Can bare paint be rejuvenated?

[imported_hooked]

My friends car is a Maroon Geo Prizm that`s at least 10 years old. He hasn`t taken care of it so all of the horizontal surfaces have clear coat failure. The trunk in particular has no clear coat on it at all, just the bare paint. Can this bare paint be polished and protected to at least prevent it from totally disappearing?



The other night I tried a test. I didn`t bring my pc with me so I did it by hand:



- Clean trunk with ONR QD Strength

- Clay with ONR QD...The clay picked up the paint color

- Polish by hand with OPS and a MF pad...It looked like the paint just absorbed the OPS and barely left any shine...The paint felt smoother but didn`t look any better

- Spray with OOS...Again, no noticeable difference



This was at night under parking lot lights, so I couldn`t really examine the results, but from what I could see, there`s was hardly any improvement.



Would it have made a difference if I had used the PC? Or is it too far gone? I thought at least, it would have darkened the paint and leave some shine.



Sorry, no pics and I haven`t seen the car in the daytime since. I did do a section that actually had some clearcoat left and you could see an improvement. What do you guys think?

[Neofate]

I would tend to think yes and no.



I think you could remove a SMALL layer of paint at a considerable risk and the new layer would be `cleaner`.. and might shine a bit (tiny amount) more because of the even-ness and purity vs contaminated paint layer that now exists. But due to no clear-coat you aren`t going to get any significant shine, and removing paint from a car without clear-coat and probably very little paint between the top and the primer is playing with fire. I`d be more apt to wetsand it than use a PC on it.



I`m sure some experts will jump in here and tell you whats what on this conditioned car.

[the other pc]

A factory base coat cannot be “rejuvenated� because it was never “juvenile,� err, shiny, in the first place. Nor was it ever intended to survive on its own, exposed to the environment. It’s one piece of a multi-step system.



It’s like saying that the roof was torn off your house and asking what to use on your carpet to protect it from the rain.





PC.

[dublifecrisis]

that was a great analogy and quite funny

[imported_hooked]

Er...Thanks(?) for the explanation. I didn`t realize the paint under clear coat is not meant to be "presentable." It makes sense now.

[Neofate]

True -- I thought that was obvious though. The base coat (that which is directly under the clear coat) -- Let us say a typical two stage system.. Even 3, with all but clear layer existing -- This coat is not meant to be exposed to the elements at all. So it isn`t designed to look `pretty` without the clear coat.. it works with it.



But,.. my only point was, which I thought part of the question was alluding too, could you make that paint look better after it had gotten contaminated/oxidized etc in places.. look *better* than it does now. Even without clearcoat.



Which my answer is yes and no -- Yes you can remove a micro layer of contamination, and it will look better than , well, contaimination looks -- but it isn`t going to really shine because of no clearcoat.



It is a futile effort nonetheless.



For the car, get a $550 paint job.. Yeah its cheap, yeah it won`t last long -- But how long is he gonna keep the car. I`ve seen some 500$ paint jobs look pretty good the first 6 months ;)

[imported_hooked]

Neofate,



My last response was not meant for you but the post after yours. And I apologize for not acknowledging your answer. So now I know that in multilayer paint jobs, the clear coat is what gives it the shine. And thanks for the info. My friend has never asked me to help him shine up his car. As a matter of fact, I was using his car as my "test panel." :D



So now my next question is...What is put in Single Stage paint to make it shine?

[Neofate]

Oh I know you weren`t responding to me :) -- I was responding in general, and to "the other pc" in his response to you. hehe..



But good question.



This is how I see it:



This is a simple explanation. Clear coat is paint without pigment. A paint is a resin. So clear coat = resin without pigment. Pigment gives the resin its color.



So paints without clearcoat -- Or "single stage" paints is a paint (resin) that has pigment added to it to give it the desired color.



Make sense?



Most cars have Clearcoat added to them these days.