Older paints, how to work with them.

[wifpd4]

I may get a car (1947) for polishing that the owner says is not base coat/clear coat or lacquer, but enamel. Or it has been repainted with heaven only knows what.

Where can I read about this older paint, so I can determine if I want to polish this car or pass on it.

Thanks,

[BillyJack]

Re: Older paints, how to work with them.

Here's a good tutorial on older single-stage paint:

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/ask-expert-featuring-mike-phillips/25304-secret-removing-oxidation-restoring-show-car-finish-antique-single-stage-paints.html

You may or may not need to do everything in the process Mike shows, but you'll get a thorough lesson on older paints. I did the entire process on my Camino a few years ago with amazing results. Every year since then I do a refresher with an overnight soak of M07, followed by a polishing with M03 or M80, depending on need.

Bill

[wifpd4]

Re: Older paints, how to work with them.

Thanks Bill. I know you are a M07 guru and I've been reluctant to use it, so this maybe my first serious go at it. M80 I've used on freshly painted finishes. I'll discuss this with the owner and figure out a base price for my efforts.

[BillyJack]

Re: Older paints, how to work with them.

M07 by itself really doesn't do much in terms of polishing. However a thorough app acts as a "moisturizer" for old, parched paint, allowing the abrasives in any subsequent steps to do their intended job. Without it, older paints tend to rapidly absorb any moisture from your compounds or polishes, greatly reducing their working time and leaving you with a nasty mixture of old paint and dry, caked-up compound on your pad. Prior to performing Mike's process on my Camino, the only thing that kept my paint form deteriorating further than than it did over 20+ years was that I had been buffing it occasionally with M03, another oil-rich product, followed by a hand glaze with M07 and finally an LSP. At the time I had no knowledge of what I was doing, but I knew that M03 and M07 seemed to reduce the aging of the finish on the old girl. When I read and applied the process in Mike's tutorial, it was truly a "eureka" moment for my tired old paint. That's why I'm such a disciple. Mike was a Meguiar's product trainer for a number of years prior to joining the AutoGeek staff, so he knew his stuff when it comes to the capabilities of Meg's products.

I'm certainly far from a guru. Thanks to this forum, I just lucked into some competent teachers, especially a few named Mike.

Bill