re: Paint, paint, and more paint

[William Elliott <William.Elliott@mail.mei.com>]

Mike Stump <tree@triton.net> writes: 
<<With all the disscussions about paint that's been taking place, I
thought that someone might be able to diagnose my problem.  The paint on
my hood, front quarter panels, and front doors is good.  However, the
rest looks like someone scrubbed it using steel wool.  The surface still
feels smooth, however.  Three questions:
1) What happened to the paint (it was this way when I bought it)?
2) How can I repair it besides a complete repaint of the car (I've
already tried waxing it)?
3)  Has this happened to anyone else?
BTW, I've got an '89 80 that's light blue.
TIA>>

Sounds exactly like one of the expensive but horrible paint jobs
I referred to in my previous post.  Beautiful, low mileage Volvo
Turbo coupe with upgraded (200hp) powerplant.  Paid $150+/gallon
for top shelf urethane; light metallic blue... Idiots wet-sanded the 
basecoat before applying the clearcoat .  Paint extremely smooth
and shiny... but looked like *#@% as you described above.  Only way
I know to fix it is to repaint (if the damage was below the clearcoat).
If the 80 is not clearcoated, you may get decent results using a
medium rubbing compound followed by a very fine polishing compound
and a buffer.  However, metallic paint is extremely hard to buff out 
satisfactorily.  Good luck!

Bill Elliott