Mad4slalom
CCCUK Member
Since my 72 arrived from the states I have been gradually correcting the paintwork. There were somefairly deep lacquer scratches I presume done by the shippers and which i had sanded eith 1500 and mopped , they were improved but still there, it had been repainted 6 years ago in blue metallic , it had also been originally white. When the po took it on he should have stripped it back to gelcoat and started again, He did’nt and just gave it a good sanding as it was pretty sound. The result was a pretty good job from 30 feet and to many a plenty good enough driver quality result.
Having been in the auto refinishing trade in the eighties I was aware that over time and due to the fact that there was too much paint on paint the finish had “sunk” into previous repairs, most likely where they had applied filler on top of paint and the hood had lost some gloss and smoothness through general shrinkage . There were also a couple of clearcoat blemishes or runs on the hood.
When I first got the car I wet flatted the hood with 1500 w&d paper snd machine polished it which improved things somewhat. Recently I have been going around panel by panel , sanding the clearcoat with a 1500 disc followed by 2000, 3000 and 4000 grit discs. these are hook and loop 6” discs that can be used on a DA sander,
I actually used my electric dual action polisher. This gives a beautifully flat and matt finish which gets less matt with each finer grit disc. I finished with a machine polish with a semi hard foam head with extreme fast cut roar compound then a soft waffle foam with roar extreme fine grade compound and a meguires ultimate compound prior to a wax with megs carnauba crystal wax. The results are very pleasing even to a very paint critical ex bodyshop person. Of course there are numerous bits I cant lose completely and a few hand touched up stone chips but overall it has improved the look of the car dramatically. It had taken s week of evenings and probably a hundred quid or a bit more in materials .i will take some pics in the sun this weekend and post here.
Having been in the auto refinishing trade in the eighties I was aware that over time and due to the fact that there was too much paint on paint the finish had “sunk” into previous repairs, most likely where they had applied filler on top of paint and the hood had lost some gloss and smoothness through general shrinkage . There were also a couple of clearcoat blemishes or runs on the hood.
When I first got the car I wet flatted the hood with 1500 w&d paper snd machine polished it which improved things somewhat. Recently I have been going around panel by panel , sanding the clearcoat with a 1500 disc followed by 2000, 3000 and 4000 grit discs. these are hook and loop 6” discs that can be used on a DA sander,
I actually used my electric dual action polisher. This gives a beautifully flat and matt finish which gets less matt with each finer grit disc. I finished with a machine polish with a semi hard foam head with extreme fast cut roar compound then a soft waffle foam with roar extreme fine grade compound and a meguires ultimate compound prior to a wax with megs carnauba crystal wax. The results are very pleasing even to a very paint critical ex bodyshop person. Of course there are numerous bits I cant lose completely and a few hand touched up stone chips but overall it has improved the look of the car dramatically. It had taken s week of evenings and probably a hundred quid or a bit more in materials .i will take some pics in the sun this weekend and post here.
