need help with detail

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carguy2007

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I need some help with a car I'm currently detailing. Its a 1969 Opel GT. All original including paint. I wiped #7 on it last night and let sit. I just wiped it off and started polishing. I started with a white polishing pad and M80. Zero change in the paint condition. Then tried M83. Still nothing. Finally I tried UC with an orange cutting pad. Still no improvement. I'm using a GG polisher on speed 5. The paint has some gloss to it but oxidized and faded to some degree. This is my first time working with single stage paint. I wasn't expecting it to go like this though. Any advice? I have to have it done today.

Thanks for any info.
 
try a wool pad and a makita start at speed 2 spray some water on and buff lite and see if that will clean it up for you.
 
I only have a da polisher and various pads and compounds.
 
Do you have any chemical (non-abrasive) polishes? Poorboy's Pro Polish is essentially a (chemical based) metal polish for the most part and is one of the best polishes for single stage paints, especially single stage with metallic flake in it which would likely be aluminum flakes back then.

Are you working with metallic single stage or just a non metallic solid color?

If you're working with metallic, try some metal polish on the paint and see how that works out.

Also...a lot of old single stage paints simply won't be anywhere as glossy as a base coat clear coat paint system.
 
I only have meguiars products. The paint is a dark green. However the pad surface looks almost black. Would this its a metallic paint?
 
Do you have any wool or microfiber pads? And do you have a paint thickness gauge?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using AG Online
 
Typically when working on a metallic single stage paint you'll see a lot of black on the face of the pad. Heavy abrasive compounds will do very little for a lot of old single stage paints. Take the least abrasive polish you have, and the softest finishing pad you have and crank your DA up to full speed then work a 12 inch squared work section for about 5 section passes with a very very slow arm speed using light to medium pressure.

Forget about any scratches in the paint and concentrate on working up a gloss on the paint the best you can.

Edit: You may want to add a bottle of PB Pro Polish to your arsenal of products for cars like this into the future.
 
I have some ultimate polish. I'll use that with a polishing pad like you mentioned then finish off with wax. I would like to see at least some improvement. Thanks so much!
 
carguy2007 said:
I have some ultimate polish. I'll use that with a polishing back like you mentioned then finish off with wax. I would like to see at least some improvement. Thanks so much!
Click to expand...

This is the best this older metallic single stage paint would come out, even using some of the best products for SS paint with a rotary polisher.






My suggestion might not really help you much but you'll get more gloss with that than to use heavier compounds.

Just do the best you can, get payed what you can for the job, move on and call today an experience in something that didn't work that well. Not all experiences can be good ones but in the end I'm glad for all the tough times I've had because I know a lot more today because of them.
 
The car I'm working on has a little more gloss the pics above. But still faded nonetheless. Amazing that even a rotary wouldn't cut through and bring back the gloss. Next time I do a SS car I need to make sure it isn't metallic paint. I would have never guess an Opel would be metallic. I assumed that was an option only on high end cars like Lincoln and Cadillac. Now I know.
 
carguy2007 said:
The car I'm working on has a little more gloss the pics above. But still faded nonetheless. Amazing that even a rotary wouldn't cut through and bring back the gloss. Next time I do a SS car I need to make sure it isn't metallic paint. I would have never guess an Opel would be metallic. I assumed that was an option only on high end cars like Lincoln and Cadillac. Now I know.
Click to expand...

You never know what you'll run into out there. That's why I like to have a ton of different types of products, pads, machines on hand. Sometimes you can exhaust your entire arsenal on testing and still not find the magic bullet.

"I hate it when that happens but sometimes it does happen."
 
I finished polishing. I think I was mistaken about the metallic. Paint transfer appeared black on the pad. When I took it outside in the sun it was a dark green. But for whatever reason it was still nearly impossible to restore the paint. It looks a tad better than before but not what I was hoping for. Once I get the owners permission to post on my website I will post some pics in here.
 
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