Need Some Quick Compound Advice (Meguiars)

TheGuyWho

TheGuyWho

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Im by no means a professional detailer.
I just bought this 98 Mustang at an auction. The paint is very neglected. And it unfortunately has Ford's notorious Lazer Red paint. It has some oxidation spots and some clear peeling in spots. Im trying to save it enough to sell it for a profit.

Ive never personally encountered a car with paint this shabby, so ive never actually used a compound. Can I get some recommendations please? Meguiars products are easy for me to get, and Im starting on this car tomorrow. SO I realize there are a lot of good products, probably more prefered products, but I have to get off the shelf stuff for this project. Meguiars has many options for compound, & I have no idea what to get… 95, 105, 85, etc, etc… And with that do I need to/should I use a wool polishing pad or can I just use a regular foam cutting pad? Ive never used a wool pad before either.
With this car having already bad paint it can't get any worse… So I think this is a good one to start out and learn on.
Thanks guys.
 
Whether you are working by hand or a DA you can use megs Ultimate Compound.

Rotary buffer is not recommended unless you have previous experience with it.

Wool pad is usually used on rotary, so go with a sponge pad (if you are using a DA).

Would be good to clay the paint before you proceed with compounding.
 
TheGuyWho said:
It has some clear peeling in spots. Im trying to save it enough to sell it for a profit.
Click to expand...

You may improve many areas of the paint using an assortment of Meg's, or others, compounds...But I've never come across any that will salvage the areas where there's CC peeling.

Best I can do..Others may have different suggestions/ideas.

Hope you get it gussied up enough for a re-sell...

Bob
 
Im using a Meguiars G110…
& I always clay before doing any polshing.
 
FUNX725 said:
You may improve many areas of the paint using an assortment of Meg's, or others, compounds...But I've never come across any that will salvage the areas where there's CC peeling.

Best I can do..Others may have different suggestions/ideas.

Bob
Click to expand...

Yeah, unfortunately I doubt theres much, if anything, I can do for the peeling clear. Luckily its mostly just on the rear bumper, so worst case scenario I could find a replacement.
I have heard of a few ways to attempt to clean it up using some cleaning products similar to "commet" (without bleach) as sort of a fake wetsand job. But Im not sure thats the way I want to go.
 
lokichaos said:
I did a product review on Megs Ult Compound a few weeks ago.
This is the link:

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/product-reviews/45296-review-meguiars-ultimate-compound.html

hope this helps a little. Good luck tomorrow!
Click to expand...

Helpful. Thank you!

Unfortunately it was super windy today and I couldn't start on the car's exterior. However I did take a few pictures of some problem spots. Maybe that will expell some more insight from others for a solution…

This picture makes the car look like its in better condition than it truly is:
1d9747f6.jpg

Back bumper:
229ec4d1.jpg

Hood:
36c81401.jpg

917ea485.jpg

Roof:
7544ae2b.jpg
 
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Since all compounds and finishing materials TAKE AWAY diseased paint, and level the surface, when you don't have paint to start with, no product will rectify the problem. Only a professional painting of two part clear will help. And then you can finish from there....
 
That's not good. I hope those pics aren't indicative of the rest of the car (int./mech).

Happy trails...
 
Vegas Transplant said:
That's not good. I hope those pics aren't indicative of the rest of the car (int./mech).

Happy trails...
Click to expand...

No, actually. Surprisingly the rest of the car is mechanically sound. And although the seats are a little worn, its really not bad for a 14 year old car. I bought it to flip it anyways.
 
I've had good luck with Meguiar's Ultimate Compound in the past. Even though the clear coat is failing in spots, I still think you can still really clean that up. I would start off with a cleaner wax on a polishing pad and see what kind of results you get since we want to preserve as much of the clear coat that's left as possible. If that's not working out I would try ultimate compound on a cutting pad or polishing pad. Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Sent from my DROID Pro using Tapatalk
 
I too think the clearcoat failure will clean up nice for the short term. While you will still see it, the majority of the white will be removed. Though there is no way it will shine like the rest of the car, it will still look decent from a few feet away. Depending on the price of the car, that is to be expected.

I sold a 20 year old far this past weekend for $3k, and the person who bought it was trying to talk down the price because there were 2 (yes, only 2) door dings! What do they expect on a 20 year old non collectible car? So of course I didn't budge on that fact and they still bought it. Maybe it was the swirl free black finish and almost perfect interior :)
 
shoeless89 said:
I've had good luck with Meguiar's Ultimate Compound in the past. Even though the clear coat is failing in spots, I still think you can still really clean that up. I would start off with a cleaner wax on a polishing pad and see what kind of results you get since we want to preserve as much of the clear coat that's left as possible. If that's not working out I would try ultimate compound on a cutting pad or polishing pad. Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Sent from my DROID Pro using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Can you recommend a good cleaner wax? Meguiars or some off the shelf stuff? I've got some Meguiars liquid sealer wax, but I don't think that's what you mean.
 
For the most part that car should clean up rather well. The ledge with clear coat failure about half way up the bumper, and the hood where the white stuff is near the rubber window trim likely won't be improved much because the white stuff is typically moisture and oxidation trapped between the separated clear coat and the base coat paint. You can buff those two areas all you want and you'll never touch the white stuff because it's trapped under the remaining clear coat.

The hood and the rest of the car look to be just topical oxidation and should clean up well. If I had to choose products from off the shelf, I'd go to Advance Auto Parts and go to the body repair section (where they stock the Bondo and other body repair stuff) and grab a quart of M-105 and use it with a white polishing pad on your G 110 following Kevin Brown's "Supplemental Wetting Agents" Method. If you're not familiar with "the method", just google it and give it a quick read. That should clean the car up well enough for some average Joe to think the car looks spectacular, other than the clear coat issues. Follow the 105 step with some NXT 2.0 and you'll be in business.

Remember, the perspective buyer won't likely have a discriminating eye like us detailers do, so why horse around trying to impress us? It's pretty easy to impress the average car guy.

TheGuyWho said:
Helpful. Thank you!

Unfortunately it was super windy today and I couldn't start on the car's exterior. However I did take a few pictures of some problem spots. Maybe that will expell some more insight from others for a solution…

This picture makes the car look like its in better condition than it truly is:
1d9747f6.jpg

Back bumper:
229ec4d1.jpg

Hood:
36c81401.jpg

917ea485.jpg

Roof:
7544ae2b.jpg
Click to expand...
 
For some strange reason, I thought it may be a single stage paint.....

I guess for a test, use a product of your choice and if your applicator is red, it's single....It will be obivious.

I would try M80 on a single stage, if not, there are a ton of products to try, UC, M105/M205, M80/M83 old stand by combo.

The white coming through may not do so well, but the rest may come back just nice.
 
A "paint cleaner" & a cleaner wax are different, correct?
 
I have an already opened bottle of the old Meguiars "deep crystal system" Paint Cleaner. And I went out and bought a bottle of Meguairs Cleaner Wax. But if I can return one and save some money I would prefer that.
 
TheGuyWho said:
A "paint cleaner" & a cleaner wax are different, correct?
Click to expand...
Correct. The paint cleaner is usually a fine polish with lots of cleaner in it, more of a chemical polish with no wax or sealant. The cleaner wax typically has some fine abrasives, solvents and some sort of wax or sealant in it.
 
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