1966 Ford Mustang. Meguiar's #7 to the Rescue. Amazing Turnaround

[Texchappy]

Nice one!

 

[ronkh57]

Great turn around !

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Wow!


Thank you for sharing.


I know that stooping work, that is setting your FLEX 3401 down and then taking the time to set-up and take a picture.

Then LATER taking the time to process the pictures.

Then creating a write-up for the benefit of others is....


Time Consuming


So thank you for taking the time to document this project and share it with others.

I'm 100% confident this write-up you've posted and the success you achieved will inspire others to follow in your footsteps and that is VALUABLE in my opinion.

It also makes this forum a wealth of help and information that endures OVER TIME to make it the great resource it has become for enthusiast detailers and pro detailers.


Nice work.

I very rarely use the bow down emoticon as I reserve it for write-ups and posts that I think truly deserve it.


:bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown:

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

For everyone that will read this into the future.... here's my article on restoring antique paint using the #7 Rub Down Technique.


The Secret to Removing Oxidation and Restoring a Show Car Finish to Antique Single Stage Paints



A couple of comments about this project.



The picture where you see a black foam pad that started out orange is explained in the above article here,


The Secret to Removing Oxidation and Restoring a Show Car Finish to Antique Single Stage Paints

Single Stage Metallic Paint = Difficult to Restore
Single stage, non-metallic paints like the above paint on the Ranchero are actually very easy to fix because the problem is for the most part just topical, that is the problem is just on the surface. All you have to do is remove the dead paint off the surface and if there's enough paint left then it's just a matter of polishing what's left to a high gloss. The most difficult paints to restore are single stage metallic paints.

The reason single stage metallic paints are the most difficult to restore is because not only does the paint itself oxidize, that is the resin used as the binder, (generally some type of seed oil like Flaxseed oil or Cottonseed oil), but also the aluminum flakes embodied inside the paint oxidize. This is where the problem lies.

It's a problem because the entire exterior surface of each individual aluminum flake oxidizes over time but you and I can only work on the surface of the paint and thus we can only work on the portion of the flake that is exposed at the surface level. Any portion of each aluminum flake that is below the surface and is surrounded by paint cannot be cleaned or polished so there's no way to remove the oxidation on the portions of the flakes inside the paint.

Oxidized Aluminum Turns Black
With metallic single stage paints, oxidation can show up as a darkening effect on medium to light colored paints because the aluminum metal flakes embodied inside the paint will stain or discolor the paint with a grayish black color.


If you’ve ever polished uncoated aluminum then you’ve seen this grayish black color coming off the aluminum and onto your polishing cloth as you work a metal polish over it. This same type of oxidation is taking place to the aluminum flake inside the paint.

Polishing Uncoated Aluminum

Oxidized Aluminum Comes Off Black

Wolfgang MetallWerk™ Aluminum Polishing System


In the same way you see the black residue coming off the aluminum wheel onto the piece of white cotton terry cloth material above, when working on metallic single stage paints you will see black residue coming off the paint and onto you applicator pads, buffing pads and wiping towels.


This darkening effect can take place even at the same time the surface of the paint itself is turning chalky white. This is because you have two different substances oxidizing, both the paint and the aluminum flake, which both are oxidizing at the same time. The paint oxidizes white and the aluminum flake oxidizes black.

If you continue to read down my article,



You'll see this....

After approximately 12 hours of soaking in #7 Show Car Glaze, we're ready to wipe off the first application off this 37-year old paint.

Look at the paint surrounding the towel...
In the picture below, note how after just one well-worked application of #7 the finish is now more smooth and clear and the color is more vibrant and even.

Look at the color of the residue coming off the paint and onto the white terry cloth towel; it's black. The single stage paint is butterscotch gold.

Question: Where's the blackness coming from?

Answer: The aluminum flake.

So the black color you see on the towel above and the black color the orange foam pad turned as the classic Mustang was buffed out is NORMAL.


Antique, single stage METALLIC paints are the most difficult types of paint there are to restore. Period. And it has to do with the metallic aluminum metal flake IN the paint.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

I found that wiping off with a dry microfiber towel was difficult and switched to a wet MF towel.

Not damp...soaking wet, dunked in a bucket of water between sections.

I've never tired using a water dampened microfiber towel to wipe off #7 but what I do use and recommend is old fashioned Cotton Terry Cloth. Like a quality bath towel cut into smaller pieces or a cotton terry cloth hand towel.


I'm working on a new how-to book and in the book I'll share more details but suffice to say... it's the tiny cotton loop of fiber call the NAP that slices into the film of #7 polishing oils helping to break it up so you can wipe it off.

It's also the fact that cotton is more STOUT than microfiber. It's the stoutness factor that helps to remove the oily film of #7.

While microfiber towels are what we all use today for a number of reasons one reason is because they are more gentle to scratch-sensitive paint like basecoat/clearcoat paints.

While this is true, terry cloth still works better for wiping off the applications of the #7 Show Car Glaze and it also works great for wiping off compounds when doing a multiple-step processes.

And when doing a multiple-step process to a clearcoat finish then any toweling marks you leave in the paint when wiping off compounds with terry cloth are of no concern as you will remove any toweling marks with the next step and for the next step, (polishing), of course you switch over to microfiber for the rest of the project.

 

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Beautiful work. What a transformation. Nice job resurrecting that paint.

Thanks for sharing.