Working with no clearcoat

M

Mcthings

New member
I plan to do my first "all out" detail on Monday. He has a Black Thunderbird (early 90's, maybe?) and I would guess it does not have a clear coat (correct me if I am wrong)



Regardless, what specific things do I have to do when working with a car without a clear coat.



I plan on polishing the car using Sonus's 1 and 3 polish with the PC, using the yellow and blue pads with the backing plate, etc.



I was going to also use the 2nd polish, but sadly (seriously, it's sad) I didn't have the extra 10 bucks (this stuff cleans my bank out as it is!) to get it.



Any non clearcoat tips?



Did I mention this forum ROCKS?
 
I don't do anything different with non clearcoated cars. Actually I just did a Mercedes, 80's vintage that wasn't clearcoated. Same proceedures, actually it usually is easier. Some clearcoats are so hard its extremely difficult to correct flaws unless I use a rotory. I used a rotory on the mercedes, but the paint was very oxidized.



Just remember that with each polish you are removing vital layers of paint, unlike a clearcoated car. So keep checking your work and do just enough correction for each situation.



Here is a pic of the mercedes when I was done.



mec017.jpg




mec015.jpg
 
SS paint is a personal fave to look on, usually it looks terrible after a while due to oxidation but it is very easy to cleanup and the turnaround is huge. Scratches are a lot easier to hide than on BC/CC paints, and keep in mind that SS black paint is often VERY soft. SS hardness often varies with color, white is miserably hard.



You're going to want something very mild to finish out with, think RMG or Meg's #9 on a finishing pad. Also, for the future, if you're going to do alot of SS work, Meguiar's pro products really do work magic. I'd highly reccomend picking up some #9 if you can get it, its usually under 10 bucks and it does a great job of removing/hiding any trouble spots.
 
I'm sorry, what is SS?



Thanks for all the info!



Can I get #9 locally? Southern California.



Pepboys? Kraegan? etc.
 
As David703 said, there's really no difference other than ss (except for white) cuts a lot easier. Oh, there *can* be issues with ss metallics, but you won't run into those very often (lucky me, I have two of 'em :o ).



But an early-90s T-bird is almost certainly basecoat/clear unless it got a cheapie repaint. My '87 Lincoln was b/c, and I'm sure all Ford passenger cars were b/c by 1990; I've seen enough of them running around with clearcoat failure ;)



David703- Nice job on a nice Benz :xyxthumbs Yeah, Benz didn't clear their non-metallic colors until pretty late in the '80s.



themightytimmah- Yeah, I like hight-quality ss paint too, both to work on and to look at. Meg's old-school products work great on ss, but then I guess that's to be expected since that's what they were designed for.
 
So I have the 3 pads now. Yellow, White, Blue. I have Sonus SFX 1 and 3. To replace SFX 2, because I don't have it, can I use 4 Star Ultimate Paint Cleanser? Because I do have that.



Plan of action



Wash with Dawn

Clay

Polish With Yellow/SFX1, White/4 Star Paint Cleanser, Blue/SFX 3

Wax (undecided which type, must be OTC, though. No time to order online or anything.)



Does that sound good? I'm using the PC.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top