First off, what an amazing opportunity it was for us to work on such a vehicle as this 1934 Packard. The time and attention to detail that went into this job was immense. During its long life of 8 years being restored at many different shops, the vehicle had received swirl marks, scratching, hazing as well as other imperfections in the paint. This was a huge job to take on considering the size, intricate curves and shape of the vehicle. All of these things make it more difficult with a lot more risk.
The first step we took was to check all paint thickness over the entire vehicle to ensure we did not run the risk of burning thru any areas of the paint. Next, was to mask off delicate areas of the vehicle like the soft top, trim pieces etc., using the fairly new tape from Kamikaze. WAY more flexible and less sticky than the 3M and any other tape I have found. This vehicle received a full paint correction, meaning as much time will be spent as needed to get the paint looking as good as possible. Black paint is by far the most delicate paint to compound, polish and finish down perfectly. It is such a deep and glossy color that it shows even the smallest haze and swirl mark. The paint on this Packard was also extremely soft, making it even more difficult. This paint is base coat clear coat. Lets take a close look at the condition of the paint......
The paint needed some major work done to it. So after clay, water less wash and panel wipe on the Packard it was time to get to the fun stuff! When polishing any paint I like to use new yellow edge-less micro fiber rags. I like yellow rags because if anything happens to find its way onto the rag it will really stand out, were as on a dark colored rag, it may not be noticeable and cause further damage to the paint. The trusted Meguiars micro-fiber cuttings pads were the go to pads for the compounding stage, paired with Jescar heavy correcting compound. This combo removed almost all of the defects on the paint while leaving little hazing behind. Thus, making the polishing stage a lot easier. For final polish the yellow Rupes finishing pad paired with Sonax perfect finish was the best combination. (meguiars new m210 was runner up)
Throughout the compounding stage, I grabbed a new pad every panel to ensure I was getting a haze free finish, while cleaning pad after every pass. Some custom cut 1" and 2" inch micro-fiber pads were cut to use with the Rupes ibrid to get all the tiny, hard to reach tricky areas. There was ALOT!. My handheld scangrip color match light was glued to my hand pretty much the whole time. Compound, inspect, compound, inspect and then some more inspecting. Polishing stage went by pretty fast compared to the compounding. Two or three passes and the paint was defect free under the inspection light. Changing and cleaning pads frequently. Over all a total of around 57 hours was spent on this Beautiful car. It deserved it! Over all we learned a TON from working on a vehicle with as many curves, corners, edges and cracks such as a 1934 Packard 12.
Video can also be seen of this packard @https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJKJS4QyWGE. Thanks for reading!
