My 93 cobra light Resto, follow along!!

[snakeplisskin93]

I need to wet-sand mine too but I'm afraid to

Do you still have origianl paint and what's the condition? I've never done this before either and pretty much you can't screw it up, you can always buff out most anything.

My paint was severly faded and dirty, I'm sure yours is better than mine. If I were you I'd wetsand 2000 only and get a good buffer. The buffer I have is to fast at 3500rpm, around 2000rpm is better, that's what the guy told me the other day at the supply place.

You should just do a small area or like gas door only till you get more used to doing it. Tape off the area around your gas door and have at it.

You'll be surprised at how easy it is and good it will look. Just takes some time.

 

[WillyB93]

It is looking really good!!! I am glad the other compound is working better for you.

 

[Mach&Roll]

Nice work I am going to subscribe to keep this in my file for when I get my fox cobra.

 

[snakeplisskin93]

It is looking really good!!! I am glad the other compound is working better for you.

Yes it is, thanks! Only did a little of bodyside moulding today, it's starting to get hot here already, well warm today and hotter over weekend.

 

[snakeplisskin93]

Nice work I am going to subscribe to keep this in my file for when I get my fox cobra.

Cool, what are you looking to get, color/combo?

 

[snakeplisskin93]

Haven't had a lot of time the past few days to work on the ride. Got a little done today. I had said I was only going to use 2000 grit on the rest of the car, but after doing a small area on driver's door, it's not looking as good as right side. I ran out of 1000, so gotta pick up some tomorrow. I also sanded down left mirror to get it ready for paint.

 

[buddha93]

I've never done this before either and pretty much you can't screw it up, you can always buff out most anything.

Unless you run out of paint. Things can go really bad if you make a wrong turn doing something like this, and before you know it, your down to primer. Glad it's going good for you though.

I will say this. If you've basically sanded out the clear in some areas, make damn sure you use a good wax to seal up the exposed paint. You've only got mils of thickness with the factory job......not like the old days were the paint was as thick as hell.

 

[bossman302]

After Looking through your pics, Progress looks good. However try Maguires 2.0 Compound you will find it at a good paint store, and then Maguires 2.0 Swirl Mark remover with foam Pad. Black is a lot of work. You will still need to wax it 2 to 4 time to get most all the swirl marks out of it. Hopefull it still has enough factory clear left on the car.

Looks like your front Cover and wing will need to be painted as their is no clear left to buff. The bad part of Black is, if you paint part of it the rest will just look old. Keep polishing and it and posting up pics.

 

[snakeplisskin93]

Unless you run out of paint. Things can go really bad if you make a wrong turn doing something like this, and before you know it, your down to primer. Glad it's going good for you though.

I will say this. If you've basically sanded out the clear in some areas, make damn sure you use a good wax to seal up the exposed paint. You've only got mils of thickness with the factory job......not like the old days were the paint was as thick as hell.

True, you can screw it up, I was more in the mindset of my car's condition where if I burned thru somewhere It wouldn't kill me.

The clear is surprisingly durable thou, you'd really have to do something stupid to burn thru, IMO. Buyer beware, lol

 

[snakeplisskin93]

After Looking through your pics, Progress looks good. However try Maguires 2.0 Compound you will find it at a good paint store, and then Maguires 2.0 Swirl Mark remover with foam Pad. Black is a lot of work. You will still need to wax it 2 to 4 time to get most all the swirl marks out of it. Hopefull it still has enough factory clear left on the car.

Looks like your front Cover and wing will need to be painted as their is no clear left to buff. The bad part of Black is, if you paint part of it the rest will just look old. Keep polishing and it and posting up pics.

Thanks Bossman! Black is the devil, lol. I'm not really seeing ant swirls from the process I'm doing, lucky I guess?? It's just working out that way.

I'll be waxing regularly on any non clear areas. Yyes the nose end caps at the top of fenders are clearless as is the top horizontal area on the nose, anywhere that faces up got killed by the sun. I'm going to just rattle can the end caps and see how it looks, can't look any worse.

 

[jliddle]

You should really consider a Polish/swirl remover step applied with the buffer before waxing.

The 3m compound will leave swirls and micro-marring. Fwiw- look into 3m perfect it Polish. Its in a black bottle, the product is grey in color and it applies via black foam.

Follow that with your wax and there will be absolutely no swirls.

 

[buddha93]

True, you can screw it up, I was more in the mindset of my car's condition where if I burned thru somewhere It wouldn't kill me.

The clear is surprisingly durable thou, you'd really have to do something stupid to burn thru, IMO. Buyer beware, lol

No, you have the right attitude considering the condition it was in when you got it. Your only going to help improve the looks, that's for sure.

 

[snakeplisskin93]

You should really consider a Polish/swirl remover step applied with the buffer before waxing.

The 3m compound will leave swirls and micro-marring. Fwiw- look into 3m perfect it Polish. Its in a black bottle, the product is grey in color and it applies via black foam.

Follow that with your wax and there will be absolutely no swirls.

I'll look for it next trip to pepboys and give it a try, then I'll post results of how it looks, Thanks!!

 

[snakeplisskin93]

Update, after getting keyed yesterday I sanded the door scratch some last nite(wed), then today I did the whole door in 1000, then 1500 and 2000 last.

Some of the scratch went away, the ends were lighter than a section in the middle and on the deeper part of scratch I went thru the clear. Going to buff it friday and see how it comes out.

 

[snakeplisskin93]

Had some time today and got the drivers side done back to the taillight. I wound up buying a real buffer/polisher with variable speed and what a difference it made!

I figured out what the white hazing on the sides was. It wasn't that the clear was to thin, it was that fast buffer speed burning the clear! No biggie because it all comes out with the slower variable buffer. Also I decided to skip the wet sand on the driver's quarter and it came out beautiful!

Couple other discoveries. I hit the bottom of the 1/4 window with the buffer by accident and it polished it up with a nice shine. I'm going to sand and polish both 1/4 windows. should come out nice.

Also on the vandalism, I noticed the driver door lock cylinder looked funny, like it was sticking out. On closer inspection, there's a gap on the bottom, like someone was prying a screwdriver under it. The scumbag was trying to STEAL my car!! When he couldn't get in, he keyed it up.

Pics coming....

 

[snakeplisskin93]

Here's a couple pics till I get it outside tomorrow, a little grainy and flash reflection. Also I painted DS mirror and door handle.

 

[snakeplisskin93]

 

[snakeplisskin93]

 

[snakeplisskin93]

Some more pics. Finished the PS quarter and am going to go over the whole right side again with the new buffer.

 

[snakeplisskin93]

Pics are still grainy, my high tech camera,lol.