Scratches on a '69 Camaro

ntwrkguy1 · 06-01-03, 07:27

I recently was asked by a client to detail his '69 Camaro. The car has an older repaint (He thought it was done in '88 or '89) that for the most part is in good shape. It's LeMans Blue, and when I was visually inspecting it, I could see scratches in the paint. The car has no clear coat, and the scratches can't be felt by hand, so that leads to my question. Are these scratches a result of some poor prep work done by the painter? And if so, is there anything short of a repaint that will get rid of them?

The owner of the car is reluctant to let me use an rotary buffer on the car. He wants one or two more years of shine before he does a frame-off restoration. So, armed with my PC7424, is there going to be anything I can apply to minimize these scratches? Or hide them? The owner is ok with a glaze with fillers, because the car is garaged and driven occasionally. My thinking is that if the scratches were done by the painter during prep, there's not much an orbital polisher can do to remove the scratches.

Any thoughts?

Jimmy Buffit · 06-01-03, 07:43

A microscope (Radio Shack $10)) will obviously give you a closer look.

3M's SMR with a foam finishing pad on your PC at speed 4.5 (level, no pressure) should allow you to form a clearer impression of where the scratches are.

Jim

Shiny Lil Detlr · 06-01-03, 07:50

if you can't feel them with your hand, they're likely just micro-scratches. For those you can find out if you'll touch them at all by using some GEPC or other paint cleaner (extremely little abrasive in this.) If you find that you're doing any good, I would say go with a LIGHT abrasive, maybe even start with the PC and some meguiar's #9 2.0 (lighter than SMR by a bit) at around 3.5 and a soft pad. Work up from there. If you can't get it by the time you're using 3M SMR at speed 6 with the hardest foam pad you have on hand, then go to a glaze such as VM or #7.

You can probably get by with those products and seal with either the polymer or carnauba of choice. Since its a garage car, I would go with a carnauba only personally, forgoing any sort of polymer protection.

Smoker · 06-01-03, 08:55

I'm not quite that subtle.

Its pretty hard to do any damage with a PC so I would prolly hit it with DACP or even Diamond Cut to get the scratches out nice and quick.

I hate beavering away madly at some damage and not making an impact!

Its a waste of time and effort.

Anyways.

Once theyve gone, build it up with something like AIO topped with a glaze and S100.

I would say UPP but on a garage car it's a little overkill I guess.