Original 40 Ford Coupe, Buff it or leave it alone?

I'm with the buff it crowd - I'm not big on the chalky matt look - too much of that around here from sun and beach air. Why don't you talk to a professional detailer. 3M Perfect It products are a great way to go.

 

My 2 cents; if the paint was thinner with light rust showing, I'd leave it as it was. The way it is though, I'd buff or wax to get rid of the oxidized paint - I expect it will come up shiny and it will surprise a lot of people with the age of the paint. If you don't like it, it will oxidize again in a few years.

You lucky, lucky bastard.

 

Clean that paint up and drive the tires off that car!

 

Buff her out and take the old girl out. What a find.

 

Very cool car. My dad bought a 39 a few years ago with a paintjob from the early sixties. He cleaned it up and it looks like a new paint job until your a couple feet away, then you can see all of the little cracks and all of the character the paint has.

I would buff it. maybe even try the CLR (calcium/lime/rust) on the rusted areas.

Maybe someone else posted this, but I thought this was pretty cool. Shows the CLR results.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=487002&highlight=clr

 

x2 vvvvvv

 

Got a buddy who had the same problem. 36 Ford work truck. Daily driver. Patina, rust, faded paint. He gave it a bath to remove the dust then shot the whole thing in semi-gloss clear. Turned out pretty good.

 

If it's not a historically significant hot rod, not even original paint, why leave it dingy? I'd do what ever it took to make it nice.

 

Sell it to me and send it over to Australia. I'll give it the Polosh/Wax option. If I don't like it, I'll send it back. The salt air around the ship shoud help with the aging process.

 

buff it slam it in the weeds and drive it

 

I'd hand buff the paint, take the time to get the rust spots taken care of to where they won't get any worse, mix you up some paint to match and do some touch up alittle at a time, buff the spots smooth and then put a good coat of wax on it. Iowa will really eat up cars in a short time if left as is.

 

I would do whatever it takes to get rid of the chalky appearance.

But really, I think that's a car that deserves bodywork and paint. Man what a great find!!

 

I agree with 19Fordy and a couple others. Patina is nice but this car needs to be saved. Rust is rust and will not go away unless it is dealt with. The value of this car will only go down until those areas are dealt with and that will probably require a restoration. As far as the interior, I love the smell of old fabric but it’s a bummer with dust in your eyes. Save this one!

 

Give it a little push DOWN! 40's are too f'n tall stock AND too many people got stockers

These guys here just want you to 'leave it' so they can get it cheapo when you get tired of it.

 

Bluto how the hell ya been buddy?

I love a chopped '40 but is a hard chop to pull off. Is that one in your collection?

 

yes yes yes!!!!!!!!

 

I think it needs a wash and wax. If it were covered with 30 years of bird crap you would be out there with a hose right now. You have to get the dirt off of it and protect the patina so that it doesn't go bad.

 

Hey PB'R

Yup just my old POS. Got my motor now

Car goes to Flamin Garage in Hungary for interior tin, a stock firewall, and a little prepaint bumping

I think the whole act is two years out........or three

I have had this thing since 1990

See kids if you keep things they finally have a way of getting done.

I think I can get the motor in without cutting the hood open

 

That's a great find! I would do my best to compound and wax it by hand to get some shine out of it. If it didn't shine up that's a car worth putting some time into some body and paint work for sure.

 

You found that in Papillion??? The Omaha guys will freak---i'm with Hotrodprimer, use a clear wax, maybe brighten the trim and paint the wheels. One hell of a car there. Congrats.

 

I agree with Groucho; The first thing we did when we bought an old car back when was to wash it good, hit it with a polishing compound (by hand no buffer) and then lay a coat of wax on it. It didn't matter how crappy the paint was you cleaned it up and polished and waxed it. It won't over shine when you are done but will have a nice warm worn look to it that looks cared for instead of neglected like it does now.

 

If you do nothing to the exterior, you're really only preserving the evidence of 40 years of storage and dis-use .... and I don't get that. If you really want to preserve the finish, then I'd recommend to clean and wax it. If it's gonna be driven, the "barn find" patina will quickly deteriorate anyway. Save what you got!!!

 

Old timers will say that paint is a petroleum product and drys out. Rub down with diesel or kerosene then wash. WD40 smells better but doesn't last as long. This will protect the rusty parts and maybe loosen those rusty bolts. I used to do this to old primer jobs that faded in the sun. Easier than waxing or scotchbrite.

 

I would buff/compound a small area that isnt noticeable, and go from there. It is still original even if buffed, but would have a decent shine to it...

Nice ride by the way, and I dig the clock/mirror...

 

Lynn Pew recently posted this on his site [www.pewsplace.com] and this is the look I prefer.

 

make it clean and sum-what shiny (as much as possible)

 

Yeah, I like that too! THAT'S patina. The word patina is so mis-used these days.

 

Uh, why would you used diesel, kerosene, or WD-40 when the companies that sell car care products have products to restore and "nourish" the paint. And they don't cause massive fisheye if you ever decide to paint the car.
Larry T

 

Rubbing with diesel will smell good.....

 

I would buff it. Even just washing it with a wool pad is going to shine it up some over time.

I wet sanded with 1500 and used WET and an orbital on my paint when I buffed it. This was the result in the summer of '07.



This was taken last month. You can see that the shine has mellowed out quite a bit, but is still there, just enough.