Kerouac- Was the `vette (nice car BTW!) repainted with basecoat/clearcoat or single stage?
`
It doesn`t *really* matter all that much, but some single stage paintjobs respond extremely well to certain old-school products.
`
If it`s a real garage-queen, you could do worse than the Souveran (other than that need to constantly redo it, which some might consider a pleasure on a car like that).
`
In any case, other than the usual "just keepingit clean", `there are two primary factors that determine how a car looks, and both are related to marring (swirls/scratches/etc.):
`
-correcting the paint: smoothing out/reducing/removing any existing marring and finish-polishing to obtain a high-gloss finish, which requires the use of abrasive products (and, for practical purposes, a polisher) so the paint is what we Autopias call "marring-free".` This is the biggie with regard to time/effort
`
-maintaining that marring-free condition, which is (IMO) primarily dependent on good wash techniques.` This is the biggie with regard to actually being able to live with a great looking car and it`s a lot more challenging than one might think
`
Both of those topics are far more involved than I can get into here/now, but there`s a ton of material about them here at Autopia.
`
VERY short version:
`
-wash car and inspect to determine current condition
-decontaminate car using either clay, or the newer "nanoskin" technology products, or a chemical decontamination system (my preference; I use ValuGard "ABC")
-compound car to remove/reduce significant marring
-polish car with milder abrasives to remove any micromarring from compound and to bring up the gloss
-apply LSP
-maintain with proper wash techniques, reLSPing before it`s really necessary to stay ahead of the curve
`
And then there`s the interior to deal with, and some of us are also into keeping the undercarriage and engine compartment nice....there`s just no end to this stuff
`
Oh, and the popular topic of "which LSP to use?!?" gets overplayed IMO.` >95% of how a vehicle looks is determined by the prep (that compounding/polishing) and which wax/sealant you use is far less consequential, though some products like Zaion and Souveran do have their "signature looks" that can tweak the final appearance.`
Bookmarks