I'm not painting the car at this time, so I went over it with CLR and a Scotchbrite pad on the surface rust. Today, I took the buffer and some 3M Handglaze and started to buff it out. The old paint buffed out great! Can't do a lot with the bare spots, but it's the look I wanted for now. Got rained out, so I'll have to finish up tomorrow. The first two pictures are of the car when I got it and the second two are buffed areas. Sorry one pic is blurry. It's making a huge difference. Tom
I like it. Lot of work but I think it looks terrific. Would that have been a enamel paint job back in the day?
I Love old paint that looks as good as it can,,just shows that the car has been well taken care of to the point of wearing the paint. HRP
If the majority of the paint is good (or at least, respectable) but you have a few bad spots (like the front of the hood or lower rear quarters/rockers) you might consider doing some localized rust removal and bodywork to those small areas, then blend some paint back just far enough to cover. If your new paint is the same type as your old stuff, once it's buffed, it should blend in fairly well. Otherwise, it's looking real good.
Pretty sure GM was all lacquer, even then. FWIW, DuPont 99 Black Lacquer used to be a dead on match...if ya go that way.
Outstanding! A little elbow grease made a lot of difference! Did essentially the same with every old car I ever owned, including a Rangoon Red '62 Galaxie that was oxidized out to flat orange when I got it. Compound and Blue Coral over a week of afternoons had it to the point where folks were asking if I'd had the car painted. Something really rewarding in bringing out the beauty in a neglected original finish!
Thanks guys, It appears that it is laquer as it's showing a lot of cracking and checking. I finished the buffing today (buffing sucks) and gave it a good coat of Mothers Carnauba wax. Funny how that old paint comes back. I may take the suggestion of bodyworking just the bad parts, at some time. I think I could get it to blend. For now, I'm not doing much more. I do need to find a back bumper and it needs a couple of small patches in the floor. Maybe some lakes pipes. I also may have to try and figure out some kind of PCV for it as it puts a lot of smoke out of the road breather tube when it's idling. The first two pictures are what it looked like when I got it and the rest are after the buffing/waxing. Tom
Leave off the lakes pipes. On a 98 4-door, they'd look like an old man in a Speedo. Big old cars have more dignity if they're left alone and taken care of.
PCV is real easy on those. Take the road draft tube off, then make an oval plate to the same shape/bolt pattern as the RD tube. (2 bolt oval flange) Then get a 90 degree PCV valve and a PCV rubber grommet from the auto parts place. Drill the correct size hole in your new plate to fit the grommet. If it has lots of blowby out the oil fill cap, the PCV won't get rid of all of it, but at least under the car won't be puffing smoke. If it is still real bad out the oil filler after you do the PCV, I suppose you could switch to a oil cap that has the air cleaner hose fitting, to hook to your air cleaner...if you don't mind the looks.
I'd have to agree with 50Fraud, On a car like that less is more. It already has more than enough chrome on it and adding lakes pipes might be over doing it a bit. I'd spend the money that I didn't spend on lakes pipes on a great looking set of hubcaps.
In my ever so humble opinion, old presentable paint is the very best finish that a car can have. Cars with most of the paint gone or surface rusted look bad, but old cars with absolutely perfect paint look just as bad to me. They're too sterile....they lack any of the feeling that old cars should have. I won't be really happy with the new paint on my 54 until it's aged a few years. By then it'll have some wear and show some love. Not some silly artificial patina, but the real thing.
Clean old Oldsmobile you've got. Paint looks better with a little love. Just did this myself this summer on my '47. Enjoy the ride! As for the PCV idea, just like F & J said its pretty simple. Here's a similar install on an Olds 371 but I imagine the 324 has a similar road draft tube and it would be close enough. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=334049
You can get decent black lacquer in a spray can even. That way you can work over little areas at a time without tearing the whole car apart for a respray, and you'll be able to preserve the paint that is still good. I agree on the lake pipes, not gonna look right on that car. Nice sounding dual exhaust yes, but lake pipes, no. I like the caps that are on it though, I don't think I'd change those. A good cleaning and undercoating job on the front inner fenders would sure help the looks of this car, too.
Well, it won't be "left alone", but I'm not doing anything too radical. Probably right about the lakes pipes. In my opinion, lowering it helped the looks a lot. I'm not sure I like the stock caps all that much. Maybe something with a spinner would look better. Still plenty to do, but it's nice to be able to drive it when I'm working on it. Tom
The Jalopy Journal
