1977 Lincoln, stored in a cat-infested garage for 22 years, please help with this project!

[Racerboy230]

Hi Mike!

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

I am a total novice at detailing, so please excuse the elementary questions. I am in the process of acquiring a 1977 Lincoln (pictures below). It has been in storage since 1995, in a garage that was infested with stray cats. The cats seemed to have walked and slept on this car for the past 22 years.

I would like to bring this car back to life, but my limited knowledge makes this task daunting.

I read your article on Meguairs #7 glaze, so that product is now on my list.

To complete this project, I have bought,

a Porter Cable DA Polisher,
Meguiars cutting and polishing disks,
Hydrofoam finishing pads,
Lexol Leather Cleaner and Conditioner,
303 Vinyl cleaner and Protectant,
as well as Meguiars gold class Car Wash.


My question is: did I make appropriate product choices?

Are there any products that I am missing? I read that you use the same polish on the chrome as you do the paint. Would this process suffice for long-neglected chrome?

Are there any other products that you may recommend to complete this job?

Aside from steam, is there a method by which to clean and condition the miles of leather in this car?

Should I leave this job to a professional?

If so, can you recommend one in the New York City area? T

he rear bumper of the car was installed after these photos were taken.

[Setec Astronomy]

At least they weren't inside! This has been cool old car week, that's for sure.

[af1]

Nice find , have fun getting it back into shape!

[Mike Phillips]

Hi Racerboy213

First welcome to AutogeekOnline!


Next let me "insert" your pictures so it's easier for me and everyone else to see them...














There... that's better...


Your free gallery is here...


https://www.autogeekonline.net/galle...0/ppuser/92196

[Mike Phillips]

To complete this project, I have bought,

a Porter Cable DA Polisher,
Meguiars cutting and polishing disks,
Hydrofoam finishing pads,
Lexol Leather Cleaner and Conditioner,
303 Vinyl cleaner and Protectant,
as well as Meguiars gold class Car Wash.


My question is: did I make appropriate product choices?

Are the Meguiar's discs the foam discs or the microfiber discs?

Are there any products that I am missing? I read that you use the same polish on the chrome as you do the paint. Would this process suffice for long-neglected chrome?

Yes and for those of you reading this into the future he's talking about what I said in step 7 in this article,


***Begin copy and paste from below article***


How to use a one-step cleaner/wax to maximize profits

Below is an example of reducing your steps to a minimum while still creating dramatic improvement that will blow your customer away with the simple approach of using a one-step cleaner/wax.


Process

Step 1: Machine polish all exterior glass to remove road film and water spots.

Step 2: Clean and dress tires.

Step 3: Wipe vinyl top down and apply dressing.

Step 4: Wipe paint clean using clay lube.

Step 5: Clay paint.

Step 6: Clean, polish and protect paint using a one-step, cleaner/wax applied by machine.

Step 7: Machine clean and polish chrome at end of paint polishing process using same pad and one-step cleaner/wax.

Step 8: Wipe down door, hood and trunk jambs with a little cleaner/wax on a microfiber towel.

Done.

Less than 4 hours and I didn't rush. I didn't work slow but instead worked methodically through the above steps with each step building and/or adding to the forward progress of the previous step.


***End of copy and paste***

Are there any other products that you may recommend to complete this job?

What do you have for compounds and polishes?

Aside from steam, is there a method by which to clean and condition the miles of leather in this car?

You can do this by hand. Get about a dozen cotton wash cloths, like cheapie ones at Walmart and use these with the Lexol Leather Clean. Use the product heavy or wet, that means dampen the wash cloths with the Lexol and the massage over the leather. Wipe the gunk/excess liquid off with a different dry towel and repeat till the towel stays clean after wiping.

Then apply the Lexol protectant.

Should I leave this job to a professional?

Are you kidding? You got this!

Plus, I say this all the time on this forum and in the real world, the opportunity to work on REAL PAINT is becoming VERY RARE. So have fun. The original paint on this Lincoln is real paint. Modern cars have plastic paint for the most part.

[Racerboy230]

Mike!

Thank you so much for your reply! To answer your questions above: The Meguiars disks are all foam. For compounds and polishes, I have Meguiars m105 and 205. I was also considering using Collinite 845 for the last step. Is that ok for this paint? I am willing to purchase anything that you may recommend to make this project a success.

[Natron]

Welcome Racerboy, cool car. You will be in polishers heaven when that paint starts coming around. Sounds like you are going to do well. Have fun and have patience. Nathan

[DetailKitty]

Nice find! I think what you have will work just find.
Enjoy the transformation!

[jsgntulok]

Hi, and welcome to the forum. What a car!!! From your list of products, I note you to not list polishing clay or other paint prep mitt/towel. Consider adding that to your list. Add blue painter's tape to your list so you can tape off areas to prevent polish residue that is sure to happen when machine polishing. Enjoy the fun of bringing this car's paint back to life. If other questions come up, don't hesitate to come back here and ask. Finally, be sure to post pix of the finished project.

[Mike Phillips]

Mike!

Thank you so much for your reply! To answer your questions above: The Meguiars disks are all foam.

Good to hear. I've found that microfiber pads tend to micro-mar traditional single stage paints more easily than normal foam pads.

For compounds and polishes, I have Meguiars m105 and 205. I was also considering using Collinite 845 for the last step. Is that ok for this paint?

These products will work fine on this old single stage paint. I'd recommend machine applying some #7 after the M205 and then after wiping the #7 off apply a thin coat of the Collinite 845.

I am willing to purchase anything that you may recommend to make this project a success.

Not sure how many pads you have but you're going to need quite a few of the foam cutting pads for a car this size and paint in this condition.

When compounding old single stage paint you're going to be removing a lot of dead, oxidized paint and it's going to build up on the face of your pad. You're going to want to clean your pad on the fly and to do this you'll need some cotton terrycloth hand towels. Watch this video to see this technique in action.





When it comes to machine polishing with foam pads, clean DRY pads work better than wet soggy pads. So it's faster and you're work will be better if you can switch to a dry pad after every panel. See this article,


How many pads do I need to buff out my car?





If you're new to machine polishing, here's a tip...

For the first time you work on this car, just tackle one panel from start to finish. Normally when buffing out a car you start at the highest point, the roof and then work down. If this is your first time, then tackle either the roof or the hood. Tackle a panel that easy and you can look down on.

NOT including the time it will take you to wash the car, to only compound, polish and wax the hood on a car this size will take you about 3-4 hours. By only tackling one panel you'll learn the process, my guess is you'll see amazing results and most important you'll know what you're getting into and how much time it will take to do the rest of the entire car.


When using a Porter Cable dual action polisher to compound, polish and wax a car this size will take you around 12 hours minimum. That's is you start early and don't take a lot of breaks. (set your phone aside)

The compounding step alone for a car this size will take at least 6 hours. The reason why is because you move the polisher slowly making overlapping passes to one section of paint at a time. You divide up larger panels into smaller sections and buff one section at a time. When moving onto a new section you overlap a little into the previous section.

Watch this video and copy what I do...





Also, read this...

DA Polisher Trouble Shooting Guide


And this...

How to divide larger body panels into smaller sections for machine buffing