Paint Correction - 1970 VW Karmann Ghia

[SirFrederick]

I am going to detail my father in laws red 1970 VW Karmann Ghia which has single stage paint. I would say the paint is in decent shape. It has a lot of swirl marks and the paint is faded a bit. I have no idea what the paint thickness is, so I’m planning on using a polish that has light cutting abilities. I’ve read through Mike’s articles regarding #7 rub down and plan on doing this. This is my plan of action:


1. wash and clay
2. #7 rub down following Mike’s instructions
3. polish with either HD Polish or GG Boss Correcting Creme (those are two that I an get easily and aren’t too expensive but I’m open to suggestions), Ultimate Detailing Machine and LC 5.5” flat cutback DA white polishing pads
4. IPA or CP Eraser/OPP necessary?
5. LSP ???


Will the Ultimate Detailing Machine DA be good enough? It appears to be under powered compared to say the GG 6” DA and other current DA polishers. I recall when using the UDM roughly 10 years ago that it vibrated quite a bit. With a newer machine can I expect that to be improved? I was planning on purchasing a new DA for myself now that I am back into detailing regularly, but not until after this coming winter as my car is not in need of paint correction yet. I’m wondering if it’s worth it to get something now?

Are the two polishes I listed good choices for what I need to do? I don’t want anything to aggressive.

Am I using the right polishing pad?

Do I need to use an IPA wipedown for this type of paint after polishing? Something tells me no as this may reduce the shine of the polish and remove any oils from the rub down with #7.

Wax or sealant? I use Meg’s Fast Finish on my car and Meg’s Xpress Spray Wax as a drying aid for my weekly washes. It seems as though a carnauba wax is mostly used with vintage cars. Is a carnauba my best option? I can get #26 wax as well. Will a sealant be fine on single stage paint? I’ve been very impressed with Fast Finish on my own car.

Thanks in advance.

[TheBandit]

I am new to detailing and had my first foray into restoring single stage paint recently with my '70 Nova. Mike's articles were very helpful along with watching a bunch of YouTube videos, but I also had to experiment some to figure out what my car needed.

After the overnight soak and rub off of no 7, the paint found some life again. I could feel it became more soft and workable and just the no7 brought a whole lot of color back.

I tried following that up with M205 polish and a Lake Country flat white polishing pad but it was not aggressive enough to remove heavy oxidation. I switched to Ultimate Compound and an orange medium cutting pad. Eventually I found a yellow heavy cutting pad with the Ultimate Compound worked best in my situation.

I'm not advising you to go that aggressive on yours - I think you're starting in the right place with the white polishing pad and some polish. What I want to highlight is that you will just need to see what it does for your paint and be ready to get more aggressive if it's appropriate. In my case the polish would not remove the hazy layer of oxidation that clouded reflections and made the paint look faded. Compound and a cutting pad did the trick for me, but my oxidation was pretty bad.

I suggest having a range of pads and product on hand so you can switch if your paint demands more: I have Lake Country flat pads in yellow (heavy cutting), orange (medium cut), white (polishing), and black (finish). I did not expect to use the yellow pad but it ended up being the ticket to get through some of my heavy oxidation. I subscribe to Mike's advice to use the least aggressive method that gets the job done - start easy and see how it goes.

Here is my newbie thread showing the process I've gone through so far. My paint restoration is far from done, but maybe the process and videos I've shown will give you some ideas. You'll see as I went along I had to alter my plan in order to give the car what it needed. Newbie single stage paint restoration

[SirFrederick]

Thanks for the info Bandit. I went through your thread and found some great tips in there. Love the "clean your pad on the fly" video. Your car turned out great.

Your paint was in worse condition then what I'm dealing with. I actually did a full detail and polish on this Karmann Ghia just over 10 years ago. My wife and I used it for our wedding car. When I started with it the paint was in okay shape. Light swirls and scratches. The rims and bumpers were severely rusted up though.

This is how it looked after I finished it 10 years ago.



I'm hoping to get it back to that condition. My father in law has put a lot of swirl marks and scratches in it from bad washing technique and bad towels. The paint is a little faded now too. Doesn't have the bright pop to it.

I noticed you used microfibre towels for the #7 rub down instead of terry cloth. Any reason for this or just what you had on hand? I'm basing this off Mike's recommendation here The #7 Rub Down Technique by Mike Phillips.

[TheBandit]

I was following the writeup below. There is some discussion on the type of towel to use. I think it's less important what towel you use for the no 7 rub off if you are following up with polish. You are no longer relying on the no 7 rub off towel for "polishing".

The Secret to Removing Oxidation and Restoring a Show Car Finish to Antique Single Stage Paints

That car looks great in the photo by the way! Do you have any photos of the current condition?

[SirFrederick]

I don't have any yet but plan on taking some when I get the car.

I did find out that a section of the rear quarter panel had some damage and was repainted with clearcoat. The shop blended it in by buffing the new section with the old section in order to save cost instead of repainting the whole quarter panel.

Does anyone know if I need to avoid rubbing in the #7 on the portion of the quarter panel that has clearcoat on in now?