This past weekend my father in law asked me to cleanup the paint on his 1972 AMC Hornet. I love a challenge and wanted to use my polisher again, I have a Griots 6in. and 3 in units. Here are the before pics.
What I used on this car,
Two bucket wash with grit guards, with a microchannell wash mit.
I clayed the car.
Filthy as expected.
Meguiars Ultimate Polish
Lake Country CCS white pad
Meguiars NXT wax
Lake Country CCS grey pad
Nothing out of the ordinary but as you can see wow that was all it took. The car was repainted 15 years ago, and has 66,000 original miles.
Now the after pics.
50/50 hood shot.
Now the completed hood.
B-pillar before
B-pillar after
All around shots
Only my second correction ever with a polisher. I was amazed when I was done. My white pad was teal but it came out after cleaning, some of my towels are still teal though, oh well. I will be tackling the interior and the engine next. From start to stop it probably took a good 8 hours to complete. I did it over two days and fought the rain off constantly Charlotte has had rain for days now. I didn't have access to a garage.
We installed a new battery, replaced a fuse and new wiper blades also. All in all it was a fun weekend project. Good experience with single stage paint, I enjoyed this project, he was ecstatic!
That turned out quite nicely. Single stage paint can be a lot of fun to work on.
If you find that the paint seems to dry out quickly give Mike's Method a try next time.
He suggests hand rubbing a very thick amount of Meguiar's #7 into the paint and letting it sit on the paint overnight. The oils in the #7 nourish the paint and allow it to take up a lot of the material that make the paint "young" again.
Then just remove it and start your polishing stages. I was amazed at how it brought back an old white chalky paint job on a car i did a couple of years ago.
But I love that teal color. How does the car run after all that time?
I'm really glad you took the time to get the before pictures. Too many people don't and post some lame excuse as to why. Fact of the matter is, the power in the "after" shot is created by a good before shot.
Single stage paint is a a lot more fun to buff out than plasticy clear coats and the opportunity for detailers to work on "real" single stage paint is becoming more and more rare now days. One reason for this is because as old cars that originally came with a single stage paint are fixed up and restored, they are painted with basecoat/clearcoat paint systems.
So for everyone reading this into the future, when you get the chance to buff out a classic car with original single stage paint or even an older single stage re-paint, take the opportunity and don't forget to take a few minutes to take great before pictures.
Excellent work buddy... now we need to get you up to speed on how to upload your pictures to your gallery here on AGO so you can insert them instead of attaching them...
You did a great job. We actually bought this car from a guy who got it at a wholesale auction. I was stunned when I saw the pictures. All the details, paint fades, dings, interior, etc. We have owned it about 3 years now. We love it. Could you tell me where the car was original purchased? I want to put together as much of a history with car as I can. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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