Ive been reading this site for over a year now. ive detailed my other camaros i own and the look great. now my question is my first car i ever bought was a 77 z28. more senimental value than anything. i painted it in 95 with sikkens single coat. its held up very good but i neglect the paint on it pretty bad since it is a dailly driver. i decided to stop driving it since i bought a 2005 f150. i want to do a complete detail on it. i wached and clayed it already. i started to polish with fininsce it2 rc followed by mg. there still are lots of little scarcthes i cant get out. im using a orange pad a a pc. the car is white and looks good just to look at it but that is not good enough for me. any suggestion?
help with older paint
- Thread starter emetzger
- Start date
Accumulator
Well-known member
White single stage is about as hard as autovotive paint gets. IMO you're not gonna get it perfect without a rotary and even then you might cause more problems than you solve. Even Mike Phillips has thrown in the towel on some white ss vehicles.
I really don't mean to sound defeatist, but sometimes you just gotta know when to say "good enough". I'd glaze and wax it at this point and appreciate it as-is. That really is what I would do if I were in your shoes. And I think it's *very* cool that you still have your first car. Wish I still had *my* '77 f-body, which was my *second* car. If I did still have it, I wouldn't worry about trying to get it perfect, I'd try to keep it as nice as I could from here on out. I'd consider the flaws "patina" from all the enjoyment and use I got out of it (back before detailing got to be so important
).
I really don't mean to sound defeatist, but sometimes you just gotta know when to say "good enough". I'd glaze and wax it at this point and appreciate it as-is. That really is what I would do if I were in your shoes. And I think it's *very* cool that you still have your first car. Wish I still had *my* '77 f-body, which was my *second* car. If I did still have it, I wouldn't worry about trying to get it perfect, I'd try to keep it as nice as I could from here on out. I'd consider the flaws "patina" from all the enjoyment and use I got out of it (back before detailing got to be so important
).Well, being an "old geezer" 
, I cut my detailing teeth on SS paint............ and yes, some of it is very hard!
Can imperfections usually be worked out.............. yes, but you better be "very" good with a rotary buffer (and a variety of wool pads), and know what products you need to use, and how to use them.
If you're not at that skill level yet, I would go with Accumulators recommendation........ if you don't, you can actually make it worse.
, I cut my detailing teeth on SS paint............ and yes, some of it is very hard! Can imperfections usually be worked out.............. yes, but you better be "very" good with a rotary buffer (and a variety of wool pads), and know what products you need to use, and how to use them.
If you're not at that skill level yet, I would go with Accumulators recommendation........ if you don't, you can actually make it worse.
Accumulator
Well-known member
White_F150 said:Well, being an "old geezer"
Heh heh, my advice came from being a fellow geezer who also remembers back when rotaries, wool pads, and ss paint were all there were
I'd just hate for a guy to mess up something with sentimental value over some marring...