What else could I have done on this 2000 Mustang?

F

firebird

New member
Paint in good condition overall considering never corrected. Color is that orangey-red.
2000 Mustang. Hood had some what looked like little scratches but covering most of the hood that I'm guessing came from years of snow brushes.
Used orange pad and surbuf with BF SRC Compound on Flex 3401. That's the strongest of anything I had.
What else could I have used to get the scratches out? Did it need to be wet sanded?
 
sometimes the scratches are just too deep to correct without burning through. can you feel them with edge of your fingernail ?
 
No you could not feel them. They were not long straight lines, they were tiny lines going all which ways, yet it was not cracking paint.

Like 1/8 inch long all which ways.
When you say "burning through", do you mean burn through the clear coat with a rotary? Or can you burn through also with a Flex?
I know correcting/polishing removes some clear, right? But you're saying you'd need to burn through the clear which is not a good thing I imagine?!
 
you can burn through thin paint with a PC. Its not just the rotary that burns paint.

Are you sure its not crows feet, where its actually cracked paint? Looks like this:
http://www.ocdcarcare.com/wp-conten...es-Of-Paint-Defects-Crows-Feet-OCDCarCare.jpg

If that is what it looks like, then you have to repaint.

To be honest, a 15 year old car like a 2000 mustang is not going to turn around like you might hope it will. I can only assume it is/was a daily driver that had seen numerous car washes without ever being protected/polished. Your paint might be shot, and you might be better off planning to repaint rather than spend hours upon hours of trying to fix.
 
Envious Eric said:
you can burn through thin paint with a PC. Its not just the rotary that burns paint.

Are you sure its not crows feet, where its actually cracked paint? Looks like this:
http://www.ocdcarcare.com/wp-conten...es-Of-Paint-Defects-Crows-Feet-OCDCarCare.jpg

If that is what it looks like, then you have to repaint.

To be honest, a 15 year old car like a 2000 mustang is not going to turn around like you might hope it will. I can only assume it is/was a daily driver that had seen numerous car washes without ever being protected/polished. Your paint might be shot, and you might be better off planning to repaint rather than spend hours upon hours of trying to fix.
Click to expand...

You're correct about the car's life...car washes w/o polishing. I'm sure it's had some waxing but never correction and polishing. The car is still VERY decent. It's my friend's car so they'll leave it like it is. Of course, they are still thrilled with my work...it's just me who is curious to the cracks. It may be crows feet but I think you can feel crows feet as don't they normally stick up above the surface? There is no feel to the scratches.
 
You could just do the same stuff longer or yeah...wetsand, but remember that Ford cautions against removing more than (IIRC...and I'm a little foggy on it..) more than ~2/3 of a mil lest you precipitate cc failure. Note that's a *lot* less than many people take off and Ford is talking about over the whole life of the paint. I myself would say "good enough".
 
Accumulator said:
You could just do the same stuff longer or yeah...wetsand, but remember that Ford cautions against removing more than (IIRC...and I'm a little foggy on it..) more than ~2/3 of a mil lest you precipitate cc failure. Note that's a *lot* less than many people take off and Ford is talking about over the whole life of the paint. I myself would say "good enough".
Click to expand...
Yep, I said "Good enough" but was just curious...thanks for all the great answers! Helped alot. Actually the car looks awesome!
 
So, did the marks in the Mustang look like the perfect picture of crow's feet that was posted here ??
Dan F
 
sQUOTE=Stokdgs;2002881]So, did the marks in the Mustang look like the perfect picture of crow's feet that was posted here ??
Dan F[/QUOTE]
well, the scratches could not be felt and the crows feet in the pic look elevated. So I would guess not crows feet
 
If the pattern of marks in your friend's Mustang paint look like the pattern in that picture, regardless of whether you can touch them or not, it is paint failure coming down the pike..
Nothing else makes that pattern except paint failure..
Dan F
 
Just FWIW, even "failing" paint can hold up surprisingly well for a long, long time if the vehicle is pampered a bit. My '93 Audi has a lot of areas that I expected to get really bad but they're no worse than they were when I got it back in '08. And some all-original collector cars have had crow's feet/cracking for decades.
 
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