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View Full Version : Polished the 33 year old paint...

seventynine
06-27-2010, 07:20 AM
I took the Chief over to a friends house yesterday who has some serious polishing skills! My experitse has always been a bit more mechanical. Anyway we washied it, hit it with a clay bar and two grades of polish with the orbital buffer. Amazing results....I'd say the paint looks darn near what it did when it came from the factory in December '76....minus a few imperfections here and there.

Don't be afraid to polish that old paint...it might be better than you think!

Here are a few pics:
http://concrete-blues.com/jeep/chief-polished-01.jpg

http://concrete-blues.com/jeep/chief-polished-02.jpg

http://concrete-blues.com/jeep/chief-polished-03.jpg

http://concrete-blues.com/jeep/chief-polished-04.jpg

Dean
jaber
06-27-2010, 07:27 AM
Thats shinny enough to make Janie proud...:thumbsup:

I could get the sides that nice, but the hood and roof are loosing more paint each year....:mad: :rolleyes:
CarlBraun
06-27-2010, 07:28 AM
dean

thats sweet...you should be proud of that paint and your buddy's polishing skills.

Clay bars are a little known secret. I use em on all of my cars and Jeeps because of all of the grit and dirt in the air here in so cal.

Looks good...congrats
seventynine
06-27-2010, 07:31 AM
Thats shinny enough to make Janie proud...:thumbsup:

I could get the sides that nice, but the hood and roof are loosing more paint each year....:mad: :rolleyes:

Well...the deck is stacked a little in my favor. It only has 35k original miles and it's been garaged most of it's life.

Dean
FSJ Guy
06-27-2010, 07:38 AM
That is awesome!!!! I'd polish mine, but there's little paint left!!! It's a good thing my truck is gray. It helps hide the primer that is showing through.
Wayne
06-27-2010, 09:58 AM
Wow looks great. :thumbsup:
gsmikie
06-27-2010, 10:48 AM
i use comet cleanser
Jtrucker
06-27-2010, 11:34 AM
Got to love the clay bar! well done, looks outstanding!
Coryd55
06-27-2010, 11:42 AM
That is really impressive. I wish mine still had original tan paint, I would try to polish it up.
DAHoyle
06-27-2010, 11:42 AM
Yeah, I'll have to agree that it looks absolutely amazing. I have found the same to be true, in the restoration of my Honcho. The paint is absolutely stunning on about 90% of the body, especially where it was hidden behind the decals. There are a few thin areas on mine, that will have to be sprayed, but all in all, I intend to retain as much of the factory finish as possible.

Congrats on the cleanup. I know mine won't come out quite as well, but it gives me great confidence that it will be a good outcome.
mattbauer
06-27-2010, 11:43 AM
Can your buddy polish rust? :D
Great looking job.
janie
06-27-2010, 03:57 PM
Dean, you make this girl's heart beam with pride.:) That looks absolutely fantastic. Just remember...........once you start polishing your hooked. When my Honcho left for Belgium it had over 60 coats of polish.

I tried to sit on the hood one time and slid off the other side.

Keep up the great work.:thumbsup:
seventynine
06-27-2010, 07:24 PM
Thanks for compliments all! There are a few spots that I need to touch up. Where the hood rolls over in the front along with the Hood bar have some surface rust. I think I'm gonna sand that down and repaint myself. It should be pretty forgiving as it's not on the same plane as the hood itself.

I have a new "Cherokee Chief" decal for the tailgate that Tonka200 made for me. I removed the old decal which was faded though in good condition. There are a few other defects on the tailgate so I'm going to sand that down too and repaint...then install the new decal.

As some of you may know...removing those old decals is a total pain in the tuckus! After several hours of elbow grease I did get it removed but you could see a slight difference in the color of the paint that had been hidden under the decal for the last 33 years. The letter kerning on new decal is slightly different so I think some of the color variation would show through. Anyway I decided to go ahead and repaint the taigate first which has a little bit of rust on the bottom anyway....have'nt got to it yet.

The polisher did actually do a great job of revitalizing the other decals on the truck...for example the "cherokee chief" lettering on the door. those were in pretty good condition but had a slight oxidation haze to them.

I was also really impressed with how the polish worked on the mat black paint on the "cap" around the fixed windows. That had a slight oxidation haze to it also that I couldn't seem to rub out with wax.

Dean
76FSChief
06-27-2010, 07:32 PM
Beautiful work there! Jeep looks FANTASTIC :thumbsup:
seventynine
06-27-2010, 08:01 PM
Dean, you make this girl's heart beam with pride.:) That looks absolutely fantastic. Just remember...........once you start polishing your hooked. When my Honcho left for Belgium it had over 60 coats of polish.

I tried to sit on the hood one time and slid off the other side.

Keep up the great work.:thumbsup:

Janie...yeah I think I talked to you via PM a while back about polishing but I never followed up. Then a buddy...after seeing it begged me to bring it by for his treatment. Gotta love generous friends:thumbsup:

There is something cool about original paint if you can get it shine up nice. I had actually taken the Chief to a local paint guy a while back and talked to him about touching up a few of the problem areas. He had me half convinced to re-paint the whole thing. He said it would almost be easier and not that much more money. I'm glad I didn't have the money at the time.

I went to a local car show last weekend and the coolest car there was a '66 Mustang that was non-restored and all original...paint, chrome, etc. It looked really good but had some imprefections. The paint and chrome were cracked in places etc....it was a real survivor though. You see a ton of the "restored to nicer than the factory ever dreamed of 40 years ago" cars out there. Though...I'll have to admit those are cool too.:thumbsup:

Dean
seventynine
06-27-2010, 08:07 PM
BTW..that car show was pretty big and as far as I saw not a single Jeep. There where a few boring late 70's Ford and Chevy pickups there but nothing worthy if you ask me. I'm bringing the Chero and J-Truck next time...I think they'd be a big hit!

Dean
GWDriver
06-27-2010, 09:02 PM
WOW! That IS awesome. I was able to shine mine up pretty good where the paint had been hiding under the woodgrain (even though it looked kinda nice w/o the polish). Hood and roof were a bit too weathered and the hood paint a bit thin. Still, If I get lucky, I won't need a complete repaint anytime soon.

Looks fantastic, Dean.
Maryland Rick
06-27-2010, 09:26 PM
OMG!!!! That came out beautifully! Do you have a "before" photo to compare the two?

Rick
COLOFIREMAN
06-27-2010, 09:39 PM
OMG!!!! That came out beautifully! Do you have a "before" photo to compare the two?

Rick
X2!!! on that, it's shines http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd218/COLOJEEPGUY2K/Emotions/coolsun.gif!!
Chrome
06-27-2010, 11:21 PM
WOW!!!!!
red mistress
06-28-2010, 10:27 AM
Those imperfections U speak of.... I call PATINA !

Only origional once !
seventynine
06-28-2010, 10:46 AM
Here is a before pic from a couple of months ago. The paint still looked pretty good but it was dullish and you could barely see the metallic quality of the paint. Granted it has pollin dust on it here too.

http://concrete-blues.com/jeep/77chief-newwheels-01.jpg
Battle_Wagon_NJ
06-28-2010, 06:51 PM
Can I ask a stupid question? Exactly was product did you use and how did you apply it? I bet my paint has a lot of life left in it too.
fireman91186
06-29-2010, 12:57 AM
That's awesome. I would love to do that to mine but there are just to many different color panels on it. All it would do is look like a shiny rust bucket.
SEdmonds
06-29-2010, 07:58 AM
We are tackling the 38 year old paint on ours. It got the all over treatment of Bar Keeper's Friend yesterday to take the stains out of the finish - today it gets the buffing pad and a mild rubbing compound, and some wax.
jeepjerry
06-29-2010, 08:26 AM
Wow that turned out nice!!!
seventynine
07-05-2010, 10:37 AM
Can I ask a stupid question? Exactly was product did you use and how did you apply it? I bet my paint has a lot of life left in it too.

BattleWagon....I finally got the specifics on the polish products we used from my friend.

We started by washing it using a seperate bucket to wring and rinse the sponge off after washing...to keep from reaplying the dirt you just wiped off. This seemed minor to me but my friend insisted it was important.

We then went over the whole truck with a clay bar to remove other paint contaminants.

We used two polishes:
205:
http://www.meguiarsdirect.com/detail/MEG+POLISH+1
105:
http://www.meguiarsdirect.com/detail/MEG+ULTRA+32

We applied the polish with an electric orbital buffer kind of like this:
http://www.meguiarsdirect.com/detail/MEG+G110V2

The 105 is a bit more abrasive and you use that first then finish up with the 205. We actually didn't use too much of the 105...I think we just used that on the hood.

We just applied the polish and worked it untill it started to break down and shine. This whole process was new to me and different from the usual wax or polish method of applying it....letting it haze over then wiping it off. There is very little to wipe off after you finish polishing it with the buffer.

We didn't wax it we just spayed on a sealant afterwards. I may put a coat of wax on it when I get a chance though.

Dean
POS
07-05-2010, 02:44 PM
Got any interior pics? That would help me with the interior on my '78. Thanks!
Jeepguy77
07-05-2010, 02:54 PM
I think it scared the Prius:thumbsup: It looks great. If my truck didnt have a torn fender flare and rust on the bed I would buff mine, but Ive decided to just get it painted. Once again it looks awesome:D
seventynine
07-05-2010, 06:08 PM
Got any interior pics? That would help me with the interior on my '78. Thanks!

It just so happens that I cleaned the interior up to match the exterior the other day...here are a few pics:


http://www.concrete-blues.com/jeep/interior-01.jpg



http://www.concrete-blues.com/jeep/interior-02.jpg

http://www.concrete-blues.com/jeep/interior-03.jpg

http://www.concrete-blues.com/jeep/interior-04.jpg



http://www.concrete-blues.com/jeep/interior-05.jpg

http://www.concrete-blues.com/jeep/interior-06.jpg
POS
07-06-2010, 06:39 AM
Excellent - thank you. I'm trying to get some "before" documentation before I do the interior of my '78.
Lindel
07-06-2010, 08:37 AM
That is outstanding, and probably better than new. :thumbsup:
Scoot
07-06-2010, 10:50 AM
Nice looking truck! I love the old paint from the days before bc/cc. You can keep polishing it back to a shine until the day comes you get to the primer.
twisted frame
07-06-2010, 08:29 PM
Thanks for motivating me to try a clay bar. You guys got some incredible results! Looks amazing!
shimniok
07-06-2010, 11:22 PM
Nice looking results! I wished my rig weren't so far gone... :(
joe
07-07-2010, 02:07 PM
Looks absolutely great! Much nicer than new paint, patina has character. Work wise though you may have shot yourself in the foot. Now you're gonna want to keep it looking like that. Get help now before you do something really crazy like fertalizing your lawn :eek:
GallionSW
07-07-2010, 02:11 PM
WOW!!!! Wish thats all mine needed! Unfortunately I have clear flaking off everywhere and the hood and roof are way past faded! New paint hopefully later in the summer though!:thumbsup:
seventynine
07-07-2010, 02:28 PM
Looks absolutely great! Much nicer than new paint, patina has character. Work wise though you may have shot yourself in the foot. Now you're gonna want to keep it looking like that. Get help now before you do something really crazy like fertalizing your lawn :eek:

He he...no worries I have a long steep gravel driveway so nothing stays clean around here for long...it's a loosing battle. Funny my J Truck has really nice new paint on it and I haven't washed it in a year or so.

My buddy insisted on spraying that crap on the tires of the Chief for those pics...I told him it was just going to attract dust from my driveway...sure enough the tires are brown now:thumbsup: He lives in the suburbs and doesn't understand these things:rolleyes:

And Fertilizer! That would just mean I'd have to cut it more often...who wants that!?

The drought we've had here in Northern Virginia has shifted my grass into the slow burn mode. It still looks freshly cut from 3 weeks ago...

Dean
billyrb
07-08-2010, 08:48 PM
I have to go change now.
red mistress
07-08-2010, 09:57 PM
bet U win stock FSJ class.

I've always admired this low mile one owner origional Chero.

Looking forward to meeting U at PA show!
G_$
03-01-2011, 09:33 AM
Hate me if you want, but I am bumping this thread only because those pictures are incredible.
seventynine
03-01-2011, 12:38 PM
Reminds me...I need to roll it out and re shine it here soon. I haven't driven it too much over the winter. The days are finally getting warmer:thumbsup:
Michael_King024
03-01-2011, 01:54 PM
im glad you bumped it...that is superb. hats off to ya sir for that incredible truck!
rstep
03-01-2011, 06:59 PM
Wow missed it the first time,great job.
jeepjseries
03-03-2011, 10:52 AM
Wow!
scantar
03-03-2011, 11:00 AM
Yikes...I remember this thread and how I just grumbled at it 'cause of my "primer and patina" truck. Now though, I'm getting the revs up to try and tackle my Wagon's 35 year old pre-cc paint.

Can someone 'splain the whole "I use Comet" thing? I know I remember reading somewhere that Comet or BonAmi was good to use but...um...for what?