There is a fine line between patina and neglect. I like to see evidence that somebody cares, clean and looking its best. Wax or oil helps. Somehow I do not 'get' the coat of clear over all the age damage, when with a little more effort, the car could have a driveway pain job like we did back in the day. And it usually only took a day.
I’d prefer old ****py paint and rust over a driveway paint job but we don’t have to like the same ****
Yeah, a ****py driveway paint job isn't an improvement in my eyes either. Usually, it just seems like it's hiding something.
****py paint is ****py paint. One just has more gloss. ****py new paint trying to look not ****py looks more ****py than old ****py paint trying not to look as ****py as it actually is.
Agreed. One thing it's NOT hiding is all the necessary body work to make paint look good. I'll stick with my '41 Merc's aged dull paint and many small dents and defects sealed up with flat clear.
So paint may some day be in my cars future, but certainly anytime soon. In the meantime wanted protect what’s left of the 90% faded black paint and 10% bare metal and mayb make the car look a little better. Followed the suggestion of several here and went with 50% boiled linseed and mineral spirits. A little stinky for a while but I really like the results! Thanks all.
You can Laquor clear it with a cheap thinner. It wont be too glossy because it will 'kick off ' fast. If it shines too much, just hand rub it with a hard compound.
I’ve been following this thread. My Rancho runs and drives great now but it looks like ****. I wanted to get it painted but the timing is bad so I want to do something to improve it a little for the Cruisin season. I always tell myself that I need to start living in the 21st century and do things like they do it on YouTube/podcasts/the internet in all its infinite wisdom. Try the latest and greatest. So I shopped Patina Sauce, Sweet Patina, etc. Nah, what if I decide to get it painted? I’m not convinced. Linseed oil seemed harmless enough (and cheap). Mixed with acetone or mineral spirits - all natural ingredients even. Plus, I’ve got all that in stock. So I washed the Guinea Pig and applied the aforementioned linseed goo. WTF. It did nothing for the look of my cheap, abused paint. And it turned into a gummy mess when I tried to remove it. Paint thinner finally got the **** off. Ok, plan B. Someone said that they used CLR to clean the old paint before using, hell I don’t remember what…. Well CLR applied with my favorite Scotchbrite sponge worked wonders on the tortured paint. Essentially, wet sanding it I guess. It had streaks running horizontally down the sides like someone steel wooled it and then waxed it. So I used a crosshatch semi-vertical motion and circular motion to try to obliterate the old pattern. It’s way better. Still blotchy due to it being a cheap single stage metallic blue but way better. You can see the before on the door and after on the rear quarter panel. This is just cleaned with CLR and Scotchbrite. Next I hit it with some Meguire’s polishing compound and the buffer. Then gave it a coat of Meguires wax. That didn’t make it *****in but now you can tell it’s blue, it has no streaks, and it has some protection. Also, I’m pretty sure that most paint shops know how to deal with regular old wax and won’t turn me away for having some kind synthetic concoction rubbed into the old paint. So basically I guess I followed my own advice, I just used a little different sanding method this time. It seems like I’m still stuck in the 60s….
I get people telling me (some quite adamant) that I need to do something to preserve my coupe. I tell them I already saved it when I pulled it out of a field west of Minot, ND.
Most ****py paint jobs can be made to look quite respectable (at least as good as an 18 year old did back in the 50’s) with some determined elbow grease! The kids back in the 50’s set the bar pretty low.
My 62 Bel Air sat in a machine shed on a farm for 30+ years. The original paint needed several rounds of rubbing compound before it would come around and stay nice and shiny. If you keep at it and are careful not to rub through, I bet the paint will come around even more.
Exactly. If I wanted to emulate a lot of the paint jobs I seen growing up it would be either freebie safety colors from the mines painted with a brush or cheap equipment paint that someone taped off both sides of the gl*** and sprayed it all inside and out. All this is subjective. Someone’s gonna hate whatever another person does.
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