rehabing 51 year old paint with cyclo?

[tuscarora dave]

I have an appointment with a broker and appraiser of antique and classic cars on tuesday. He has a 57 Bel-Air that he just brought in. His own toy to restore. He wanted to see if the paint could be rehabbed so he was playing around with a rotary on the front fender only and he wants me to do the door right behind his fender as kind of an audition of my skills. he has agreed that if he likes my results he will get me some refferals. this is original paint very faded. Here will be my process, 1.run megs paint cleaner with 6"R.O. polisher. 2.Run a pass with my cyclo with heavy cutting pads and a very aggressive rubbing compound. 3. run a pass using orange LC med. cut pads with a finessing compound. 4. same finessing compound with a green cyclo polishing pad. This finessing compound is a light swirl remover. Have any of you guys ever rehabbed this type of paint using only a random orbit polisher? I do not yet own a rotary so I will try to impress with my cyclo. If any of you guys can suggest some other order of process that may be more effective please do. Thank you. ,Dave

[Poorboy]

whoa since I`m guessing you don`t have a very expensive paint gauge, you need to drop the idea of cutting pads and aggressive cutting compounds ... if this has original paint or even a fairly old repaint it`s probably single stage enamel. You need to use chemical polishes with minimal abrasives and work to de-oxidize the paint not cut it

[dr_detail]

I havent had too much experience with a Cyclo, but I have had exelent results using 3M Macro Finishing compound with a DA on heavy oxidized laquer (gave it a whirl to see what it would do -- kinda use what ya got -- it`s nice to have a friend who owns a auto recycling yard for testing methods and products). I used a medium foam cutting pad, making two passes with the DA on 3, then two passes on one click above 4, and a final pass on 5 (I did not re-apply more product between passes). I then followed with a pass of Mark V UNO with a clean medium pad starting off slow as above, but finishing with an extra pass on 6. I topped this test area with a pass of 3M Machine Glaze for Dark Cars using a finishing pad then a coat of Auto Magic BC2 by hand. Not as good as those of a rotary, but acceptable.

[tuscarora dave]

thank you. This is why I speak up and not just jump in. I know sometimes my thinking is a little off. I`ll work it with the paint cleaner and light swirl remover with a polishing pad.

[Reddwarf]

As Steve says I`d be wary of using compounds and heavy cutting. I`m no expert but I did a detail on a friends 1980 MGB with single stage paint. I burned a spot on the lower rear side with a UDM! Old paint like that can be easily damaged.

Good luck!