks new, but perhaps you all have suggestions about what I could have done better/differently.

Happy critiquing!

Cheers
Chris

PS: I can provide pictures if anyone really wants to see where I wound up. No shame, no pride. Just a happy car owner…

 

No pics?

 

There's your critique!

 

You guys and your pictures. Snapped a few before heading out of town.


Autumn Bronze '66 Starfire, just shined up.

No, those OAI pipes are not even close to factory. Covid-boredom project. Fun, but doesn't seem to make much performance or economy difference.

SMS in Oregon did the door & quarter panels. The sharp-eyed among will see the '69 Strato buckets installed for the safety of the seat back locks which the '66 seats didn't have.

'66 Starfire mostly stock factory autumn bronze redone in 1998. Neither my wife nor I liked the red interior so we went with parchment. It was supposed to be parchment pearl, but we didn't like that either. I got the car in the late '90's with a ~1970 455, so I'm not real worried about originality. I just wanted it to be fairly true to what Olds was building in 1966.

Well, except for HEI distributor, front disk brakes, 800 CFM qjet and internally regulated 10SI alternator. Oh, and the stereo. And oh, the glove box 02 sensor. And oh 15x8 wheels & tires with Ch*vy fake wire hubcaps.

Does that make this a mild custom? I don't think so, but maybe so.

Enjoy your Sunday
Chris