My '76 LT seems to have factory Med Blue with metalflake paint. The roof and part of the trunk seems to be oxidizing pretty fast this summer I'll try and post a pic later- it rained and you cant see the oxidation just now.

What can be done to bring the paint back? I saw on other forums some pretty exotic sounding product names being tossed about. I have the Meguire's 1,2,3 line-up as well as some of their swirl remover and a couple of "cutters".

Any ideas on a good course of action?

 

The Vette's were painted with acrylic lacquer until 1981, no clearcoat.
Buffing the paint with a good finisher, such as 3m's Imperial Compound (or equivalent), will bring the shine back. If it's extremely dull, you might want to use a power buffer. Just be careful with a power buffer as you can burn through the paint, especially on the corners. When waxing lacquer paint, you're actually removing the top layer of oxidized paint each time you do it. Since lacquer is an "open" paint, it's necessary to wax it on a regular basis to keep the shine.

 

Camaro 69,
Thanks for the tip. I'm not a big Vette guy- I guess I would be if I owned one though. The LT I referred to was the Type LT Camaro. You may well know this and just have thrown out the vette info. In any case, assuming the info applies to the camaro of the same vintages, I will have a look at the 3M product you mention and see if I have the equivalent on the shelf.

Thanks,
Ed

 

I know, I realize that. Didn't mean to confuse the issue. I was merely relating to the "vintage" paint jobs of that time period. My mind was in the Vette mode at the time, and I just automatically went there. Technically, I'm more of a Vette guy than a Camaro guy based on what I own and have owned. I'm still fairly certain that you're dealing with the same kind of paint I was referring to. But whichever kind of paint you have; lacquer, enamel, or base/clear, the polishing procedure would be pretty much the same. Lacquer just requires more TLC when working with it.