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

[Mike@ShineStruck]

Quick question, since metallic flake laquar/enamel has aluminum within thats oxidized. .are you able to use an aluminum polish/cleaner such as Gords to take out the aluminum oxidation prior to starting the M7 polish bath?

[Mike Phillips]

I did my first application and it looked really good, but I did not "seal" it because I figured it would need another application or two. When I came back to do more work on the car a week later you tell it had faded some or the oils had washed away.

Sometimes if left neglected too long the pigments and resins become unstable and the paint is now past the point of no return.

Only thing left you can do is to keep it polished with the #7 often and try to keep the car out of harsh sun and hot days.

I did one more application of #7 by itself. I was getting low on #7 and did not have enough for another full application. Then I took what I had left of it and mixed it with a partial bottle of #9 and finished it out that way.

That' will work. I'm not a huge fan of mixing products but this is a pretty safe mixture.

Then I sealed it with Souverän paste wax. It's been about two months since and still looks good.

That's great news!

[Mike Phillips]

Quick question, since metallic flake laquar/enamel has aluminum within thats oxidized.

are you able to use an aluminum polish/cleaner such as Gords to take out the aluminum oxidation prior to starting the M7 polish bath?

Good question. Sorry to say the answer is "no".

The aluminum flakes are surrounded by paint resin so there's no way to get to only the actual aluminum flake to polish it.

My guess is if you tried you might damage the paint. (If it's old or antique).


The best you can do is just polish the paint. You'll see black come off and that's normal and there's really nothing you can do to change it.


What are you working on?

[r_henry]

Hi Mike, I remember seeing a thread of a late 80s - early 90s Bmw with schwarz (black) single stage paint you restored.
I have a 1991 325i schwarz ss and for sure will be treating it with m7. Since it is modern ss paint, would m205 suffice for the next step. Also, do you think it would benefit with Blackfire Black Ice wax? Or should i just stick w Megs products.
Does black SS paint require different regiments/products?



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[Mike Phillips]

Hi Mike, I remember seeing a thread of a late 80s - early 90s Bmw with schwarz (black) single stage paint you restored.

Are you talking about this BMW?


1991 e34 BMW M5

I have a 1991 325i schwarz ss and for sure will be treating it with m7.

Since it is modern ss paint, would m205 suffice for the next step.

Yes M205 will work. I would highly recommend doing a test spot and 100% for sure dial in you pad and technique for using the M205 on single stage black paint.

Black single stage paint tends to be the softest paint there is due to the pigments used to make black paint. I think I talk about paint softness and hardness in this article,

The Lesson White Paint Teaches Us



M205 is a great polish. When it was just a Lab Sample, the head chemist at Meguiar's personally walked over to the garage and gave me a sample to test out on another famous black car.






Even so... I have seen threads posted about micro-marring issues when M205 is used on soft paints. I'm sure it's more of a pad/technique issue than a product issue so be sure to do some testing first.

Also, do you think it would benefit with Blackfire Black Ice wax? Or should i just stick w Megs products.

BLACKFIRE BlackICE is a great wax. I used it to seal the paint on this old Pontiac. I saw the Pontiac at the last Tuesday Night Car show here at Autogeek, (last week), it still looks show car quality.



1978 Trans Am - Original Single Stage Lacquer Paint
This is the version that Burt Reynolds made famous in the movie Smokey and the Bandit. It was not in the movie but is the correct engine, transmission, T-tops, colors, wheels, etc that are the same as the car Burt drove in the movie.

Does black SS paint require different regiments/products?

Outside of the softness issue I'd say "no".

What I do if I don't know the history of the paint on a car is I'm uber careful around raised body lines and edges.

Why?

Because paint tends to be thin on these areas anyways due to gravity when the paint was sprayed.

But also because I don't know who buffed the car before me or how many times. I don't know if the other guys that buffed the car out were careful like I am?

Or if they used good products, pads and tools?

So outside of the paint being soft and not knowing the buffing history of the car, treat it like any paint.

[r_henry]

Yep that's the one, Mike. amazing work!
My car does have paint burn spot on the left front fender so I will be investing in the paint thickness gauge for sure.
I have a bit more of reading to do and maybe post pictures in another thread.

Thank you



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[Mike Phillips]

Yep that's the one, Mike. amazing work!

Talk about a blast from the past...

I did the work on the BMW way back in 2002 as I prepped half the car for display at the 2002 Bimmerfest in Santa Barbara, California.


The full write-up for this project was used for an article on removing RIDS back BEFORE we had cool tools like the RUPES TA50 and 1" and 2" machine sanding discs.


Here's the link to the full write-up...


RIDS and Feathersanding - A Highly Specialized Technique by Mike Phillips

[r_henry]

Bookmarked. Thanks!


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[SKT]

Absolutely brilliant write up, top notch work (but we all expect as much from you Mike) and brilliant finish.

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X2 - got this page bookmarked!

Thanks for sharing all of this helpful info!

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[Mike Phillips]

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X2 - got this page bookmarked!

Thanks for sharing all of this helpful info!

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No problemo....

Lots of info throughout this entire thread....