Advice on restoring the finish of my 80's Porsche

[sobiecam]

I've recently acquired a 1986 Porsche 944 through some trading and the car has started to grow on me so I think it may be sticking around my stable for some time, anyways; the cars paint looks rough for only having 76k miles, it looks like the clear coat may be failing on the header panel, there's some bad touch up jobs, and cracks in the paint (nothing a detail would fix) but I want to shine up and save what is there of the original paint, It looks as if the previous owner attacked it with a buffer and ended up doing more harm than good, the clear looks very bad in direct sunlight with all kinds of scratches in it, pictures below.

Here was my plan for working the paint:
Two bucket wash with dawn dish soap - my thought was to use dawn to pull off as much wax and grease residue that is on the paint

Wax and grease remover the whole car - same thought as above but I want to verify with you guys that I wont destroy the paint/clear with the W/G-R

Clay bar (of course) - my question here is that I see Heavy, Medium, and light duty clays and I'm not sure if it helps or would be a waste to use three types of clay on the car, the guy i got it from lived right off of a big interstate in Chicago and parked it outside so I know there's going to be quite a bit of garbage stuck to the surface

From there I think it will need a buff but I need pointers on what would work the best, I'm intending on spending a whole weekend on making the car look good before it gets put up for the winter and some mechanical work, I'm armed with a Makita buffer with adjustable speed but I'm likely going to have to get new pads so if you could suggest me some that would help tons too!

For the polishing compound I'm used to Meguiars Ultimate by hand but I have a Meguiars DA polisher at my disposal and I'm also open to a different compound. I've seen terms like soft and hard relating to paints on the forum and I'd never thought about that too hard, so that's making me second guess what to use!

The Car:


(I'll get pictures of how rough the car really looks!)

Thank you for any advice on making this old car shine again!

[Billy Baldone]

Where do you live? You mentioned Chicago. I live in the NW suburbs. I would be happy to help you out with it.

[sobiecam]

I live in Indianapolis, I traded a 74 Charger for this, trying to remember the neighborhood it was in! I took the parking decal off it but I do remember being maybe a mile from an interstate that ran over a quarry that was a little north of 80/90

[SKorch630]

294 runs over the quarry.

[Billy Baldone]

Aaaah. I would love to help you if you were closer. It looks like fun challenge

[sobiecam]

I'm looking forward to spending a weekend making it pretty again with some good tunes and a few cold ones lol, I'm originally from Northern IN actually, just never familiarized myself with Chicago all that much


EDIT: I got it from LaGrange! but yeah we weren't far off of 294 at all

[Mike lambert]

Stay away from the rotary, I would use Meguiars d300 on a micro cutting pad, polish with m205 and finish with whatever you like. Those cars are easy to work with, and stick with the mild clay.

[Mike lambert]

One other point, if the timing belts have not been done don't worry about making it pretty first!

[sobiecam]

Thanks for the advice on the buffing! The PO put a new timing belt on it before I got it but he never gave me paperwork, I'm thinking about putting a Kevlar belt from Lindsey Racing on while I have it down for the snowy season

[AGOatemywallet]

Are you certain that it is not India Red....which is Single Stage