Marine Blue

My neighbor just bought his daughter a mid 80's jeep that he is bringing back to health. He just finished replacing the engine when he saw me in the driveway cleaning my wheel wells. He was asking what I was doing and I explained the whole concours thing. He then showed me the jeep and asked me what to use to get the paint looking better. I looked at it and said let me take care of it. This was basically a way for me to return the favors he's done for us over the past year including letting us borrow any of his yard tools whenever we want and pulling me out of the snow a couple of times

Anyways since I hate washing cars I had asked his daughter to do that the day before and then put it in the garage for me. I showed up today (Sturday) and had access to a rotary with a host of 3M pads and paint polishes. I decided since I was unfamaliar with their rotary and how to adjust the speed that I would use me Random Orbital and the 3M Polish (a product I've never used). I tested a few area first and jumped in. After a few hours I finally finished the polishing. Results were good but not perfect. I really needed to follow up with a swirl remover but I was too tired and ran out of clean pads.

If anyone has questions about the process just ask....

Here are a few before / after pics

pcar928fan

Is that from tree limbs scratching the carp out of the car or what??? Good job on the work, looks MUCH BETTER!

Stephenwz968

Excellent job! What 3m polish were you using? You'd be amazed at how much faster a rotary can correct vs. an orbital-but that also poses more of a risk. Great work on the jeep!

Steve

detailersdomain

great job!

Marine Blue

James,

I guess the previous owner had tree branches and an active dog that caused the scratches. Some of the plastic trim was beat up beyond repair (actual indentations into the plastic) although they looked much better.

I honestly can't remember which compound it was. I know it was a Finesse It II Polishing Compound but I can't remember which one or the part number.

A rotary would have been much faster but I opted to use my RO instead for several reasons. The car has several panels that but up against another panel meaning the buffers edge could easily come in contact with a painted surface. There are also many raised surfaces (hinges, screws etc) on these older jeeps that I was just too nervous about using a rotary. The two biggest reasons I didn't use the rotary was that it wasn't my rotary and it didn't offer easy speed adjustment. My neighbor bought the supplies so the products and pads were completely new to me and the last thing I wanted to do was burn through the paint.

I really wanted to do a full on before/after on this jeep but I just don't have the time anymore. I'll try to get some shots of the whole exterior next time I'm over there. I want to make sure she's waxed it too.