Best way to polish '63 T-Bird deteriorated metallic paint?

[Alfisti]

I'm in the process of detailing a '63 T-Bird which has original metallic paint. The horizontal surfaces are badly deteriorated, oxidized, matt. Its like polishing and getting a gloss on chalk! The owner knows I can only get minimal results and is happy to just get a hazy reflection.

I tried to polish it with #83 but it tended to 'drink' the polish, preventing it doing it's job. It was suggested to me to first apply #7 to feed the paint and stop it 'drinking' polish.

I've just applied it, and boy it's hard to get off that surface. I have no probs on newer paint.

Anyway, I just want any advice as to what's the best way to tackle it.

My present plan is to let the #7 absorb while I do the vertical surfaces, then hit the horizontals with #83 at the end.

Any thoughts, please?

[Murr1525]

Is the surface staying stable after working in it? Or deteriorating soon after? If it likes the polish, and stays stable for a long time after applying it, it may just need a good amount of polish, working on smaller areas than you are used to for each amount of polish.

And then a good wax after that.

[travisdecpn]

I did my dad's '71 ford thunderbird last summer and found that clay really helped. It took a couple passes with #83 and a W-7000 cutting pad to really make a dent in the oxidation, but after those passes and a couple passes with #80 and a W-8000 pad the finish came out great. I'm headed home this weekend, so I'll try to snap some picks and maybe give a step-by-step writeup.

[Alfisti]

Originally posted by Murr1525
Is the surface staying stable after working in it? Or deteriorating soon after? If it likes the polish, and stays stable for a long time after applying it, it may just need a good amount of polish, working on smaller areas than you are used to for each amount of polish.

When you say "polish", do you mean #7 or #83?
What do you mean by "stable?

Sorry for the questions.

travisdecpn, did you use a PC or rotary? I'm using a PC.

What does anybody think of the #7 approach that I'm trying?

[travisdecpn]

I started with a pc, but that wasn't cutting it, so I moved onto the rotary. I haven't seen the car in about a year, so when I go home, I'll do it all over again (with a pc) and try to make a formal writeup. It probably won't be a big change since it has been in the garage, but I will at least show you the process.

[Murr1525]

With some older and badly cared for paint jobs, you may get good looking results for a few days, and then it will quickly go back to its original bad look. All the original oxidation, and chalky look, etc will reappear. This would be called unstable. In this situation, there would be nothing you can do.

As far as polish, you may just need to try both. The #83 will add some cleaning power, which you may need as well. As travisdecpn said, it may take quite a few passes to dent bad oxidation with a PC. You may need to remove what you can with #83, and then add some passes of #7.

My opinion is that you will want the paint fairly clean before using the #7, to get as much as possible out of it. But, maybe some #7 first can do something. Give it a try. It will not hurt anything, thats for sure.