how to tackle foxbody red single stage paint?

The Enforcer

New member
im currently detailing a late 80s/early 90s foxbody mustang. the single stage red paint is faded to the point of ZERO reflection, and is even showing through in some spots on the bumpers. he just told me to do what i could with it. what would be my best bet at tackling this job? in my stash i have...



-M105, M205, M85 diamond cut, M3 glaze, M26 yellow wax, system one x3 polish



-edge pads (twistes wool, white, orange, blue, green, and yellow.



-rotary





given those products.....what process would you use? im not a newbie to this at all.....but the paint is so thin that i dont want to really experiement with a test spot.
 
forgot to add...theres no oxidation or deep scratches on the paint, its just lost its shine (all of it!). would i even need 105?
 
Sound like this car needs a paint job. Once paint has FAILED to this degree even if you could shine it, once you get it back in the sun it will just fade back. Neglect is neglect. Ford paint from those years were among the worst of quality. GOOD LUCK start with something mild on the tops. Ben
 
105 wool/205 white did the trick, 205 wasnt enough....just not sure how long this shine is gonna last! all i have to seal it up and protect it is megs 26 yellow wax.....2 coats of this good enough for a few months?
 
paintxpert said:
Try to enrich it with carnuba and cleaner such as speed bead from Stoner. Spray it on the WOOL PAD and have at it try 1200 rpms. Ben Moving to the next thread if you need advise email me [email protected]



Please use PM for exchanging personal information. Thanks.
 
The Enforcer said:
..all i have to seal it up and protect it is megs 26 yellow wax.....2 coats of this good enough for a few months?



It just depends (don't you hate those answers?!?). Some SS simply oxidizes fast and some doesn't. Try to avoid sunlight as much as possible and redo it with something gentle before you think it needs done.



Maybe try redoing it with Color-X as it'll do more chemical cleaning and less abrasion. The trick will be to clean off the oxidation as needed without abrading away the paint.
 
Try to enrich it with carnuba and cleaner such as speed bead from Stoner. Spray it on the WOOL PAD and have at it try 1200 rpms.



Are you saying spray the speed bead on a wool pad and go to work with that??????







BTW accum I believe colorx has some abrasives in it. You could use something like KAIO which will chemically clean it up and not abrade away any paint
 
i agree color X is some amazing and deffinatley underrated stuff. heres some photos i took of a 1991 mercury capri i did this past weekend. the owner didnt want any machine correction, he said he just wanted it red again, not pink..



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Dsoto87 said:
BTW accum I believe colorx has some abrasives in it. You could use something like KAIO which will chemically clean it up and not abrade away any paint



Yeah, I just figured the abrasives were awfully mild, sorta like the other Meguiar's cleaner-waxes.



The Deep Crystal Step #1 Cleaner would be another one to consider.



For some reason I just *NEVER* think of KAIO for this :wall You're absolutely right about it being good for chemical cleaning. Guess I don't think of it because I never use it on ss paint, preferring to go the Meguiar's Trade Secret Oils route.
 
i believe that color x is mainly chemical abrasive, with a little tiny bit of mechanical abrasives if any.. you can just use color x as per the instructions like a wax... put a thin layer on. let dry. wipe off.. or you can rub a little, like with a scratch remover or fine hand polish for some more stubborn spots.. they must be some very small diminishing abrasives though if you can use it as you would a wax and not end up with marring.
 
True jdizzle.



He probably would be fine with the colorx



Without knowing how thin that paint is though you might want to stray away from any type of abrasives at all.



But yea, I doubt he would have any trouble with it, but you know.



The Deep Crystal Step #1 Cleaner would be another one to consider.

That stuff was good as a chemical cleaner. Too bad megs discontinued it (i think)
 
i ended up doing the entire car with M205/white foam edge pad. the 105/wool were getting very gummed up, which was annoying and told me that too much paint was being taken off. the dull color came back to a reflective red almost immediately at contact with the paint, and i went probably 3 passes at 1000-1500 rpms. all of the water spots are still there, they were etched in too far. but the color and reflection are definately back.



tomorrow im gonna seal it up, finish the rest of the detail, and ill post pics in here.
 
Yea if im not mistaken they discontinued the whole deep crystal line. Let me do a quick search on MOL just to make sure



EDIT: nope not the whole line, just the DC1, the other 2 got new labels i believe.



Heres what a quick search turned up
 
pics as promised....



hey all.....once again another detail thread with pics for me to get on yalls nerves with! this foxbody belongs to a friends uncle. its a neat little car with a blown 5.0 in it. its an 89 model with original single stage red paint....so i knew this was gonna be tough and would not come out perfect. theres only so much you can do with oxidized, faded single stage paint....at least on my time frame and the $125 i was getting! the acid rain marks on this thing would not BUDGE, even with compound and wool.



-wash with dawn

-clayed flat surfaces

-attempted to compound it with wool, but it was taking off too much paint and clogging up the pad. made a bigggg mess, so i opted to not compound it.

-polish with M205 and green pad

-polish with M205 and white pad

-2 coats on M26 wax

-interior vaccum, degrased, and shined/protected with meguiars

-tires and rubber/plastic dressed with Satin Blue

-engine bay cleaned with APC diluted 4:1.





BEFORES

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zero reflection

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this is pretty much dead paint. it looks ok now....but once the wax is gone, it wil start fading again. the bumper on this thing were too far to bring back at all....you can see where the primer is showing through. BUT...i did what i could with it, and hopefully the owner will be happy.
 
The Enforcer- All you can do is what you *can* do ;)



I think it turned out well, and I don't really worry all that much about the places where ss cuts through to primer. It's just not the same failure-wise as basecoat/clearcoat IME. See how it holds up and try to have the owner agree to have you redo it *before* it seems like it needs it.



Heh heh...I could have some fun in that car ;)
 
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