1973 Road Runner old SS Paint from Maaco or Shives-Starting Piont?

[subboz]

So I scored this locally after watching it for a couple years waiting for the deal. This paint looks like chalk sprayed on silver dust. I know it has sat in the blazing AZ sun for 5 years since the last wash alone. Now I have tried a few things and not all the pictures from the camera but here is my starting points.
Tool Arsenal
Megs DA with 6 pads 2 each flavor
HF rotary with Megs 7: Pad
m105/m205 ,,lots of retail megs stuff.
1000,1500,2000 wet paper and the megs paddy thing

I would love some variable recommendations. After reading tonight i think #80? is suited more for SS paint?

I tried to clay it just to see. HAHA funny joke claymaker. I could to pounds of clay trying to work on this. Also looked into the soak #7 in mulitlayers to enrich the paint with oils....didn't work. This paint is dryer than a bag of dust.
Keep in mind I have low expectations for the existing paint since I have bondo cracks to metal popping paint. Without further adoo the below abortion I will attempt to make is mildly presentable.





This is my favorite. I just tried some rubbing compound followed by polishing compound by hand...funny.







And note that aggressive AZ rust from over 5 years of exposure. Take that snowville america.



Working from least aggressive to get job done,,,,,i ran straight to m105 and wool rotary....kinda works
just couldnt get what I was hoping for. Tried DA with Brown pad and m105. Actually bout same....crappy.
Ole gun ho in me said screw it , op ...lets wetsand the ROOF. ACtually worked for cutting haze but since is metallic is terrible for uniformity. Oh and I blew threw a few spots with the 1000wet ...but the paint is far from showrooom so it just is.

[subboz]

Re: 1973 Road Runner old SS Paint from Maaco or Shives-Starting Piont?

Another clean shot of har far out the paint is.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: 1973 Road Runner old SS Paint from Maaco or Shives-Starting Piont?

So with the rust spots and otherwise rough condition, what are your overall goals with this car? Are you planning on doing a full restoration, or at least a thorough freshening up including a respray? If so, there's no sense in really putting much effort into trying to clean up what's left of this budget paint job. You'll just end up burning through chemicals, pads, time, and maybe some money that would be better spent on a respray.

But if you're intent on trying to bring this paint back as much as you can................................Since this paint is as dry as you describe (and it sure looks it!) just put the M105 away. It hates dry paint, and you're going to be fighting it the whole way if you continue to use it. Stick with something like M80 and take your time with it. And by "take your time" we mean, "be prepared for this to be a slow and arduous process". If this is a single stage metallic paint you'll find your pads will not only be pulling out dirt and crud from the paint, but they'll basically be polishing the fine aluminum particles that give single stage metallics their sparkle, and that means your pads will turn black from polishing those tiny bits of aluminum. Translation - you're gonna need more pads!!!!

By the way, what's under the hood - 340, 400, 440? Is it mechanically sound?

[subboz]

Re: 1973 Road Runner old SS Paint from Maaco or Shives-Starting Piont?

So with the rust spots and otherwise rough condition, what are your overall goals with this car? Are you planning on doing a full restoration, or at least a thorough freshening up including a respray? If so, there's no sense in really putting much effort into trying to clean up what's left of this budget paint job. You'll just end up burning through chemicals, pads, time, and maybe some money that would be better spent on a respray.

But if you're intent on trying to bring this paint back as much as you can................................Since this paint is as dry as you describe (and it sure looks it!) just put the M105 away. It hates dry paint, and you're going to be fighting it the whole way if you continue to use it. Stick with something like M80 and take your time with it. And by "take your time" we mean, "be prepared for this to be a slow and arduous process". If this is a single stage metallic paint you'll find your pads will not only be pulling out dirt and crud from the paint, but they'll basically be polishing the fine aluminum particles that give single stage metallics their sparkle, and that means your pads will turn black from polishing those tiny bits of aluminum. Translation - you're gonna need more pads!!!!

By the way, what's under the hood - 340, 400, 440? Is it mechanically sound?

Well a reshoot is gonna be pricey especially with the required bodywork needed. Now the paint and body the way it is can be driven hard till some mechanical goes. I just want it to look better, but have no misconceptions that I will see mirror finish. Lots of cracks and such but just want is presentable to drive to cruise nights and the pavilions and not have people say "wax will take that out". Based on what you said I will get some #80. Some parts were done and looked amazing others not so. Gonna hack on it this weekend and get more pictures.

Still trying to master rotary , how much and product application as well as the dry paint. I have two other vehicles that are gonna get done and suspect they will be far smoother all the way around.

Mechanical are a good work in progress. Looking at a resurrection more than anything. This will get driven so I want it clean and reliable but not showroom. Pulled full interior and dash to fix 30+ years of kid and bubba hackery on the dash and wiring harness. Replaced 904 Tranny with 727 that I learned how to rebuild on Youtube and it actually works.New Driveshaft to work with 727. Had to pull heads of the 360 to fix the exhaust manifold studs. Basic tuning. Trying to get back to working well whether its a stock part or aftermarket I want it to be clean and work.

I used the power cone and 6 stage process on the aluminum wheels that were so bad they looked galvanized. Red scotch brite w/mothers mag polish, Mothers on foam pad on drill from 3m headlight kit, then moved to powerball with Mothers then the Megs polish. Sorry the mothers seems to cut better but the Megs metal polish pops better and like higher speed on the cone. Was thinking about creating another thread on what I did.

[subboz]

Re: 1973 Road Runner old SS Paint from Maaco or Shives-Starting Piont?

Got bored so I figured would throw some updates up how I did with pathetic paint so far. I know the angles are off but maybe some basic back to backs help.








Roof- this is where is screwed the pooch



Everypanel has some sort of different work based on how bad. So this paint was so far gone it was chalky.I had not found M80 at that time and really wanted to see how far I could work this out with my give tools.
On roof 105 and wool cutting pad were just not enough. Was flashing so fast in the Arizona heat as well as just paint sucking in product. In my infinite wisdom I thougth hey lets wetsand!. Worked backwards from 3000 to 2000 to 1500. 1500 started to work great but paint was thin in spots so you guessed went to far. Oh well paint is trashed and its my car. BUUUUTT after wetsanding rood 105 and wool started to bring in some shine. I do not have proper backing plate for rotary and foam or more than wool cutting pad at this time(stupid money). Used DA with Brown pad/105 Brown 205 Yellow 205, hand rub #7 to help oil then dropped on Step 3 Carnuba(its what I had, wanted some protection).

all lower panels were restore-able like fenders lower doors and rockers. Have not totally done hood, passenger side and deck lid. After the hours spent already I am getting the adapter and more wool pads for rotary and m80/m85/m95

[Markus Kleis]

Re: 1973 Road Runner old SS Paint from Maaco or Shives-Starting Piont?

Have you considered a Rustoleum roll-on paint job? You can paint a car for about $50. If you would rather spend time than money, this can yield a fairly impressive product - especially considering the price. There are some threads here on MOL about it, and Google will lead you to plenty of resources as well.

I re-painted a 2002 black BMW 328i hood with this method and it actually came out impressively well done. The only reason you could tell it wasn't factory from a glance was the slightly different hue of black of the Rustoleum vs factory.