electric buffer/polisher?

[auditude at cox.net]

Brett Dikeman <brett at cloud9.net> wrote:
>
> At 2:33 PM -0500 1/15/03, <auditude at cox.net> wrote:
>
> >Does anyone here have experience with using an electric
> >buffer/polisher?  I suppose I mean the kind that is supposed to be
> >orbital.
>
> I believe you mean -random- orbital.

Yeah, that sounds right.

<snip>
> >My Coupe GT has sort of a "rolling red chalkboard" appearance to it,
> >and I would like to polish out what I can to make it look as good as
> >possible.
>
> What kind of damage?  Be specific.  Embedded/stuck on dirt?  Deep
> scratches?  Spider web marks?  Light scratches?  Damaged/peeling
> clearcoat?(looks like the car equivalent of what you get after a
> sunburn.)

Actually, I thought I was being pretty specific.  :-) I'm familiar with those different type of problems, or at least I can picture them from their names.

I guess I would describe it as oxidation.  The paint is non-reflective instead of shiny, just like a chalkboard is, but a Tornado red chalkboard.  If it were somebody's dried out elbows, I might describe it as ashy.  To use another personification, the paint looks thirsty as hell.

I believe different panels have been repainted, so the degree of oxidation is not consistent on the car.  Polishing should help it out alot.

The car doesn't have any discrete scratches in it or peeling paint or clearcoat (is Tornado Red even clearcoated?).  There are maybe a handful of small chips thoughout the whole car, some of which have rust restricted to the exposed area.  This was a California car, and it is now in Arizona.  It may have lived somewhat near the coast in southern California.

I've had some very limited success hand-polishing the roof, but that has been very slow going.  As I get some of the matte finish smoothed out and the oxidation removed, I can see what might begin to be those random fine scratches that could be described as spider webs.  This might be due to using too light of a polish too early in the process.

So, I'm thinking I need to use something that has a mild "cutting" function, and then gradually go finer and finer, followed by a final coat or two of wax.  Wow, I can't even imagine what it will look like.

That's great information!  Thanks Brett and others who have responded.  I think I may be getting a buffer finally then.

Ken