'74 Duster - Partial Sand and Polish

PorscheGuy997

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Hey guys,

Here is another one of my recent projects. It's not every day that you see a Duster, let alone with a 400 under the hood.

The paint is hard to describe. First, the black stripes are all painted on. Second, there is a ton of paint on the car. Many areas measured well over 19mils, but the clearcoat was thick in some spots and thin in others. There were runs galore and some spots had been poorly sprayed. The owner wanted the hood and trunk leveled, along with both rear quarters and the runs needed to be removed.

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A little orange peel:

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Zero gloss:
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A few runs:

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The hood and trunk took a ton of sanding to level. I went over the hood a total of five times with Unigrit 1500 Sanding Disks in order to properly level the paint.

After the first pass:

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In order to refine the finish, I went over the hood using Unigrit 3000 Finishing Disks. Then, I used a Meguiar's double sided wool pad and M101 to remove the sanding marks.

Not too bad:

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The rear quarters received a quick leveling using Mirka Abranet Soft 1000, Unigrit 3000 Finishing and 3M Trizact 5000. I found the Abranet disks leveled extremely quick and really saved time. The rest of the body was polished using the Rupes 21 and HD Polish on a Meguiar's Microfiber Finishing disk.

The afters...

As Kevin Brown put it, the hood now looks like a sinkhole...
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Rear quarters finished out nicely:
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Runs are completely leveled:
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Trunk looks much improved:
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All finished:
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Overall, it wasn't a bad project to work on. Although I wish the painter used consistent techniques when spraying, I was able to correct the paint to a near showcar level. Maybe sometime I can have the car for a week and sand the whole body, but we'll see.
 
Great job on finishing it out, all areas came out amazing.
 
Absolutely outstanding - kudos! I cringed at the close-up of that fender...those runs were horrible. Beautiful job, and thanks for sharing!
 
Looks great. I sure like the Dusters.
 
Very nice work correcting all those paint errors and creating a mirror finish...:props:
 
Inspirational. Beautiful car, awesome Detailer.
 
That's a great correction! I have a couple greenhorn questions.......how do you know

how thick the paint is and how thick the cc is? How did you get those nasty runs out

without sanding thru the cc?
 
Thanks for all the compliments, everyone! Much appreciated.

That's a great correction! I have a couple greenhorn questions.......how do you know

how thick the paint is and how thick the cc is? How did you get those nasty runs out

without sanding thru the cc?

Those definitely are not greenhorn questions... Although technology has made it easier, sanding is still risky.

On this car, there were a few places that functioned as notifiers. In particular, there was a spot where someone had struck through. The shift in paint color helps me find other spots where the paint might be thin. The green metallic paint made it easier to see the thinning. Also, I could measure that spot to get a better idea of how thick the previous layers were, as compared to a layer that still had the clearcoat.

For the runs, I used a Meguiar's sanding block (1500 and 2000) to level the areas. Since I could visually see that the runs were indeed clear on the front quarter, I was able to sand until the area was completely level. That being said, I sanded for twenty seconds or so, wiped off the residue and then checked the work to make sure that the paint was not getting thin. This color would not be easy for a body shop to match.
 
Love Mopar cars. Absolutely stunning work you did my friend. A detailer fixing a painter's mistake, doesn't get any better than that! Amazing turn around!
 
Thanks for all the compliments, everyone! Much appreciated.



Those definitely are not greenhorn questions... Although technology has made it easier, sanding is still risky.

On this car, there were a few places that functioned as notifiers. In particular, there was a spot where someone had struck through. The shift in paint color helps me find other spots where the paint might be thin. The green metallic paint made it easier to see the thinning. Also, I could measure that spot to get a better idea of how thick the previous layers were, as compared to a layer that still had the clearcoat.

For the runs, I used a Meguiar's sanding block (1500 and 2000) to level the areas. Since I could visually see that the runs were indeed clear on the front quarter, I was able to sand until the area was completely level. That being said, I sanded for twenty seconds or so, wiped off the residue and then checked the work to make sure that the paint was not getting thin. This color would not be easy for a body shop to match.

Got it. That sounds like the voice of a lot of experience and a well trained eye:dblthumb2: Thanks for answering my questions.
 
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