For one reason or another, sometimes cars are abandoned in storage for long periods of time. That’s the case with this 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, which get its first wash in 27 years after sitting untouched in a garage since 1995.
The talented folks at AMMO detailing are the ones pulling off this restoration, and as usual, they did a great job. The car was already in relatively good shape since it spent its 27-year hibernation in a fully enclosed garage, but the team still had a lot of work ahead of them.
The first step was to power wash the years of dust, dirt, and spiderwebs off the Pontiac‘s exterior. After that was done, you could already see the paint start to shine again. Next up was soaping the paint, wheels, and engine bay and letting it sit. After letting it soak for a bit, the soap was rinsed off and the wheels were removed for undercarriage cleaning. That involved first blowing away all the loose dirt, then properly washing it with soap and pressurized water. Before moving back to the body, the wheel well area also got the deep cleaning treatment.
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For the body, the first order of business was doing a touch wash to dislodge any stuck-on dirt that wasn’t removed from the initial touchless wash. Once the car was clean and dry, the paint depth was measured to determine how much correction could be done, and unsurprisingly, it was extremely thin. It was decided that a one-step polish was the way to go, but even that rather minimal job made a world of difference to the paint finish. The final step of the exterior was polishing the paint-matched hubcaps off the car.
Moving to the Firebird‘s interior, before actual cleaning could be done, all the loose dirt had to be removed. Once that was taken care of, the light surface mold was removed with a special cleaner, then the interior was cleaned with a gentle lather and steam vacuum to bring the upholstery back to life. Finally, the detached seatback fabric was glued back on and the interior was completely disinfected.
Once all that was done, it was simply a matter of deep cleaning the wheels, reinstalling the hubcaps applying a paint sealant to protect the newly restored finish, and applying tire dressing. To see the incredible restoration job for yourself, you can check out the video below.
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