1950 Ford Tudor - Single Stage Paint

[Scarelane]

Hello -

A friend of mine has approached me to detail his 1950 Ford Tudor. I'm assuming it's a single stage paint, but will go over there this week to do a small test spot to confirm. It's Black and has quite a bit of dullness, swirls and some scratches. It also has quite a bit of hand pin-striping.

I've never detailed a single stage paint before, so I was hoping for some pointers and some product choices. It doesn't need to be show car perfect, but I want it to be nice and he wants a good coat of protection on it. For that I was thinking of using Collinite 845, which I've used many times.

I'm also a little concerned about the pin-striping. Since it's not protected by any kind of clear, should I treat those areas any differently?

Thanks much for any help...

[02nissanISR]

Mike P. has posted articles on single stage paint do a search and have a read, very informative. I've heard that black is one of the softest, so you probably wont need anything too aggressive. i did a first or second gen altima with single stage black paint and all i used was a white LC CCS pad and pinnacle paint work cleansing lotion and it turn out pretty good. like you they weren't looking for perfection just reflection (haha little rhyme on the fly there)

heres a pic of my test spot:

[Mike Phillips]

Hello -

I've never detailed a single stage paint before, so I was hoping for some pointers and some product choices. It doesn't need to be show car perfect, but I want it to be nice and he wants a good coat of protection on it.

See this article,

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



How to Test for Single Stage or Clear Coat Paint



If you want to keep it simple and safe... do the rub-out using a one-step cleaner/wax. This will clean, polish and protect the paint in one step. You won't get perfect results but you should be able to get VERY GOOD results.

Just balance your time investment to what the project is worth to you.

I posted this recommendation earlier today to another single stage thread...


http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/...ssic-cars.html



Here's the most important advice I recommend and would put into practice myself and that's get REALLY GOOD BEFORE PICTURES.

Get the hood shot before you start rubbing on the paint and make a shiny spot. You want to capture a uniform ugly appearance over the entire hood. Once you rub a spot and make it shiny and then take your before shots they'll never look as good or have the impact of a before shot when the entire surface has a uniform dull look.

Just something I've learned after years of buffing out cars and capturing and sharing the projects on the Internet. Here's an article on the topic too...

The power in the after shots is created in the before shots


This is what I would try to do with your Corvette Project... especially if I were detailing cars for money and promoting my business on the Internet...


Before




After

I'm also a little concerned about the pin-striping. Since it's not protected by any kind of clear, should I treat those areas any differently?

You need to be careful, especially if the pin striping is old. Most pin strip paint will be softer than the paint it's on and most single stage paint is softer than basecoat/clearcoat paints, especially single stage black paint.

Just work around the pin striping by hand. I recently machine buffed around pinstriping by machine but I used some special tools to do this and still had to be very careful...

The article below was about a new DeWALT rotary buffer but I used the Flex PE14 for the surgical buffing and also tested new optimum products in the process, so there's a lot of info in the below thread about a variety of topics...


Bumblebee - Testing out the NEW DeWALT DWP849X


You can tackle the paint in-between the pinstripes by hand but if the paint is hard then removing swirls is going to be hard and you have to be careful not to leave Fingermarks behind at the same time.


A good best practice with foam pads is to hold the pad flat to the surface whenever you can hold the pad flat to the surface. In situations where you cannot hold the pad flat to the surface then as an option you can hold the pad on edge. You're choice, rub the swirls out by hand, (actually with a couple of fingers pushing against some type of applicator pad), or by machine and the risks that go along with it...
















I have some 3" pads that are not actually available. I asked Eric Dunn for these late last year and have been using them with great results. You can also see I'm using an Optimum Optimum Double-Sided Rotary Adapter attached to a 2-3/4 inch Hook & Loop Rotary Backing Plate with these small rotary buffer pads.

[ZimRandy]

Black single stage will turn all your pads and towels black and nasty looking. It should wash out like working on clear coat, but it really shows the transfer compared to working on clear coat.

Is it possible to put some tape of the pinstripes?

I just did a limo with black single stage and I live (and work) pretty close to you if you want to try anything. (I've accumulated a lot of stuff over the years)

Randy

[Mike Phillips]

I just did a limo with black single stage and I live (and work) pretty close to you if you want to try anything. (I've accumulated a lot of stuff over the years)

Randy

Very cool Randy...

Each one teach one...

Pay it forward...

"You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want"

-Zig Ziglar

[Scarelane]

Thanks very much for all of the great information! Randy....thanks for the offer. I have a ton of product also, but will let you know if I need any help.

Thanks again!

[Mike Phillips]

Thanks very much for all of the great information! Randy....thanks for the offer. I have a ton of product also, but will let you know if I need any help.

Thanks again!

How did this project turn out?


Update?

[Scarelane]

The project ended up turning out pretty good! I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the Tudor had been repainted about 10-15 years ago and had a clear coat paint job. Still needed quite a bit of help.

It's not perfect, but much better than it was. I told the owner that I would detail it again in the Spring, using a little more aggressive correction method. This is a driver, not a show queen. The owners were very happy.

I washed using 2 bucket method and ONR.
Clayed with Meguiar's clay and Dodo Juice lube.
Used the Meguiar's MF correction system with my Griot's DA.
Used Collinite Metal Wax on wheels and chrome.

Here are a few after pics...

[Mike Phillips]

The project ended up turning out pretty good!

Looks great!

Thanks for the follow-up!