Can a car's old paint job be restored to a new "shine" with a new buffing and a couplefresh coats of clearcoat?
RON

 

Although it has been done many times, I would not recommend it. When you buff the finish you arre applying polishes and waxes to the clear. All of that has to be stripped before you can apply any kind of paint.

 

Definitely tough to do. If you prepare the surface by wet sanding, or using some of the non-wax and non-petroleum based abrasives, it can work pretty well. Any petroleum products, solvents, dirt, dust, wax, etc. will ruin the job. The hardest part is getting the surface prepped without rubbing through the color coat, which might be *very* thin in some spots. You won't know where, or how thin until you are through it.

3M has some water-based fine grit polishes you can try, followed by a quick wipe down with water, then a light solvent, and away you go. One trick is to make sure the first coat of clear is slightly "soft" (and I do mean *slightly*) to get a good bond to the already hardened color coats. From there, you can spray correct hardness clear on and bake it in a nice heated paint booth to bond everything together nicely.

In my experience, it is usually easier to just wet sand, and do a color and clear like normal. Much safer.

The only time I have attempted this with any success was with a "survivor" show car that we wanted to protect and shine up a bit without really disturbing the 40 yr old factory paint. Lots of careful work, lots of hours, lots of sweat, lots of nerves frazzled.

bill.