faded oxidized paint??

[DaMoNe6969]

Just recently finished polishing my car.. The paint was badly sandscratched and oxidized as you can see by the first two pictures.. Really happy with the way it turned out so I thought ide share my results, I noticed a few other people having problems with faded paint/swirl marks..

The before pictures





15 y/o paint is in pretty rough shape..

First, I wet sanded with 1500grit sandpaper BY HAND, very lightly not sanding too much... Than I wet sanded with 2000grit.. Than I used a professional angle polisher/sander with a cotton applicator (not a cheap orbital buffer) with mequires coarse cut cleaner at 3000rpm, followed by Mequires swirl remover with the same polisher but Terrycloth bonnet...
Followed by hand applicated eagle one high gloss polish...

My results




Just a few notes.. If you arent comfortable with the tools or sandpaper, Dont do it.. its easy to sand to deep or polish your clearcoat off..
Also, for wet sanding, I used a garden hose to keep constant water running over the area.. Keep the area you are working on clean and dry, dont rush, and work small areas at a time..

[orion_X_100]

looks amazing man!!

anychance that method will work on my paint? theres a pic in my "Paint Help!" topic. . .

[DaMoNe6969]

it should.. the only reason im skeptical is because your cars been painted, and I dont know how or what they used to paint it, or how thick the clearcoat is on the car, if any.. cant see much from the picture

try wet sanding a small (preferrably hidden) spot the car with 2000 grit sandpaper, than polishing it out.. if it doesnt help, the imperfections are probably in the paint, under the clearcoat in which case you need to either wet sand down to the paint, wet sand the paint, polish it and have the car re-cleared.. Or just repaint the damn car..

I like 3M coarse cut cleaner, but for the price difference, Mequires does pretty much the same thing.. But you cant use a little orbital buffer if you want it to work, its got to be a circular angle polisher..

[orion_X_100]

thanks man ill have to try it out. . . and hope it works!!

where is the 1500/2000 grit sandpaper? can it be found at a hardware shop? or can i get it at a AutoZone or something. . .

[DaMoNe6969]

You should be able to find it at a hardware store or autozone.. if you cant find anything that fine, you'l need to go to a bodyshop supply store..

just be sure to use plenty of water when sanding.. I used a garden hose.. if you dont, you'l end up gouging/scratching your paint

[ct91rs]

let me ask a stupid question: What's the difference between "a little orbital buffer" and "a circular angle polisher".
I imagine the answer to this would explain why you need to use the angle polisher instead of the buffer.

[DaMoNe6969]

because cleaners and swirl removers need speed (about 3000RPM) to create heat to work properly.. A small orbital buffer cant create enough heat..


a small orbital is OK to use for the swirl remover, and polish, but the heavy/coarse cleaner needs the proper polisher or you wont get the gloss back after wet sanding..

[88camaroproject]

i wet sanded my car and it didnt turn out to great, but then again all ace hardware had was 600 grit sandpaper, lol but it loks way better then it did before. maybe i wil do it again with 2000 grit and do the polishing thing.