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Oftentimes, new cars get damaged in shipment and repaired at the dealer before they’re sold. Apparently that happened with the front bumper. We crunched the rear gate and had to have it repaired and repainted. These were the only two places the clear coat had actually peeled off. In such cases neither buffing nor recoating with clear works; you have to sand it down, repaint the base coat, and reclear it.
Try to sand off as much of the peeling clear coat as possible, but also try not to sand through the factory primer coats. Also note the peeling black-rubber roof strips had stainless steel underneath. I removed the remaining rubber with a razor blade and buffed the stainless.
Being the rodder I am, my first job was to peel off what trim I could, remove the washer and wiper, and weld up holes where the emblem and washer had been.
Next I wet-sanded the areas to be repainted with 360-grit, taping off other areas to protect them.
Before spot-painting the bumpers and tailgate, I tried buffing a portion of the weathered paint to make sure it would “come up,” which it did nicely.
If you can repaint full body panels separated by seams, it’s not the same as “spotting in” and matching the color exactly isn’t nearly as important. Here I have masked off the entire sanded tailgate, plus the rear bumper, which got some dings and scratches erased with high-fill primer.
What we show here, instead, is how to buff and polish a tired old paint job until it looks, maybe not as good as new, but a heck of a lot better than it did. It still takes some effort, but we can make the vehicle look presentable without all the preparation, labor, materials, equipment, and expense of a full-on paint job. We rely primarily on wax and polishing compounds, with some minor spot painting, if necessary.
First off—this needs to be discussed somewhere in this book, and this is as good a place as any—automotive wax products are mostly snake oil, in my opinion. Somebody comes up with a new “Wonder Wax” that does everything short of curing cancer and pimples seemingly every month, and advertises it aggressively until a new one takes its place. Car magazines are full of ads for them. Barkers at car shows and county fairs hawk products that polish anything from beer cans to leather seats. To a certain extent they all work. I suppose some might do more harm than good. I don’t know. I don’t use them.
I’ve got a whole slew of wax and polishing products in my garage cupboard, ranging from basic 3M rubbing compound in a big jug to pure carnauba wax in a bottle. As with paints, I’m not going to recommend any specific products here. But I have relied on the Meguiar’s line of glazes and polishes, 3M compounds, Mother’s wax, and certain items from a place called The Wax Shop (that may not be around any more). I’d say: (1) lean toward name-brand products that have been, and will be, around a while; but (2) try out various products to see what works best for you; because (3) ultimately, it’s much more important that you wax your car than what you wax it with. You can quote me on that.
Buff it Out
Assuming that the paint in question is simply faded and oxidized—it’s not cracked, peeling, discolored, or otherwise damaged—the trick is to rub or polish it evenly until it all shines again. The paint’s condition determines what products and procedures you have to use to revive it. A good hand wax job, or two or three, might be all it takes. For others, many “de-oxydizer” or “fine rub” liquids are available. You can hand rub or machine buff these. For bad cases, you need to resort to real rubbing compound and a buffing wheel. If you’re not sure what it’s going to take, try these products in the order mentioned. If you have to go to the rubbing compound, follow it with a sealer (polishing compound), and then a coat of wax.
After similarly masking off the front bumper areas needing repainting, I sealed the entire rest of the car with plastic sheeting, available from paint stores for this purpose. Base coat is little problem, but overspray from the urethane clear sticks to everything.
Although I have seen magazine articles and other sources suggesting it, I do not recommend color sanding a factory paint job, particularly those with clear coats, especially if it’s old and worn. The factory doesn’t put enough paint on to warrant sanding, and if it’s partly eroded, you’re asking for trouble. Even using a power buffer and rubbing compound is iffy. Start with finer polishes first.
I wouldn’t use any wax that has silicone in it because it is very difficult to clean off if you ever need to repaint or touch-up the finish later (silicone causes fisheyes in new paint). Pure carnauba (or a similar “gloss wax” product) is a great finish wax; it gives a high-gloss and a protective coat that should last a while. But it doesn’t clean any grit, grime, road tar, or oxidation that doesn’t wash off. So, in the old days, you’d precede the wax coat with a cleaner, which usually had a fine abrasive in it. It was a two-step process that required plenty of elbow work, but was effective. Today we have all kinds of good cleaner-waxes that do pretty much the same job in one step. The “super gloss” final-finish waxes (or glazes) are for show cars that spend most of their time indoors, covered. For any car that sees regular outdoor driving duty, I highly recommend a good cleaner-wax, used often. Some of these use fine abrasives as a cleaner, others use chemical cleaners. My favorite, and standby for years, is Meguiar’s “red bottle.” It goes on quickly and relatively easily (even in the sun), it cleans well (especially if you rub hard), it wipes off very easily, and it doesn’t streak at all. Mother’s makes a similar product that has carnauba wax in it. It’s not quite as easy to put on and take off, but I think it lasts longer. The point is, try different wax products (perhaps not on your favorite car first) until you find one that works well for you.
I’ve seen other painters recently using 1,000-grit or finer paper for “scuffing” a surface for repainting, but on this older finish I used 360-grit, dry. Never wet-sand a masked area; you don’t want to get the tape or paper wet. On the other hand, after dry sanding, be sure to wipe and air-blow all sanding dust not only off the surface to be painted, but also out of all folds in the paper or other masking materials.
I had the base coat mixed to the original color code. If I were spotting-in the paint, I’d have to have it “color-matched” to the existing, slightly faded paint, either by computer or experienced eye. But in this case a perfect match was not so important. A pint of base coat was plenty for this job, and I’m using a graduated beaker to measure the proper amount of reducer/catalyst.
