1959 Impala - 40yr old lacquer - Pinnacle Auto Detail - CT

[PinnacleAutoCT]

This 1959 Impala was brought to my attention by an older gentleman who had stored it in his barn for quite some time. The car was painted approximately forty years ago with lacquer, and since then had never been polished or seen much in the way of proper maintenance. The goal with this detail was to restore oils to the single stage paint, remove a large percentage of the swirling and get the chrome and paint protected.

Before:

Surface staining, oxidation and marring dulled the finish.

DSC01508 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01500 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01499 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01491 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01506 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr

Heavy marring was evident across all panels:

DSC01489 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01485 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01479 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01477 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01476 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01473 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01474 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01514 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr

DSC01524 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr

Surface staining from years of sitting in the barn:

DSC01484 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01495 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01480 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01511 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr

DSC01516 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01533 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr

After a wipedown with Optimum No Rinse at QD dilution, the car was decontaminated using Clay Magic fine grade clay, and Meguiar’s #7 was applied to the paintwork to restore oils to the lacquer:

DSC01539 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01541 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr

After the decon step and #7 application the paint was looking cleaner and brighter, but still heavily marred:

DSC01544 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01546 by [urlDSC01548 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01548 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01551 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01553 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr

After some testing, a combination of HD Polish and Meguiar’s D300 was found to remove approximately 80% of the paint’s defects when used with LC black finishing pads on the Rupes 21 and 75E. This process made a dramatic increase in the paint’s appearance, especially under direct lighting, without removing an amount of paint thickness that would jeopardize the integrity of the aging lacquer finish.

In these pictures the paint had been polished, while the trim and areas around/under the trim edges had yet to be touched:

DSC01563 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01564 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01566 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSCHUBBA by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01584 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01587 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01590 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01594 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01601 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01619 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01606 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01607 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01608 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01611 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01612 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01613 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01615 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01616 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr

[PinnacleAutoCT]

After polishing the trim and sealing with CarPro Reload:

DSC01618 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr

DSC01619 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01620 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01624 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01638 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01640 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01654 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01660 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr
DSC01664 by Mike Donoghue, on Flickr

Thanks for looking, comments and questions welcome!

[byzasautodetailing]

what a beauty

[Mike Phillips]

Beautiful car and spectacular results!


Just to note, the swirl scratches your calling marring are technically holograms..

Holograms are the scratch patterns inflicted by the misuse of a rotary buffer.


Nice save.

[briarpatch]

Awesome results....even the 'before' pics are not that bad for 40-yr old lacquer that was not cared for

[Sizzle Chest]

Great work on a great car! Excellent results!

[Priyaka]

Great job bringing the gloss and shine back on a beautiful classic!

[oldmodman]

Even after all these years I am still surprised by how much life #7 brings back to the paint.

That is a really nice job of saving that nearly original paint.

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Nice transformation removing the swirls and bringing back the gloss Mike. That classic Chevy looks great now. I'm sure the owner couldn't believe his eyes.

Thanks for sharing.

[Mike@ShineStruck]

Now throw some ceramic coating on that beautiful lady