getting a finish on an "old man's car"

A

alistair

New member
I'm buying a winter beater which will become a resto project when the weather gets better. Its a 1973 Ford Cortina and its had the same owner for 20 years. He's 87 now so he's not done much on the car in years so the finish is very dull. I don't even think its been washed in a long time!



The paint is a single stage acrylic mid blue with no clear.



I was thinking of compounding it with Farecla G3 Advanced liquid by machine, then finishing with Meguiars NXT wax by hand (mainly because I have both of these at home anyway)



The idea is to get a nice gloss on it so I'm not embarrassed to be seen in it, although when the good weather arrives again I'll be fully refinishing it (some minor body repairs will be needed as well)



Does anyone see any flaws in my plan? It has been suggested I'd be better using a paint cleanser like the Meguiars one rather than compounding.



The paint appears free from swirl etc, but it is hazed up really cloudy with oxidation.



Thanks for your time ;)
 
I would try something like AIO or other "chemical" cleaner before compounding. The AIO will take care of the oxidation very nicely., and leave a nice finish for any of the sealants out there.
 
~One manâ€â„¢s opinion / observations~



I have many years of experience of cleaning â€Ëœold mans carsâ€Â� [LOL]



I would use detailerâ€â„¢s clay and then as scottabir suggests, Klasse AIO (or a similar chemical cleaner like Autoglym)



~Hope this helps~



Knowledge unshared is experience wasted [each one / teach one]

justadumbarchitect / so I question everything/ JonM
 
Not sure if we have Klasse stuff about over here. Which of the Autoglym products do you mean? The regular polish?



I have some Meguiars clay which I can use, would you recommend using this before using a polishing compound? IS the compound not going to be more abrasive and thus strip away anything anyway?



Bit of a newbie to all this, I was always just "T-Cut and apply wax"...
 
yeah, we get the Megs stuff.



Its tricky to see how bad the oxidation is because the car is currently very dirty. Not the usual dirt but that strange "clinging" dustyness that cars get when they live 97.5% of their life in a garage.
 
I would suggest wash, clay, Autoglym Super Resin and then reevaluate the paint.



A cheap and reasonable chemical cleaner is Comma polish, MER is ok(ish) but can be hard to buff
 
What you might want to do is start with Meguiars ColorX and a terry cloth towel to remove the top layer of oxidation. By using a terry cloth towel, you won't be gumming up your pads with dead paint. Once you have some shine back, then you can go to your PC or rotary with Farcela or ColorX to even out the shine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top