Been a long time since I posted here. When last we spoke I had some transmission problems that have since been fixed. I've also got an additional 2 kids and a moderately successful local rock band, so my interest in the 66 is waning. My goal is to sell it, but in the interest of maximizing profits, I think some attention to the paint would be time well spent.
Before I got it, somebody had painted over the metallic light blue with plain old white. They did a fair job, but by no means perfect. The door sills weren't prepped very well, the paint there is peeling back, revealing blue that shows no evidence of sanding or primer. That should be easy enough to fix. The rest of the car is not terribly shiny. There is very little gloss, to the point that I have my doubts about there being a clear coat. There is significant orange peel throughout.
I've watched about a thousand videos on Youtube over the last few weeks (and searched here, but didn't see much on the topic), and it seems clear that the answer is wet sanding & buffing. How hard could it be? Worst case scenario, I remove the decklid and have it repainted.
<several hours later>
Let me begin by apologizing for the lack of pictures. I took some, but they did not turn out well.
I started with the decklid, and taped it off to only do half of it. I started with 1000. Then 1500. Then 2000. After the 1000, it was noticeably smoother to the touch. In hindsight, 800 may have been a better choice since there was still a little orangepeel, but I didn't want to risk going through the color. After the 2000 is was very smooth, but my sanding was clearly not as even as what I saw others do on youtube. I'll blame a lot of that on my inability to find an appropriate sanding block. Everybody uses a soft sanding block, but I can't find one locally to save my life. If I had the right block, I would have hit it a lot harder with the 2000, and maybe 2500 or 3000, too.
So then to the buffing. I went the easy DIY route, and used Meguire's "Ulitmate Compound." I'm a total hack when it comes to all this, but I'm certain my buffing skills really suck. I have a particularly hard time getting the compound back off with a microfiber towel. The fact that the car is white isn't helping, since it's very difficult to see your progress. Regardless, it did shine up pretty well. Under garage lights, the side I hadn't touched was noticably hazy by comparison. So here I am, all proud of my work. And then I rolled it out into the sunlight. Now I see lots of really tiny scratches/swirlmarks, and I'm not convinced it actually looks *better*.
So this is where you guys & gals chime in. :Mark
Before I got it, somebody had painted over the metallic light blue with plain old white. They did a fair job, but by no means perfect. The door sills weren't prepped very well, the paint there is peeling back, revealing blue that shows no evidence of sanding or primer. That should be easy enough to fix. The rest of the car is not terribly shiny. There is very little gloss, to the point that I have my doubts about there being a clear coat. There is significant orange peel throughout.
I've watched about a thousand videos on Youtube over the last few weeks (and searched here, but didn't see much on the topic), and it seems clear that the answer is wet sanding & buffing. How hard could it be? Worst case scenario, I remove the decklid and have it repainted.
<several hours later>
Let me begin by apologizing for the lack of pictures. I took some, but they did not turn out well.
I started with the decklid, and taped it off to only do half of it. I started with 1000. Then 1500. Then 2000. After the 1000, it was noticeably smoother to the touch. In hindsight, 800 may have been a better choice since there was still a little orangepeel, but I didn't want to risk going through the color. After the 2000 is was very smooth, but my sanding was clearly not as even as what I saw others do on youtube. I'll blame a lot of that on my inability to find an appropriate sanding block. Everybody uses a soft sanding block, but I can't find one locally to save my life. If I had the right block, I would have hit it a lot harder with the 2000, and maybe 2500 or 3000, too.
So then to the buffing. I went the easy DIY route, and used Meguire's "Ulitmate Compound." I'm a total hack when it comes to all this, but I'm certain my buffing skills really suck. I have a particularly hard time getting the compound back off with a microfiber towel. The fact that the car is white isn't helping, since it's very difficult to see your progress. Regardless, it did shine up pretty well. Under garage lights, the side I hadn't touched was noticably hazy by comparison. So here I am, all proud of my work. And then I rolled it out into the sunlight. Now I see lots of really tiny scratches/swirlmarks, and I'm not convinced it actually looks *better*.
So this is where you guys & gals chime in. :Mark
