I have a 1969 442 with mostly original paint. Has anyone tried to buff this paint without damaging it? What materials has anyone used with good success? Wax/cleaners.
Thanks,
Ken

PS: Added a few photos.

69w30.jpg

Dscn0014.jpg

 

Whats the overall condition of the paint? Mint, 10 footer, 20 footer or heavily oxidized???

My suggestions are first you need to consult with a professional auto body paint supply house or someone familiar with original paint preservation. Tell them what your attempting to do and they should guide you to the right products.

You want something that will non-aggressively clean the paint then apply a protective seal wax over that then possibly a third synthetic product on top of that. There are several products I use but they vary with the paint condition.

Stay away from all the high spots even put blue tape on them so you dont burn into then primer. This holds true for hand and machine buffing.

Without seeing the exact condition of the paint its hard to give specific directions. Thats why a visit to a pro paint supply would be best. They will come out and actually look at the car and then guide you, at least they should. If they dont keep shopping until you find a good one.

Do you have a local auto restorer in your area? Put this subject in to the Googler and see what you can find there too.

 

I use Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant every 6-9 months and follow by P21S Concours Carnauba Car Wax, every 3-4 months or every other carwash, hand applied. Read about this in a article a while back and it works great. I also keep my cars garaged and covered.

 

I have added a couple of photos. The paint is nice just some stone chips. A few panels have had touch ups. I have not waxed it in 15/20 years and still looks very nice. I just want to even it out and get some wax on it. Thank you for all the suggestions.
Ken

 

If you are not a wax master I would look at a good wash , clay bar job , then wax it , If you are a do it your seller . Otherwise have a old detail shop Zip it with a machine and wax it. I would not have the guts to take a buffer to mine . Your car looks great in the photo I like the color combo.

 

Just bought the new 6" random obital polisher from HF and it works great. Had their old polsher that looks more like an angle grinder and that thing scared me. I never did use it. This new one works great and if you keep the speed low and use the correct foam velcro pads you will have no problem. Watch some vids on youtube prior to using it.

 

Your car looks great! Buffing is easy and not dangerous if you use the right stuff. Take a look at my Starfire thread -


https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...-progress.html


Near the bottom of the first page I describe what I did to finish buffing out new paint applied by the PO. With a good buffer, foam pads, and good compounds the results were great. I have since buffed out three more cars including my 34 Packard which has original nitrocellulose lacquer. That one made me nervous but I only used liquid wax and the softest pad and the results were amazing. Since you are also dealing with lacquer I would recommend you start with just wax on whatever is the dullest area and see what happens - you will know right away if that will give you what you want. Just bear in mind that you will be removing paint to get the polish so do the least amount of buffing you can. Here are some before and after shots of my Packard to give you an idea of results:

 

So rare to see a car like that with mostly original paint nowadays. You've looked after it well. That paint should be lacquer and it's fairly tough stuff so you could likely get by with just clay bar and wax as suggested earlier if you want. I've only seen one other 69 in that color combo; it belonged to a member here "oldsmobiledave" and it was a special order GM executive's car. Gorgeous car and color combo. I'm not sure I would even touch it. Just dust and show it off

 

Ken,

That color combo makes for a very attractive and unique car.

As for buffing, I just went through the same thing on my barn-find Custom Cruiser. The original paint was very tired, stained in places and had a layer of mystery gunk misted over the whole right rear. I tried clay bars, various household cleaners, scrub brushes with no success. I ended up buying this kit from Amazon and once it arrived, went to work.


The results I think were well worth the cost of the kit. The buffer is easy to use, the pads have held up very well and I still have lots of compounds left in the bottles. My only problem was that one pad tore it's velcro-like backing pad. I emailed Palm Beach Motoring Accessories and they mailed me a new pad that same day free of charge. I am very pleased with the kit and I only wish I purchased it sooner. I attached three "before" pics and three "afters" of roughly the same areas.

I will say that this was my first time using a buffer and I watched tons of Youtube videos first. I ended up getting a little too aggressive on some ridges and burned through the paint so patience is needed at times. Otherwise, I would think that since I got pretty good results that anyone else should too.

Hope this helps.
Chris

 

Here is that third 'after' pic.

 

I love that CC! I want to say 1973 just because of the tail lights.

 

Allan, thanks and yup, a '73.

 

WOW, nice car

 

Thanks for all the information. I will hand apply the sealer/cleaner/wax myself. I have looked after this car since 1984. Just got done with the engine/trans rebuild. Paint is next.
Ken