Restoring a Mach 1 to its full potential

[M.N.mach1]

Hello, this is my first post so i will try to be a detailed as i can so you dont have more questions. heres the scoop. the previous owners didnt seem to give the car the attention it deserved. I was sitting there wondering if i needed a new paint job till i discovered this site and what you guys are able to achieve. so i have about 4 to 5 pictures of what is going on all around the car from what looks like streaks, dots, scuffs, swirls, and scratches. these are the products i purchased. i have scratch x 2.0, clay kit, ultimate wash and wax, ultimate quick detailer, ultimate black, ultimate protectant, ultimate compound, ultimate polish, and ultimate liquid wax. i have the yellow foam applicator pads. i was going to do everything by hand but got the DAPS, so with that it has the yellow and the black pad. i still need to check all panels for single stage paint or clear coat im not 100% on that. as far as i know im going to start with wash then dry car then clay bar, do you wipe car completely dry after clay bar? after that im not sure whether to do scratch x or compound, but following those itll be polish and wax. please give me your opinions on the pictures i post and what you believe would work best Thanks in advance for your time. apologize in advance if the pictures are tough to spot what the problem is.

[ffboy]

Re: Restoring a Mach 1 to its full potential

Mach 1 looks nice, almost looks like you might not have to work that hard.. Almost..

Yes, for the clay bar you have to wipe the car dry after you clay bar. You follow that up with ultimate compound to remove any imperfections or oxidation. To check if your car's paint is single stage, on a small area, use a cleaner (ScratchX or Ultimate Compound). If your there is any paint (color) transfer, then your paint is single stage You may or may not use ultimate polish, depending on how well the paint looks after ultimate compound. To be sure, try it on a small area first. Compare Ultimate Compound+Ultimate wax to Ultimate Compound+Ultimate Polish+Ultimate Wax. If you are more than happy with just the Ultimate Compound+Ultimate Wax combo, then you may not need the Ultimate Polish.

Take note, meguiar's cleaners/compounds/polishes (Ultimate Compound, ultimate Polish, ScratchX 2.0, SwirlX) are to be removed while wet. If applied like a usual wax, it may cause more problems (Marring, difficulty in removal, etc.).

[M.N.mach1]

Re: Restoring a Mach 1 to its full potential

so i just tried the ultimate compound and the ultimate wax. so far looks amazing. did find out i got single stage, at least on the trunk. do i try ultimate polish and then ultimate wax? or just stick with uc and uw

[Nick Winn]

Re: Restoring a Mach 1 to its full potential

Happy to hear it is going well! Feel free to try using Ultimate Polish in-between UC & UW if you are trying to get the best results. Ultimate Polish will typcially provide a more noticeable gloss & depth especially for a dark color.

Feel free to keep posting questions or pictures of your results.

[M.N.mach1]

Re: Restoring a Mach 1 to its full potential

The part where i have that black pin stripe around my hood do i need to worry about anything when polishing there being its two colors

[Lydia]

Re: Restoring a Mach 1 to its full potential

Is the pin stripe a "sticker" or is it painted on? The problem has less to do with it being two colors and more to do with the possibility of damaging the pin stripe. If it's a sticker you'll want to be a little careful of the risk of damaging it/lifting parts of it off with the buffing pad. If the stripes are in good condition I've had pretty good success in general just buffing right over them, but I try to avoid dwelling on top of them for any extended period of time (so I would go a little lighter pressure and move a little more quickly when over the pin stripe). You'll just want to do a thorough inspection and tread carefully if it looks like it's in bad condition. If need be you can work the UC in around it by hand.

If it's painted on, since this is single-stage and no clear coat over it I would still tread carefully and not buff for an extended period of time over it. Someone with more experience with that scenario may chime in to provide more information. I don't know with single stage paint whether they paint pin stripes on top of the SS base color or how that works.

Just FYI if you ever work on a base coat/clear coat paint system, it's not uncommon for the pin stripes to be applied before the clear coat (I see this a fair amount with motorcycles). Those are my favorite to deal with because you're just treating the clear coat so you treat it like the rest of the paint.

[M.N.mach1]

Re: Restoring a Mach 1 to its full potential

looks like the hood has a clear coat didnt get anything on the pad when scrubbed. and it does look like the stripe is painted. but i think that is what ill do light and quickly over it

[M.N.mach1]

Re: Restoring a Mach 1 to its full potential

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OK so i just got done compounding the whole car it seemed to do a pretty good job the only two spot that are giving me trouble are the ones in the two pictures the hood which is the black picture basically on both sides of the light are these scratches that i cant get. i used uc. should i use the scratch x i got? next question on the top of the cab its kinda hard to see in the picture but near the light you can somewhat tell but i cant seem to get that to buff out. its like a oxidation or something of that sort not entirely sure any suggestions? all i used was the yellow pad that comes with the daps. next question is how fast do you wanna go when using ultra polish and ultra wax. Thanks everyone for the replies and sorry is the pictures are lame.

[Lydia]

Re: Restoring a Mach 1 to its full potential

Regarding the scratches on the black, are you able to feel them with your fingernail? If so, they're too deep to remove. They don't look that deep to me but I wanted to mention that just in case.

I think that UC's cut is pretty close to ScratchX and may in fact be greater. I'm not positive about that but either way, you could try a couple things:

Go over that area another time or two with UC with the yellow pads you have.
Buy the maroon pads and give those a try with UC.

Regarding using ScratchX, you could try using it by hand to remove the scratches. Your fingers exert more concentrated pressure than the DAPS pad. You'll want to avoid applying pressure with just your fingertips - try to apply pressure evenly with your whole fingers. Keep in mind regardless of what method you use if you can feel it with your fingernails it's too deep to remove with compound.

If these dont work, they may just have to be left. Sometimes they can be too deep to safely remove and you have to be content with 99% improved.

I'm looking at this on my phone and can't get the red picture big enough to give you any advice on it. Two things come to mind with your description:

The red in that area was more oxidized and needs a little more compounding.
You're actually seeing some minor hazing that will be removed by the UP.

I would try a test spot with UP first. If that doesnt fix it, try a test spot with UC again on the yellow pad.

UP is worked in pretty similar to UC although you can go a little more quickly and a little lighter pressure since you are polishing or refining the surface, not compounding. UW can be applied quickly with minimal pressure as you are simply applying it. Just make sure to apply the wax very thinly (a little goes a long way) and do go over each area a couple times just to ensure even coverage. This step should go very quickly. Yellow pad can be used for UP and black for wax. I would do a test spot with UP to see if you can discern a difference when its been worked in. Sometimes UC itself finishes out well and UP afterwards is not needed.

Well done thus far, by the way!

[M.N.mach1]

Re: Restoring a Mach 1 to its full potential

I will add that is is single stage on the top there i was almost wondering if i need that maroon pad for the top. But ill go over again with uc and up

[Lydia]

Re: Restoring a Mach 1 to its full potential

The maroon pad may be helpful for the top if it is a matter of the oxidation being worse. Otherwise, I wouldn't say it being single-stage alone would require a more aggressive pad per se. But yes, if it is more oxidized, the maroon pad would be helpful. I wasn't sure whether you were able to get those locally or not. Since you'll probably want it for the black if you go ahead and get it you could give it a try on the top also.

Since this is a single-stage paint job you might consider buying a bottle of #7 show car glaze and see if that improves things any (particularly on the top). Depending on the condition of the paint it may restore gloss even more. Paint tends to dry out as it ages. It's even more apparent on single-stage paint. #7's polishing oils can really help bring some gloss and depth back to single-stage paint. It's also usually available locally. I've seen it at AutoZone, NAPA, and Advance Auto Parts (it's not in the same section as the other detailing supplies in the store I went to most recently - it was in the section with the repaint supplies). It might be worth giving it a try.

I'm not sure if you know the history of the paint jobs on your car or not, but I remember detailing a Porsche a while back that had 3 different types of paint. One was a base coat/clear coat, and the other two were single-stage. So it's possible your car has a similar situation. Or it could be just more oxidized on the top as a result of being exposed more to the sun (because of being a horizontal panel).

Edited to add: #7 is a pure polish and as such is generally applied by rubbing into the paint then wiping off the residue. It does not have any abrasives in it, so there's no reason to buff it for an extended period of time like with UC or UP. You also wouldn't want to allow it to dry like a wax. Just apply it and rub it in to ensure even application (kind of like if you were using lotion on your hands), then wipe off the residue.

I say "generally" because sometimes, on severely dried-out or oxidized paint, it is applied thickly and left on overnight (in a protected area where it won't be gathering dust or dirt) to allow the oils to soak into the paint. I don't think this would be necessary with your car since it's already in pretty good condition. That would be for paint that is in particularly bad shape.

[M.N.mach1]

Re: Restoring a Mach 1 to its full potential

Thanks for the advice i appreciate it. I was gonna ask that. I was wondering u
If the up had enough oils in it for the paint but would you think it qould be a waste of time to just go over the whole care with up then hit up the stuff with that #7 by hamd that has the single stage then go to uw. And for the top try uc again with the daps then #7 by hand and see how that looms or would you just go uc then up then #7. If that doesnt seem to get it possiby do it again but with maroon pad with the uc. Sorry if im making you repeat i jist like to reiterate myself so i know im understanding what your saying.

[M.N.mach1]

Re: Restoring a Mach 1 to its full potential

There so many combinations

[Lydia]

Re: Restoring a Mach 1 to its full potential

No worries! I completely understand as that's how I tend to be as well.

UP has polishing oils as well as very mild abrasives. As such, it will remove any minor "hazing" that may have been instilled by the UC. This helps refine the finish even better and will make crisper reflections. It will add some polishing oils as well.

#7 is a "pure polish", in that it has no abrasives - it only has polishing oils (well, and whatever else the chemist may have added to make it usable).

That being said, they're effectively serving two different purposes. One (UP) is removing minor hazing. The other (#7) is strictly adding polishing oils. If I understand correctly, UP is pretty rich in polishing oils, but it obviously isn't as rich as #7. As far as whether or not UP has enough polishing oils to sufficiently rejuvenate single-stage paint, I would tend to guess so but I don't know that for sure. Hopefully someone else who knows for sure will chime in. Otherwise, my suggestion would be:

Check the reflection of the light in different ares of your paint. Judging by the pictures you posted, I would tend to say that you CAN get a more refined finish. I don't know what kind of light you use, but generally with the light I use I expect to be able to clearly see the edges of the bulb and often the reflector itself, reflecting in the paint (on black or dark paint, at least). While it looks like the swirls have been removed on the black paint, judging by the pictures (which is not always completely accurate IME), it looks like the reflection may be able to get clearer. I think you should do a test spot of UP. Work it in pretty well (maybe once up and down, once left and right, then one more time up and down, with 50% overlapping passes and slow arm speed like usual), then wipe the residue off and look at it again. Check the reflection of the light in the test spot area and in an area that you only did UC. If it looks better with UP, great! Do that on the rest of the panel/car.

Likewise, my advice with #7 would be to do a test spot. I tend to think #7 will make less of a difference on the clear coat portion. But you could still give it a try. On the SS portion, it sounds like you haven't yet refined the paint quite to where you want it. This is where a test spot comes in again, but in this case I would be sure to do a test spot with all of the steps you are considering using to see where that takes the finish. So I would recommend trying a few different things. Since you've already done the top with UC, do one test spot with:

1 more application of UC
1 application of UP
1 application of #7
You could even apply a coat of UW at this point and see where it takes you.

Do a second test spot with:

1 application of UP
Apply a coat of #7 on top of this and see whether that makes a difference.

For the fun of it, you could also do a test spot with an application of #7. Keep in mind that if a test spot of #7 improves it but still doesn't quite bring it to where you want it to be and you end up using UP afterwards, UP (or UC, or anything with any amount of "cutting" power) will remove the #7. Again, the one exception to this is paint that is oxidized to the point that the polishing oils from #7 actually soak into the paint and replenish some of the oils that have dried out over time. I don't think your paint has reached that point, but I also don't know for sure. If your paint has reached the point where it could use the additional oils soaking into the paint, and you have a sheltered place to keep the vehicle, you could try applying a coat of #7 in a test spot and leaving it overnight, then removing it the next morning and see if that helps any. I don't think this method is recommended by Meguiar's, but it is a well-known way to restore oils. But this is to some extent where my enjoyment at trying things comes in. YMMV.

Compare these test spots to the baseline, which in this case is the part that you've only done with UC.

You're correct - there are a lot of combinations! And no two paint systems and set of eyeballs are exactly the same, so while we can recommend things, it will ultimately come down to what you like the look of best on your individual paint system. On the other hand, I think the more understanding you have of the products you're using and what they achieve, the better prepared you'll be to address what you're seeing.

On another side note, I understand that sometimes it's easy for people (me, in this case) to recommend trying more products. I'm telling you what I would try, but I also keep #7 on hand and work on multiple vehicles so am able to justify buying more products better. So if you're not wanting to buy more products at this time, I completely understand. I would still move forward with the test spots, just without #7. This will give you a good idea of where you're at.

[Lydia]

Re: Restoring a Mach 1 to its full potential

I don't know what kind of light you use, but generally with the light I use I expect to be able to clearly see the edges of the bulb and often the reflector itself, reflecting in the paint (on black or dark paint, at least).

Correction: I just realized I said the edges of the bulb. I meant the edges of the light or light fixture.