1960 Olds Ninety Eight Extreme Makeover

[Nick Chapman]

1960 Olds Ninety Eight Extreme Makeover


I think I have a passion for pain, I seem to love to turn these basket cases

Here is 1960 Olds that I just recently finished. A little history on this job....

Paint was thin, and by thin I mean THIN!!! At it's thickest point it was 2.1 mils, and the thinnest was 1.2 mils. And original Laquer paint at that! I called Mike to get his opinion on it, and nothing was working at all. So I took it upon myself(with the owners OK of course ) to do some experimentation. Surprisingly, Solo worked the best! I was shocked.

Here are the before's...






As you can see, the paint is dead

[Nick Chapman]

Re: 1960 Olds Ninety Eight makeover...

It was very late when I finished, so I wasn't able to get any good after shots. But here are a couple during. I plan on going back out there to get some good "after's" this week sometime.

Obviously with the paint so thin, the goal of this car wasn't removing defects, only to make the original 47 year old paint shine.

[Superior Shine]

Re: 1960 Olds Ninety Eight makeover...

I would have paid the owner of that car to let me polish it-I LOVE IT!!

You better post some after pics or we are going to have problems-LOL!!

[Nick Chapman]

Re: 1960 Olds Ninety Eight makeover...

I would have paid the owner of that car to let me polish it-I LOVE IT!!

You better post some after pics or we are going to have problems-LOL!!

I figured you would be all over this car

I'll get them up as soon as I get them.

Nick

[ronniejay]

Re: 1960 Olds Ninety Eight makeover...

Please give your process.

[Nick Chapman]

Re: 1960 Olds Ninety Eight makeover...

Please give your process.

Well, I tried a test spot with all of the common methods(80, 83, 66, etc...) and nothing was working. This was an original 1960's laquer paint, and it also had the aluminum flake in it. So it was like polishing metal, all products were turning black and gumming up within seconds. The black gummed up product was a bear to remove. I talked with the owner for a bit, and explained(and even showed him what was going on). He saw the finished product(my test spot) and told me to do what I had to do, and whatever I needed to charge him was ok with him. So I started pulling out everything I had.

The process that worked was;
Wash
clay
clay
clay
Solo on rotary
Then topped it off with #16(since #16 was designed in this era, I thought it would be perfect).

I didn't have much paint to work with, so I needed to be as gentle as possible. This was the thinnest paint I have ever worked with, and to tell you the truth, I was a little scared putting that rotary on it. But with VERY little pressure(not even the weight of the machine), and a little patience, I got the job completed, and a happy customer

I'd have to say that the most important tool on this job was patience.


Nick

[Mike Phillips]

Re: 1960 Olds Ninety Eight makeover...

Can't wait to see the after pictures. Spoke with Nick about restoring this old paint and have to admit we never even thought about using the Solo system on it, in most case for older single stage paints like this we lean would lean towards M02 Fine Cut Cleaner before it was reformulated. The fact that Solo worked better than the other products Nick tried is very interesting and surprising at the same time. That's one of the reasons that we always remind people of this simple old saying...

"You don't know what you can do until you try"


Might sound kind of corny, but hey... it's true.

Nice work Nick. We're going to share this thread with R&D and also Jason Rose who is in charge of the Solo 1 System.

Cool car also, love this shot as it really showcases the body lines and style of the car.




Lots of times these old cars have very cool dash layouts, at least very unique dashes as compared to modern cars, if you get a chance take a picture of the dash from the driver's point of view and perhaps share that in the thread too.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: 1960 Olds Ninety Eight makeover...

I would have paid the owner of that car to let me polish it-I LOVE IT!!

We're with Joe on this one, when cool older cars come along with paint like this we like the challenge and fun of restoring the paint whether we're paid or not. We also understand that if the wrong guy gets a hold of it and doesn't take the time to do some experimenting with products and test-spots that chances are good they'll just destroy it using some archaic compound.

[scooter79]

Re: 1960 Olds Ninety Eight makeover...

Hmmm... I wonder how #83 or two passes of #80 would have performed on this car. Would #83 have been to aggressive for the thin paint?

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: 1960 Olds Ninety Eight makeover...

Can't wait to see the afters. lucky you to get to do this car. I'm sure it was alot of work, but the transformation probably made it all worth while.

[Superior Shine]

Re: 1960 Olds Ninety Eight makeover...

Hmmm... I wonder how #83 or two passes of #80 would have performed on this car. Would #83 have been to aggressive for the thin paint?

If the paint is indeed original it is lacquer. Dead dried out lacquer will load up a pad quick with thick black slurry. After polishing out a small section you will have to clean or change pads almost immediately.

I certainly would not use a foam pad as my first step for that reason. On this type (and condition) of paint a wool pad (used gently and cleaned often) will bring about the best results.

[rascal]

Re: 1960 Olds Ninety Eight makeover...

Wow! Can't wait to see the complete afters!

[bubba57-chevy]

Re: 1960 Olds Ninety Eight makeover...

Nick, great work. As one that does a lot of the older cars, I can attest that you have the process down. I am currently working on a '34 Ford Cabriolet. While not original, it was restored back in the late 80's I believe and sprayed with lacquer. I'll have pics before long. Once again, great job.

[Nick Chapman]

Re: 1960 Olds Ninety Eight makeover...

Hmmm... I wonder how #83 or two passes of #80 would have performed on this car. Would #83 have been to aggressive for the thin paint?

Just like Joe said, the pad loaded up quick. Along with the fact that it had aluminum flake in it, made 80 and 83 impossible to use.

Thanks for the compliments guys, I'm going to try and run out there this morning to get some shots. And Mike, the interior of this car is in almost perfect condition, never restored!

[Rick McDonough]

Re: 1960 Olds Ninety Eight makeover...

Nick, nice work!!! I'm amazed!!! Gorgeous car as well...will definitely look forward to more pictures when you get the chance!!! Thanks for sharing!