Polishing old cars

S

Stuff

New member
Here is a what if for the experienced guys. How do you guys approach an older car(+100k) with out a paint thickness gauge? How do you know if the car has been polished a lot in the past?



More to the point I have a car that has 114k on it. I have polished it once with SFX-2 about a 1.5 years ago and just used poli-seal and #26 since then. Even though I wash it very carefully there are some medium-ish swirls now (black DD nothing you can really do about it). I really think some Menzerna IP and some FPII via PC could clean up the paint really nice. But I have an intense fear off taking too much clear off. I would rather have some swirls than having to repaint the car. So what do you guys think? Polish away? Thanks for your advise.
 
Lol I look at the deeper scratches and see how thick the paint looks, plus I look at orange peel levels on the car. Not the best approach compared to a ETG, but it's always worked for me.
 
I've seen three year old vehicles with more mileage on them then that. :nixweiss



Exactly how old a vehicle are you talking about? Something from the 60s with the original paint? Early 90s with a softer base coat/clear coat paint job? Way too many variables to give you a good answer.
 
themightytimmah said:
Lol I look at the deeper scratches and see how thick the paint looks, plus I look at orange peel levels on the car. Not the best approach compared to a ETG, but it's always worked for me.
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Orange peel levels? How does that tell the thickness? Maybe my knowledge of orange peel is lacking. I'm guessing the more orange peel the more clear?





Scottwax: Ok ok good points. Not enough information. I guess it is a big question. For the general part are there anyway tricks to tell thin clear? Such as the orange peel.



For me. I have a 1998 black Volvo. I think I'm just way to nervous. I remember seeing some post from a Meguiars guy who said its ok to use #83 for 10 years and the car would be ok. Yeah thats a little generalized. I don't know I'm sure I'm fine just dont want to make an expensive mistake.
 
Your paint would have to be awfully thin to do any damage with a PC, IMO. All my cars have over 100K.
 
After you've seen enough paint you can sorta get a feel for it..not that *that* is a very helpful answer :o



Thick OP generally means you have lots of clear...otherwise you wouldn't have those deep "valleys" in the OP texture. You'll polish forever and not correct the OP...meaning you never removed enough to get it all even with the "bottom of the valleys".



Sometimes you can see the clear getting thin on a metallic- it starts to look very "bright" but without a lot of depth. Again, that's something you notice given enough experience but by the time you see that it's a pretty severe situation.



So if in doubt, be gentle and don't try for perfection.



OTOH, if a vehicle has never been aggressively polished, you can often do a whole lot of correction because you're still dealing with thick (if all scratched up) paint.



Wild guess on your Volvo based on experiences with my fathers 850 wagon- go ahead and be pretty aggressive but watch it on the edges where the paint might be a little thin. I myself would feel OK giving it a few aggressive passes with the rotary but I'd keep them in mind in the future (this isn't something you want to do very often).



But be careful about those "you won't do damage..." claims. It's easy for others to say that but if something goes wrong in *your specific situation* it'll be you who has the problem, not the person who said it wouldn't happen. I've cut through clear with the PC and a fairly mild product (using 4" pads); I've cut through ss and hit primer (more than once); a friend of mine cut through the clear on a Benz with #83 with a PC at an Autopia get-together in St. Louis (Mike Phillips from Meguiar's was there...he was sure surprised that it happened but my friend was the one who had to get her paint fixed).
 
Accumulator said:
After you've seen enough paint you can sorta get a feel for it..not that *that* is a very helpful answer :o



Thick OP generally means you have lots of clear...otherwise you wouldn't have those deep "valleys" in the OP texture. You'll polish forever and not correct the OP...meaning you never removed enough to get it all even with the "bottom of the valleys".



Sometimes you can see the clear getting thin on a metallic- it starts to look very "bright" but without a lot of depth. Again, that's something you notice given enough experience but by the time you see that it's a pretty severe situation.



So if in doubt, be gentle and don't try for perfection.



OTOH, if a vehicle has never been aggressively polished, you can often do a whole lot of correction because you're still dealing with thick (if all scratched up) paint.



Wild guess on your Volvo based on experiences with my fathers 850 wagon- go ahead and be pretty aggressive but watch it on the edges where the paint might be a little thin. I myself would feel OK giving it a few aggressive passes with the rotary but I'd keep them in mind in the future (this isn't something you want to do very often).



But be careful about those "you won't do damage..." claims. It's easy for others to say that but if something goes wrong in *your specific situation* it'll be you who has the problem, not the person who said it wouldn't happen. I've cut through clear with the PC and a fairly mild product (using 4" pads); I've cut through ss and hit primer (more than once); a friend of mine cut through the clear on a Benz with #83 with a PC at an Autopia get-together in St. Louis (Mike Phillips from Meguiar's was there...he was sure surprised that it happened but my friend was the one who had to get her paint fixed).
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Thanks a ton. Your answers always help Accumulator. Good point about the experience. I think I can live with what I have. At 5 feet the car looks near perfect. I think I'm being to hard on myself.
 
Stuff said:
I think I can live with what I have. At 5 feet the car looks near perfect. I think I'm being to hard on myself.
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That sounds very sensible :xyxthumbs IMO it's easy for, uhm...extended exposure to Autopia to give one unrealistic views about what's "acceptable" ;)
 
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