Today I made an attempt to bring some life back into the Fiat's paint.
I've got a DA buffer, Meguiar's foam cutting, polishing, and finishing discs, and Meguiar's #105 Ultra Cut,#9 Swirl Remover, and #7 Show Car Glaze.
I'm going #105 on the cutting pad, #9 on the polishing pad, and then #7 on the finishing pad. The results are... noticeably different:
But they're not what I expected. I've still got what I assume are swirls:
And more heavy-set defects I don't even know what to call:
Link to monster picture.
Do I have the right products? Everything but the #105 is years old, could that be an issue? This seems like stuff regularly dealt with on all the detailing sites I've poked around on, what do?
Cutters and polishers don't usually age out. The monster picture, I hate to say, looks like sanding marks in body filler under the paint. Nothing you can do about that 
Have you clay barred it yet?
Javelin wrote:
Cutters and polishers don't usually age out. The monster picture, I hate to say, looks like sanding marks in body filler under the paint. Nothing you can do about that
Have you clay barred it yet?
They can't be marks related to body filler because the whole surface of the car is covered in them, except for the parts that used to be covered by the pinstripe and side molding. I'm clay baring each section before attacking with the buffer.
Did you wash and clay bar it first to get all the crud off before buffing?
Is the car clear coated, or single stage? If your pads are car color after buffing there's no clear...
You may be able to cut it back w/ 2000 or 2500 grit Meguiars Unigrit paper then cut/buff/polish/glaze/wax - but it's scary work if the paint is of unknown thickness. Go too deep and you can't back up up.
I say it's time to learn to paint.
motomoron wrote:
Did you wash and clay bar it first to get all the crud off before buffing?
Is the car clear coated, or single stage? If your pads are car color after buffing there's no clear...
You may be able to cut it back w/ 2000 or 2500 grit Meguiars Unigrit paper then cut/buff/polish/glaze/wax - but it's scary work if the paint is of unknown thickness. Go too deep and you can't back up up.
I say it's time to learn to paint.
Car is factory '75 Fiat, no clear coat!
This isn't a "repaint" sort of project, it looks good from 5' so if that's as good as she'll get I'll take it. I was expecting at least the swirls to go away, though!
I preferred Norton ICE to the Meguiars system. 3 pads w/ reg. or heavy cut compound. Worked well on older or newer paint. Been a while since I used it, may be obsolete by now, who knows.
If those marks are truly just the factory paint, I think I would try wetsanding the car. Nothing crazy on the grit, but it might get everything to lay down smoother. Then cut/polish again.
Is that throughout the car? Kinda thinking someone has already tried wetsanding it. If that's the case I hope they didn't take too much paint off for you to fix it...
