First post. Not a pro, but better than the average guy trying to salvage old paint, or so I think. I have a 65 Mustang that was last painted in 1987, base/clear. Been resurrecting it and in an attempt to make it presentable thought I had paint looking really good, relatively speaking. No clue type of paint, but I wet sanded it, then used Akrya 600, some other Akrya finer compound/polish, Meguiar's 105/205/polish/wax. Looked great - see photo of entire top of car.
The problem: First time it sat out in the sun (couple of weeks ago), the spots appeared. Searched the site and found the thread on leopard spots/finger marks. Also read about older clear coat breaking down or just not lasting. I looked through several photos of the car before I started. Many of the spots and streaks were already there, so I don't believe I necessarily created them, just exposed them. None were noticeable after the wet sanding though.
Thoughts as to the problem? Any solutions beyond complete respray? I don't think it'd be worth my time to wet sand and re-clear it, but if I did, do you think it would resolve the issue? Sounds like it'd be a challenge to ensure all clear was removed and thus better to respray entire car. The car is a good driver for what it is. To repaint it leads to new interior, underhood detailing, etc. Just not ready for that yet.
First you might want to see if you can get the paint checked for thickness.
If you were to repair it again, I’d recommend putting a ceramic coating on the clearcoat to seal it well. Then maybe put a topper on the coating to give it additional protection from water spots.
There are a ton of ceramic coatings. CQuartz UK 3 is one of the stalwarts.
I'm one of the "paint guys" PaulMys referred to... Without seeing the paint in person it's really hard to diagnose but I'll give it my best shot.
If those defects that I see in your photos are after wetsanding and polishing, then I can say with near certainty that there is nothing more you could do to try to remove/improve upon them. I would bet that if you inspected those areas with 10x magnification you would find the clear to be compromised... Either very small cracks, porosity or some other type of film failure in the affected areas that likely extends well into or even all the way through the clear. With older paint systems it's even possible that the defects extend into the color coats.
As for the 1980s era paints, urethanes and "true" base coat/clear coat systems for the automotive market were in their infancy. There is actually a pretty good chance that what you really have is a single-stage color coat topped with a clear acrylic enamel that had a urethane conversion additive mixed in. In these older paint systems the color and clear coats are actually one. They "melt" into each other. A much different paint system than today's base coat/clear coat finishes where the clear coat sits on top of the separate color coat. The clear coat bonds to the color coat but it does not melt together as one.
As far as sanding and re-clearing goes, that is a real crapshoot. You may be able to achieve some improvement, but expecting a "like new" finish is not realistic. The flaws in the existing finish will almost certainly telegraph through to the new finish.
Stripping (to metal) and restarting from scratch is the only real option in my book.
Hope that explanation helps. Unfortunately, it's not a remedy for your problem, but rather some information to help with understanding what you are dealing with. And again, this is my best shot at an internet diagnosis... Certainly not a "for sure" alternate for a real live inspection.
Wow! Thanks for the quick responses. This was my COVID purchase last March. Spent most of my lunch hours in the garage working on it when having to work from home while quarantined. I seem to recall getting rid of most of the marks via wet sanding (1000 on up to 3000 grit). There may have been a few of the perimeters still slightly present. I agree with you, 2black1s, that magnified it would be very telling. I hit one spot again with the buffer but have yet to put it back in the sun.
There are only a couple of places I broke through to the paint, and I hit it hard due to the amount of texture, so figured it's some sort of base/clear.
She's still a looker, despite the flaws. This photo is before pulling it out of the garage for the first time. I only cut and buffed the horizontal surfaces and sides down to the coves. Hoping sides aren't affected. If not I'll do the remainder.
I do work for a Classic car dealership and actually see this quite often on cars that have been repainted in that late '80's time line with base coat/ clear coat.
There is actually a few cars in there right now that have this going on.
I myself have been able to improve them a lot but never been able to totally remove them especially when they run as deep as the one im pointing to. And all the vehicles I have seen have literally the exact same characteristics and patterns as what you're seeing.
Ripping through your mind like a hurricane full of novocaine
Welcome to AGO! Awesome car - love old Mustangs (my old man has a 64.5 Mustang 289 D-Code/4 speed convertible). I see the 289 emblems and the fog lights, so assuming a 289 A-Code GT Fastback. What tranny does it have? Looks like it has AC through the window, does it also have Pony interior - looks like standard parchment from that view?
Thanks: 
Likes: 
Dislikes: 
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks