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Hand polishing on non-clear coat paint

L

LauraSVT

I'm a dude, no really!
Joined
Mar 26, 2007
Messages
5,232
My girl's 1986 Cougar is light canyon red, one of the colors available that year that did not have a clearcoat. This is not an issue, but it does mean that you've got to do a little more maintenance to make sure the paint stays nice.

Well, it had been a little while since I'd detailed the car, and a nearby tree had not made things any better. The hood, header panel, and tops of the fenders were hazy in spots, as the paint was starting to oxidize just a bit.

With some Meguiars polish and a small cloth, I banged out the affected areas. After buffing them out by hand and finishing up with Meguiars wax, the car looks terrific, which is exactly how a Fox Cougar deserves to look. :cool:

I really enjoyed doing the process by hand. Moving somewhat slowly made it easy to keep an eye on things and ensure that the paint was agreeing with the product. It also provided a good workout.

Just thought I'd share with y'all.
 
On of my old Mazdas was a non clear coat and I actually preferred the finished product to my clear coat one. Of course clear coats are a lot different now than they used to be but it was nice to be able to polish almost anything out without just working the clear coat to make it hold wax differently and hide blemishes.
 
hotdimmes said:
Good info. I think my merkur might be non clear coat as well and it will need a good bit of cleaning up :laugh:
Click to expand...

Could be. For much of the '80s, Ford offered both clear coat and non-clear coat colors. Typically, the metallic colors sported clear coats, though there are probably non-metallic colors that are also clear coat.

You'll know as soon as you start in on it, though. If your white cloth turns the color of the car, there's no clear coat. :cool: :laugh:

It's perfectly normal to see color on the cloth in situations like this, for the record.
 
Haha. Yeah dont freak out when your polishing pad comes back red because thats just crappy paint you didnt want on the car anyway.
 
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