Advice for BC paint - no CC

[BeanieMike]

I have been a satisfied Meguiars user for many decades, but it's been a long time since I've had to deal with this kind of problem. My daughter bought a '65 Falcon convertible that has a red "1-Day Paint" job. (Yeah, I know what you're gonna say . . . but that's how it came.) The challenge is to make this last until she can afford to take the car down to bare metal and start over. The car is in L. A., not garaged, but primarily parked in convered parking structures.

I've read the 5-step cycle info and done some forum searching, but didn't find what I thought was right on point. I have an OB, but being a convertible, I can just as easily do the main problem areas - trunk and hood - by hand. There are a lot of below surface defects (water spots, stains ?) that I've been able to remove with judicious use of #2. And yes, I'm removing paint, so I can't do much of that long before the paint is gone.

After the cleaning process, I'm a little confused by the variety of products as to where to go from here. The #2 bottle recommends going to #9 and then #26. Is this a better choice than some of the Deep Crystal or NXT products that I have on hand? Is #2 the right product to start with? Would the clay bar work equally effective for non-CC paint?

Any suggestions/advice welcome.

Mike

[Tim Lingor]

Hey BeanieMike


Welcome to Meguiar's Online!

Firstly, any of the products Meguiar's sells for paint can be used on BC/CC (Base Coat/Clear Coat) and Single Stage paint like yours.

The first thing to point out is that unless you have a recent bottle of #2 Fine Cut Cleaner that says it is for hand application, the older version #2 was for rotary buffer only. Using the older version by hand may cause marring and haze to the paint.

I would suggest that you first use Meg's ScratchX to remove the light marring and swirls in the paint. Here are a couple of important How-To's:

How To Remove Swirls By Hand

How to remove a defect by hand with ScratchX


I would then follow with Meg's ColorX to further refine the finish. Finally, top with 2 coats of NXT Tech Wax.

I hope this helps!

Tim