Detailing tips for vintage single-stage paint by Steve Berry at Hemmings Motor News

[Mike Phillips]

Detailing tips for vintage single-stage paint by Steve Berry at Hemmings Motor News


I was searching for one of my articles on Google and I found the below article by accident,

Detailing tips for vintage single-stage paint - by Steve Berry at Hemmings Motor News Blog

He did a great job of sharing how he restored the paint on their 1971 Volvo 142S with the original single-stage Safari Yellow paintwork, which at the time of his article was 43 years old.

Here's a quote from the article,

I started looking around for any detailing tips that specifically address old single-stage paint when I stumbled across Mike Phillips’ epic multi-part tutorial which addresses the topic in-depth.

It’s worth a read – entertaining and informative.

I used Mike’s tutorial as a reference for this project.

In this day and age where everyone copies everyone else's work without any reference to the original author or worse, claims it as their own, I was both thankful and happy to see Steve give me credit and even link to my article here on Autogeek.

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


Here's a few pictures from his article and the pertinent portion of the article where he used my techniques to bring the antique paint on his classic Volvo back to life.

Here is our starting point after washing and then drying with an absorbent microfiber towel: water spots, oxidation, scratches, and surface contaminants.





Step 4: Magic Time: Meguiar’s #7 Show Car Glaze soaking

Single-stage paint is permeable, unlike a two-stage clear-coat system where the paint is effectively sealed. For this reason, oils can leach out of single-stage paint over time, especially if the paint is poorly cared for.

According to Mike Phillips’ article, Meguiar’s #7 Show Car Glaze contains restorative feeder oils which can be drawn into a permeable paint surface via capillary action, conditioning and rejuvenating the color.

He suggests a vigorous, liberal application of Meguiar’s #7 Show Glaze be left on the car for a period of 12-24 hours to feed important oils back into the paint.

I’ll admit I was somewhat dubious when I first read about this technique but I figured it sure could’t hurt and I set my expectations low.

I proceeded to apply a generous “wet and heavy” application of the glaze to the paint, soaking a microfiber towel completely in the glaze and rubbing it on with much more pressure than I’d used in previous steps. It seemed a little weird but I followed Mike’s suggestions and left a heavy layer of #7 on the paint to soak for 24 hours.






Post-clean and polish. Overnight Showcar Glaze soak.

The next morning I easily removed the glaze, which was still soft, and inspected the results.

Yes: It had a dramatic effect. The paint color was noticeably richer and deeper.

What initially was a pale yellow with sharp reflections had bloomed into something more complicated with hints of a warmer, more orange-ish yellow emerging. Of course these things are subjective and all of the effects of detailing are cumulative, but this phase made me a believer.

God bless capillary action and feeder oils.

Looks great Steve! Nice work.

[Craig Parker]

Car looks great Mike, and as you have sometimes stated in previous threads, Each One, Teach One.

[Aaryn NZ]

Ha, very cool Mike!

Great find. Pleasing to see the right information is reaching people outside of the forum. Nice to see you got the credit too. Fun story & enjoyed the part about him being "dubious" & if I didn't know better myself I guess it would sound a little strange. It works . . . & it works well. Long live Number 7.

Aaryn NZ.

[Mike Phillips]

Car looks great Mike, and as you have sometimes stated in previous threads,

Each One, Teach One.

Here's one of the "Each one teach one" threads, this is where I taught Joe, the owner of the streetrod pickup how to machine polish.

Each one teach one - 1935 Ford Pickup - Swirl City!






Here's my oldest thread using this philosophy - dated September 22nd, 2004. That's over 12 years ago. This is where I taught Martin how to machine polish using a Ferrari Fiorano 355 F1 Spider - Number 25 of 104 built.


Each one, teach one... Ferrari Fiorano 355 F1 Spider






It's a good practice. In my life I've met detailers that put all their products in unmarked ketchup bottles and tell everyone their method is SECRET. I get where they're coming from but I'd rather help others up the road a little further.

Ha, very cool Mike!

Great find. Pleasing to see the right information is reaching people outside of the forum.

Since Steve works for Hemmings Motor News there's no telling how many people he will share this with in the future. He's what you would call a "Maven" if you've ever read the book, "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell.

Nice to see you got the credit too.

I've always made it a practice to give due credit where credit is due. It would be easy to use other people's ideas or techniques and present them as my own but it rubs me the wrong way when this happens to me so when I first started writing car detailing how-to articles I made the decision to not be like other people.

And example is the Test Spot. I developed this technique in the late 1980's when I was working for Meguiar's and detailing cars on the side. It only made sense. No one showed it to me and no one taught it to me I came up with it on my own. I'm sure others did it but I was the first to put it into a formal practice when I started the Meguiar's Detailing 101 classes in 2002 and it's still done that way today. I started writing about in on Usenet Newsgroups in the 1990's on Rec.Autos.Misc and I wrote the first how-to article explaining what it is and why to do it.

Now days it's as common as the KBM but no one ever credits where it came from or who they originally learned the practice from. That's just one example.

Fun story & enjoyed the part about him being "dubious" & if I didn't know better myself I guess it would sound a little strange.

It works . . . & it works well. Long live Number 7.



Aaryn NZ.

Agree. I think Steve is a very good writer. He keeps it simple and people can read what he's written and then duplicate it in their garage. That's successful "how to writing".

[Mike Phillips]

Shared here,

Thin single stage paint questions - 1987 Volvo 240