Paint in sad shape... where to start?

[pmaugust]

My son was home over the weekend from college, and I got the opportunity to look at his car (2000 Silver Honda Civic). Sadly the paint is in pretty sad shape, he spends a lot more time studying than maintaining the car. When he comes home over the summer, I thought I'd see about sprucing up the car for him. But I'm not sure where to start. At some point I will have to worry about polish to clean up scratches and swirls and such :buffing:, but how to get it really clean first? Pitch marks and other "color variances". I figure it will be a good father-son bonding experience (yes, he "gets" to help :grouphug, but I don't want to look like a complete idiot once we start, so I thought I'd start researching restoration techniques now.

So... short of sand it off and start over... any pointers on how to best restore a finish that has not had good care? Any good threads? Good books? I've got about 6 weeks to do research.

And yes... I'll take before and after photos...

 

[OGauge4Me]

First welcome to AG Forums. By looking at some of your other posts you may not need much help, you seem to be doing a great job with the product and tools you have.

You might want to look at a cople of blue pads and some Menzerna PO85RD polish to jewel the finish befoe applying Zaino.

 

[ScottB]

wash it first ....clay it as possible, and if you cannot polish with machine consider a paint cleansing lotion like Pinnacles or P21S to chemically strip oxidation and contaminents. Then consider a wax or sealant to protect.

 

[HMFIC]

A glaze with filler, after clay, would make a big improvement, until you get a polisher. Follow it up with a Wax or Sealant.

 

[pmaugust]

So would polishing with my PC AND using a paint cleansing lotion be overkill? Futile? Wash, Clay, Paint Cleansing, Polish, Polish, Polish, Sealant, Wax? Being new to this, I'm wondering what the best combination of products and tasks is to get the oxidation and stains out. Just polish until I drop? If I get some P21S (which looks like what I want... removing spots, stains, etc), can I use the machine with it? If so, which pad would you recommend? Or work my way down? P21S with Orange... then XMT Polishes? Or is this one of those "you just gotta try different things until you find the combination that works" tasks?

 

[Emile]

Spray really dirty areas with P21S Total Auto Wash and then rinse the vehicle down. Proceed to wash as normally, then clay, then wash again if you have to. After that, do your polishing. You probably only need to do a one-step light correction polish since silver doesn't really show swirl marks and scratches all that much. Then seal it up with a long-lasting sealant.

For one-step polishing, I would use Menzerna Super Finish Nano with White pads.