'68 Camaro with paint imperfections

Tropicality

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Hello again veteran detailer's, I am moving this discussion here from my post "pile of questions" as I have a feeling it is going to get a bit in depth.

My father just bought a Metallic Blue '68 Camaro that has been repainted in the past as far as I can tell, I will have to find out for sure if my father knows, it has either been repainted 18 years ago or else the hood had stripes put on it 18 years ago followed by a clearcoat and the rest of the car does not have a clear coat as far as I can tell, it does not have very much gloss to it and is very dull. But from what I could see it has some bumps in the paint and needs to be detailed very badly (He is thinking of maybe getting it repainted in a year). I was wondering if the Menzerna products would work best on this? The Intensive polish followed by the Final Polish then the Finishing Glaze and some WGDGPS then some Pinnacle Wax (SSII or Liquid? Souveran is a bit expensive for me at this time) as a fathers day present for him. Hopefully I can get my hands on some products and get some practice in before that time... What do you think?


The surface has alot of tar/sap on it that has been sitting there for a rather LONG time, this Camaro has been sitting in a garage for 10 years and under a tree for the past year and a half without being detailed very well, there is however alot of old dry wax in all the cracks and around all the logos (Best way to remove this is how???). When using the clay bar on the tar today that was on the white stripes on the front (they have a layer of clearcoat over them) there are still stains left, I am thinking that it may need to be polished to get these out?? There are also light imperfections in the paint such as dirt in/under the clearcoat, would using a Porter Cable and more intensive polish like Menzerna's Intensive Polish remove these? Or is a rotary required?

Another imperfection is kind of an orange smudge mark or finger smear IN the clearcoat over one of the stripes that I couldn't seem to get off with qd/microfiber or the clay bar, how can I remove this? Or will polishing/waxing hide it?

There is also a 1x1" rust bubble section under the paint in one spot, should I refrain from polishing over top of it in the chances that the the paint will be taken off of the raised surface?

There is also sticky glue mark lines all accross the edges of the white stripes over the blue on the hood, after it was painted they neglected to clean the #### off before spraying it with clearcoat!!! There is also sharp rigid lines on the edges of some of the stripes from it not being sanded over before being clearcoated!! lol I'm guessing theres not much way to remove this other than to sand it all off and repaint the stripes? Or would intensive polish and a Porter Cable at least do some of the job?

Please not that I may not be able to make the paint perfect like a pro, but I at least want to make it look alot better for him, he is thinking of getting it repainted in a year or so anyways so If I can't make it perfect that is ok. I have no experience with a rotary buffer or wetsanding so I may not be able to do too much. But I am still hoping that some good polishing with a Porter Cable followed by a glaze and a sealant and then a Pinnacle Wax will make the other minor imperfections alot less noticeable.

One last thing is that supposedly I hear that older paints are alot tougher/thicker and that it is rather hard to screw it up unless you really do something wrong, is this true? Even without a clearcoat on the paint?

Thanks alot for any help!!
 
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Wow, sounds like you have some work ahead of you! I'm in the same boat. My dad has a '70 Corvette that I'm thinking of doing a detail on for father's day. Trouble is that time is hard to come by right now with two young kids. I think you'll just have to get your hands on the car and do some test sections to see what needs to be done. It's always different from car to car, and when you are talking about an older car with a repaint that's even a different animal all together since it's not a factory paint job.
 
I have taken a few pictures of the sharp edges on the stripes, I am now wondering if using a PC over top of these will tear the pad??







Another kind of related question is: How do you detail around a vehicle that has decals all over it? Such as a realtors vehicle covered in advertising decals that are on top of the paint? I'd imagine you cannot use a PC and polish overtop of them?

If that is the case then what do you do? Only polish the spots that really need it then apply a glaze over the entire car including decals by hand followed by a sealant/wax?
 
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I would get some painters tape and put it on the edges.
 
tape off the stripes for now - are the stripes painted on or vinyl? if vinyl the only thing i would use on them is a sealer after some mineral spirits to clean the vinyl. hope this helps.
 
badhemi said:
tape off the stripes for now - are the stripes painted on or vinyl? if vinyl the only thing i would use on them is a sealer after some mineral spirits to clean the vinyl. hope this helps.

The stripes on the Camaro have a layer of clearcoat overtop of them.
 
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i take it they are painted on then. so you could polish over them. with vinyl you would not want to use say the XMT 1-4 (or something like it) on the vinyl because it will scratch it. best way to clean vinyl stickers or vinyl stripes is with some type of miniral sprits then use poly-seal or XMT 360 to hide the scratches and swirls. with the vinyl stripes on my truck i got lucky because one of them cracked under warranty so before it was replaced i did some testing to see what would work on vinyl stripes. if you tape off the vinyl before polishing you should be ok. just make sure the tape stays on while your polishing over or around it.
 
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