I know many on classic car forums have given tips on how to clean their car with techniques to reduce the occurence of scratches, use less water or dry air drying cars. Last weekend I was fortunate enough to demonstrate how none of these washing techniques, while nice, don't work for reviving an old paint job. The best looking of paint jobs actually endure a lot of abrasion to look nice and a buffer is what's needed to do it! In the picture below you can see a "clear as day" before/after on a section of hood where I did a first stage buff with a medium/light compound and wool pad. This is on my friends '78 Trans Am SE (W72/4spd) he has owned since '91 and has never given the paint attention like this....
After the buff in the previous picture, I ended up finishing the car with polishing compound and a foam pad on my buffer. The car needed to be done with the foam pad and polishing compound to clear up imperfections from the previous buff. Most know dark colors, especially black, are the hardest paint jobs to keep nice looking and this car is definitely no exception. It was definitely showing swirls from the wool pad and medium compound prior to this step. In the next picture you can see how much different the paint looks after using polishing compound and foam padding on the buffer. This car has many dings, dents and chips from the years that aren't fixable but the car looks a hell of a lot better now. All it needs is a coat of wax and you're done. Beware, this is hard work to get a paint job fixed like this!
Here are some simple straight-forward tips on this subject to make things easy...
-Use a wool pad with medium-heavy cut compound.
-Use a foam pad with light-polishing compound.
-Wash/Brush/Rub off all excess compound immediately after the car is completed! It becomes very hard to remove compound in the future if weathered or baked in from the sun!
-Wax when finished.
