Hey Guys,
Got a question for everyone. My brother in law wants me to detail his 66 Mustang. It was probably painted 20 years ago or more with an ivory single stage paint.
Single stage paint tends to be some of the hardest paint there is to buff or more specifically buff sanding marks out of or any type of below surface defect because the paint can be so hard.
The reason single stage white paint is very hard has to do with the type of pigment used to make white paint white and also the fact that you're buffing on the pigmented resin, not a top layer of clear over the resin.
I talk about this in an article I wrote around 1977 where I introduced something called the Mohs Hardness Scale in the article.
The Lesson White Paint Teaches Us
Mike Phillips said:
The Mohs Scale of Hardness
In 1822, an Austrian scientist by the name of Fredrick Mohs created a scale from 1 to 10, for measuring and determining hardness. Hardness refers to the measure of resistance a surfaces has to abrasion. Talc is rated at 1 while a diamond is rated at 10.
Titanium dioxide, the substance used as pigmentation in white paint, is rated at 7 on the Mohs scale. As far as pigments go, titanium dioxide is very hard. By contrast, black paints, (single-stage), are soft. The pigment used to make paint black is Carbon black, which has a Mohs hardness rating of 2.
While some will argue the Mohs Hardness Scale isn't the best way to explain paint hardness, in this example I'm only using it as an indicator of the hardness of different substances used as pigments or colorants used in automotive paints and when it comes to a single stage paint the type of pigment used WILL effect the hardness or softness of the resin/paint and this will affect how easy or hard it is for someone to work on the paint.
The way I explain sanding goes like this and you can quote me on this,
"It's easy to sand paint, that's putting scratches into the paint... the tricky part is getting them out"
The above being true, then sanding SINGLE stage white paint is the easy part, it's getting the sanding marks out that is the tricky part.
It is in desperate need of correction.
Can you give us a description of what the paint currently looks like?
Is it simply chalky with oxidation or is it filled with deep swirls and scratches?
If it's just oxidation, you can fix this without sanding. If the problem is swirls, scratches and water spot craters or etchings, then this too can be fixed with compounding.
Wetsanding is always an option, but sometimes it's better to test and try some less aggressive options.
I have detailed a lot of cars but never single stage only BC/CC.
Is it OK to color sand a single stage or can it not be wet sanded at all.
You can wetsand a single stage finish, the most important thing however is the thickness of the paint. When wetsanding or color sanding, this is an example when,
More is better...
Should it only be corrected with a buffer and compound? can someone maybe run down the process for me.
Removing defects and restoring a clear, high gloss finish is a matter of putting the paint through a series of abrading procedures. This can include wetsanding and/or compounding both followed with polishing steps using less aggressive pads, products and even tools.
Is there any way you can post a picture of the car or e-mail it to me and I'll post it for you.
[email protected]
Regardless of your approach, you've come to the right place as we will be happy to see you through to success...
