I talked with you the other day about a client I have that has a 1978 ferrari dino. Some of the horizontal surfaces have been repainted such as the hood and trunk, but the rest of the car is al original paint. I have used different products such as Wolfgang sealants, Lusso Oro carnauba waxes, and many more over the years.
The car has spider cracking and swirling through out the car, and i am afraid to use any polishing compound or light abraisive due to the age of the paint and the fact that it is a single stage red paint.
If anyone has any suggestions please feel free to throw some ideas around. any and all advice is welcome and appreciated.
Thanks
Chris
P.S. Sorry to attach the Photo, I am still learning how to resize photos on my computer.
I've worked on a few of these in my career and love these body styles.
Spider cracking actually called crows feet or lacquer checking or lacquer cracking cannot be safely fixed. The reason for this is because the cracks go through the matrix or thickness of the layer of paint. The more you abrade the surface the more paint you remove and all you do is chase the cracks further towards the body panel.
As Detailer's, most of what we can correct is topical defects, that is shallow defects that are on the surface.
You can however polish the heck out if the paint and at least have glossy lacquer cracking.
Be very careful around that cracking. Leave the pressure washer at home on this job. Very careful washing around that cracking and I'd suggest not going anywhere near that cracking with a polisher of any sort. Anytime I've seen cracking that looks like that, the paint has completely lost it's bond with the panel and is just sitting there waiting for some unsuspecting person to press a little too hard on that cracked up area to see it fall right off the car on to the ground. That car needs painted not polished.
I know it can be exciting working on a cool classic and exotic car like that but if I were in your shoes, I'd do as Mike Phillips has suggested on some jobs and allow someone else to have the blessing of working on such a car.
The photos just scream risk and liability.
If you do proceed to working on the car you'll get polish residue deep down into those cracks and it will stand out like a sore thumb in the end.
If you do take the job and get polish down in those cracks, have a box of Q-Tips and a bottle of wax remover with you and very carefully remove the residue from the cracks by dipping your Q-Tips in the wax remover then wicking the excess wax remover from the cotton swab end with a towel before lightly rubbing the Q-Tip over the cracks to remove the residue. You don't want to get anything liquid, especially a solvent of any type under the paint in that area.
If you do take the job, very carefully clean that cracked up area, do any polishing that you are going to do, immediately remove any polish residue from the cracks before the polish is allowed to dry then use a clear sealant on the paint in the end. You'll be sorry if you use a carnauba on a car that is cracked up like that. It will look decent as soon as you finish the job, but as the wax hardens over the following few weeks it will no doubt show up white down in those cracks and end up looking terrible.
UPGP or Opti-Seal will be your saving grace on a job like this.
If you do take the job, very carefully clean that cracked up area, do any polishing that you are going to do, immediately remove any polish residue from the cracks before the polish is allowed to dry then use a clear sealant on the paint in the end.
Very good advice.
One cheater thing you could try is to machine polish a coat of #7 as your last machine applied process. #7 is a very clear polish that doesn't dry white. Machine polishing will move "product" around inside the cracks, hopefully moving out polish that dries white and replacing it with the #7 oils.
Then top with a clear product. Believe it or not, here's where a pure or non-cleaning carnauba wax that doesn't dry can come in handy. For example, the Pinnacle Souveran Paste Wax.
Since you live near by, if the owner will drive to Autogeek then I invite both you and the owner down to our studio and we'll tackle this together. You keep all the money, I'm just offering the opportunity to tackle this together.
Also, as long as you're careful you can polish right over these cracks. As long as the lip of paint along the crack isn't lifting. Machine polishing over them with a foam pad and some type of compound or polish will,
Clear up the paint.
Smooth over the paint and the cracks or crack edges.
Maximize gloss to match surrounding panels without this issue that will be polished.
Thank you for the time you both took to give absolutely fantastic advice. I agree that in the past years using white polish and or wax have seemed to 'stain' the crows feet. I just looked into some red colored waxes that are offered in the market and wasn't sure if that would be a good idea to cover up any white stains that were still visible.
Mike,
I just talked with the owner and gave him the forum url and he is going to take a look. I know his car is in the shop right now with a snapped clutch cable, but that would be awesome, Thanks!
One cheater thing you could try is to machine polish a coat of #7 as your last machine applied process. #7 is a very clear polish that doesn't dry white. Machine polishing will move "product" around inside the cracks, hopefully moving out polish that dries white and replacing it with the #7 oils.
Then top with a clear product. Believe it or not, here's where a pure or non-cleaning carnauba wax that doesn't dry can come in handy. For example, the Pinnacle Souveran Paste Wax.
Since you live near by, if the owner will drive to Autogeek then I invite both you and the owner down to our studio and we'll tackle this together. You keep all the money, I'm just offering the opportunity to tackle this together.
Also, as long as you're careful you can polish right over these cracks. As long as the lip of paint along the crack isn't lifting. Machine polishing over them with a foam pad and some type of compound or polish will,
Clear up the paint.
Smooth over the paint and the cracks or crack edges.
Maximize gloss to match surrounding panels without this issue that will be polished.
Mike,
I just talked with the owner and gave him the forum url and he is going to take a look. I know his car is in the shop right now with a snapped clutch cable, but that would be awesome, Thanks!
-Chris
And just to note, I'm confident you can completely take care of this without my help, I just like Dino's and I like to help...
Originally Posted by Twister
That's a really nice offer Mike!
Well were here, we have to ability to tackle whatever drives into the studio and I like to make things shiny...
I'll have to dig up the pictures of the last Ferrari Dino I buffed out. It has single stage red paint also. I was the third "detailer" hired to fix the car because after the previous two detailers tried to buff the paint out they had to repaint the car.
It's just as easy to do things the right way the first time as it is to do things wrong all the time. Like I always say,
"Detailers that hang out on discussion forums like AGO know more than detailers that don't hang out on forums at all"
A great detailer brings four things to the table...
Knowledge
Skill
Experience
Passion
Knowledge is shared, transfered and obtained via detailing discussion forums better and faster than any other media.
Thank you again for the opportunity to bring the Dino up to the Autogeek Garage! I have attached a photo of the Dino at the last Cavallino Classic, and am waiting to hear back from the owner on what he wants to do.
I have quite a few ideas on what to do with the car, but would love the opportunity to tackle the car together!
P.S. I am not sure if you went to the Classic Car Show in Abacoa this past saturday, but i saw Tommy and his orange Cuda 440 up at the show, and the car was attracting quite the attention!
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Originally Posted by tuscarora dave
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