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.
Spraying base coat is like spraying lacquer. It goes on easily and smoothly and dries quickly to a dull sheen. After it dries, follow with a couple of coats of clear. Do not sand either the base or clear between coats.
After all the masking is removed, the painted and cleared area looks glossy like this, requiring no rub out unless you want to. But now it’s time to rub out the old paint on the rest of the car.
On our test car, I started with a couple different kinds of cleaner-waxes, but they weren’t strong enough. So I tried using a couple different brands, and different strengths (super fine, fine, then mild abrasive) of “de-oxidizer” or “finish renewer” liquids, by hand. It was getting better, but I still wasn’t getting through the old hazy tarnish. Trying these products with a buffer and wool pad still didn’t cut it. So I got out the 3M rubbing compound with a “cutting” buffer pad, and that did it, surprisingly without going through the clear. Obviously (as we see in the rub-out chapter) this had to be followed with sealer/glaze and then a good coat of hand wax.
Numerous “paint rejuvenators,” “de-oxidizers,” or even “swirl removers” are available from the wax purveyors. Try them out to see what works best for you. For this job you don’t want a “non-abrasive” formula; you need a mild abrasive, if not more.
Depending on your paint’s condition, you could hand-rub it out with a mild abrasive.
If the clear is starting to craze or check, it’s usually impossible to fix without repainting. But this case responded pretty well to some hand rubbing and waxing, as seen in the second photo.
Now here’s my big caveat—or rationalization—for this section: It’s a can’t-lose deal. Of course you want to buff out the paint to a like-new finish without breaking through the clear coat, or whatever the top layer is. If you can, great. You’re lucky, and you’ve saved a lot of work and expense. But if you do buff right through—so what? Now you have to repaint the car, which is what we really started out to do, anyway, right? You haven’t really lost anything. The car only needs minor sanding at this point, and then you can mask it and shoot it. Or maybe you can get by just spotting it in.
Spot it in
Speaking of clear coats, most new cars of the past couple of decades came with them, even over solid colors, like black (which seems strange to me). If the paint is crazing or peeling, obviously the clear coat is first to go. You’ve seen it. It looks like your skin when it’s peeling after a bad sunburn. When the paint is in this condition, no amount of polishing or rubbing is going to save it. If it’s bad enough, sand down (or strip) the whole car and repaint it, including a new base coat and clear coat. You can’t just spray a new clear coat over a peeled one. The edges where