Need help with fixing paint oxidation

[napoleon907]

Hi, fairly new to using machine polishers and needing some help please! Working on a black Ford Focus with a fair amount of oxidised paint on the bonnet and roof. Used Meguiars Ultimate Compound and a Rockwell DA polisher (waiting on a better polisher to arrive shortly!) and bonnet came up well. However, roof is much more oxidised/faded, gave it a light buff and noticed small amount of black base coat starting to come off onto pads. Not sure if this is base coat, or just the oxidised paint coming off onto the pads?

My question is, the owner is hoping not to have to respray the roof, I'm just not quite sure when to keep going (to remove more of the oxidised paint) and when to stop for sake of clearcoat (of which there clearly isn't a lot left). A light buff definitely helped improve shine on the roof, but there is still a fair bit of oxidation/faded paint left. Want to help the owner avoid a respray if she can, however, also don't want to overbuff the roof and end up with her coming back to me in a few years saying the roof has oxidised etc even more!

Either way I've recommended regular waxing (every 3 months or so) after I'm done buffing the car, seeing as it can't be garaged so is subject to harsh sun, especially given the state of the clear coat on the roof. No clear coat peeling, just very thin.

See link to photo below, shows 50/50 shot of the bonnet (sorry for the reflections of the clouds above!), left side done, before wax, right side only clayed but not buffed. Hard to tell since the photo doesn't show the true extent of the fading. Roof similar but a lot worse.

Would appreciate any help please! :buffing:

Link to photo:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/y99krn7eoznmy6x/20150225_180110.jpg?dl=0

[napoleon907]

Just bumping this thread, really wanting some advice on this one please!

[psdnuts]

well its not easy to just say what to do. test spot is your friend.
what pads are you using?
that black stuff might be just oxidation thats being removed.
do few test spots with different compounds and pad combos and see which one will do the job best.
what car is it and what year?

[Quiksilver5882]

Welcome to the forum! I recommend measuring the paint with a thickness gauge to determine how much clear you are working with. Least aggressive first (polishing pad with M205, cutting pad with M205, Microfiber Cutting pad with M205. Then step up to M105, M101 or FG400). Always better safe than sorry! Good luck :)

[OCDetails]

It is possible that the paint is so damaged that respraying is the only solution. Chemical polishes can remove oxidation without abrasives, and abrasives can do it even better, but if the clear coat has failed then there is only so much you can do. Oxidation is usually just dull looking while clear coat failure will start to show textures and even cracks in the paint. If you are seeing any of that then there are some really aggressive things like wet sanding that may 'help', but it may be time to consider that it may never look factory fresh again. It is just like looking at the skin of a 60 year old person who loved the sun and tanning beds but didn't love sun screen. The damage that sun can do to paint over time is just as dramatic and irreversible as it is to skin.

[napoleon907]

Thanks for the advice, car is a Ford Focus, roughly 10 years old I'd say. Not seeing textures or cracks in the paint just fading. So hoping it's just severe oxidation, not clear coat failure. And hopefully the colour coming off on the pad is just oxidised paint! I have a paint gauge but a cheap one that can't measure clear coat thickness separately.

[napoleon907]

Using lambswool pad to buff, and Meguiars Ultimate Compound. Waiting on my new polisher to get here (comes with a range of pads similar to porter cable ones I think). The polisher I'm using at the moment isn't variable speed and takes too long to do paint correction, hence I think the reason I'm finding it hard to remove the more severe oxidation on the roof

[Crispy2001]

If you see colour on the pad you have gone through the clear and into the base. No fix for this except repaint. Factory clear is roughly 1/3 of the total thickness (primer,colour coat, clear) so you know what you are working with. As always a test spot would tell how far you can go before no return.