Paint cut and buff

[rapidtrans]

This car has a quick respray paint job done approximately 30 yrs ago. The hood and deck lid are dull. I used a clay bar and followed that up with a cleaner/polish compound applied and buffed out with my orbital polisher. Hood and deck finish came out real smooth but still no shine.

Sooooo, since Michigan wasn't playing yesterday and it was nice outside, i decided i would try color sanding the deck lid.
After a quick wash, starting with 1000 grit wet sanding foam pad, rinse, then 2000 grit pads and a good rinse and dry, i had a nice consistent looking base for polish.
I use Meguires stuff only. Using their polishing compound applied with my orbital polisher just wasn't getting it done. It's just an inexpensive polisher for applying wax mainly. It doesn't have speed or power for serious polishing.
So out came the heavy 90 degree angle polisher. You know how using the right tool makes thing go so much easier. I used up all my pads just applying and polishing out the compound.
I used the orbital polisher to apply Meguires Yellow Wax.

Here is the best i could polish the hood and deck lid before.

Here is the deck lid after wet sand and polish. Notice the difference in the reflection sharpness.
And the paint is smooth as glass. I'm pretty happy with it figuring it's a 30 yr old Maaco/Earl Schieb type paint job. I need a lot more polishing pads for the big polisher. They really load up during the 1st pass with the polisher.
I'll post the hood when finished if anyone is interested.

 

[cantflip]

I'll post the hood when finished if anyone is interested.

Please do...

 

[68Nwprt]

They really load up during the 1st pass with the polisher.

They can be cleaned right? We used to soak ours. Looks great BTW.

 

[rapidtrans]

They can be cleaned right? We used to soak ours. Looks great BTW.

Yes, a lot of guys just run a screwdriver across the spinning pad to remove the chunks and fluff it up then continue on.
I throw mine in the washing machine with the car washing/drying towels. I just ran out of clean buffing pads yesterday.

 

[65sporty]

Be very careful since you don't know how thick the paint is and you sure don't want to burn through, from reading your post sounds like you know this but just a friendly reminder.

 

[Dobalovr]

Ive had good success with Meguiars. Used the Ultimate Compound then polish then wax with HexLogic pads. Lots more to do yet but first pass worked well.

 

[rapidtrans]

Be very careful since you don't know how thick the paint is and you sure don't want to burn through, from reading your post sounds like you know this but just a friendly reminder.

Yep, that's why i always start with the least aggressive compounds and polisher. Also, you want to stay away from the hard edges like fender tops and the windsplit down the middle of my deck lid. I do those by hand carefully.

 

[rapidtrans]

80 deg in Oct. in Michigan? I'm gonna be working on a car.
So i picked up a couple more wool polishing pad for my big polisher.
Wet sanded the hood out tonight. Used the same 1000 then 2000 grit sanding pads. The rear deck turned out so well i spent a little more time sanding, rinsing, sanding then final rinse and towel dry. I loaded up 2 pads first pass on hood. Used a 3rd pad to clean up the whole thing.
Let it dry while i ate then applied wax with the still clean 3rd pad. I used a foam pad on the big polisher after wax had dried to a haze. This is the way to go as apposed to the orbital polisher or hand polishing. I used to hand polish the last application to minimize swirl marks but the foam pad works great with no swirls.

Smooth as glass and towel slid right off the hood!

Might be hard to see the comparison between top of front fender, door panel top (not touched) and rear qtr. top done saturday. I want to polish out the rear deck again.
But, now i opened a can!
I gotta do the whole car since the hood came out so nice. At least all the horiz and upper panels. The polished panels are also a bit lighter like the original light Pale Gold Poly paint chips show.
It's finally ready for the "Ram's Horn Breakfast Club" show every saturday.

 

[Dobalovr]

Getting single stage paint to shine like that takes a lot of elbow grease....nice work!

 

[rapidtrans]

1st time i've color sanded a 30 yr old paint job. The paint still has chips and some flaking where it was poorly masked but looks great at 20 ft.

 

[monaco75]

That hood came out great!

 

[moper]

I had a Cuda that I had to do that with about every 2 years... Repainted factory finish with FE5 Red single stage. The sun wrecked it...lol.