OK, so I bought my 98 last August, and to be honest just wanted to "test drive" it for awhile before I put any serious time into improving it (you know beyond the basic wipe down, wash and vacuum lol) because ... well, it's aused car with a switched out motor (from 02) and I wasn't completely trusting of it.
(knock wood) it's still running and driving like a champ. So now I'm ready tostart putting some time into it and detailing it.

I'm a complete novice to this. Actually I'm not even sure I qualify as a "novice" LOL and the paint has several issues, so I'm not sure where to begin... I've read several articles about deatiling, instruction guide type stuff but wanted to get some general input from you guys.

The issues:

I have really bad swirl marks all over the body, I'm guessing from an over enthusiatic previous owner who didn't know how to use a buffer. They are highly visible, but I can't feel them at at all.

I also have several (proabably about 10-20 ) tiny rock / stone chips in the hood and various other parts of the body. Most are down to bare metal, or seem to be. Pretty sure I can fix these myself. I'm painter (though not auto-body) and have some experience I might be able to carry over. Thinking layering in touch up paint, then wet sanding to smooth. (?)

The third issue is one I'm REALLY not sure about. I have a clear coat issue on my back bumper. Looks like someone backed into something (at some point) and cracked the clear coat, it's basically spider-webbing on that spot... and i'm not sure what if anything I can do about it?

Mostly though I am just not sure what order I should try to address all these issues in,and what products are best?
But now that the weather has finally turned nice here, i'm ready to get started. (working on tarnighed/ yellow headlights today)

Any input much appreciated.

 

For the spider cracking on the bumper cover you have to strip them and then repaint. I've got spider cracking too, but its on the front. I've been to a few paint shops, and thats what they all say they'd have to do. For rock chips touch up paint should be sufficient. The best way I've figured to do that is to put on the paint and allow it to dry preatty much completely, then to scrape away the excess. And for the swirl marks you have you might want to try claybarring it, then a polish and wax.

 

if you clay bar your car it should take out all those swirl marks

 

Serious swirl marks can be removed with polish and a polishing machine such as the Porter Cable 7424. I've borrowed the machine from a friend and had great results!

http://paintcare-n-detailing.com/pinnacle.html

Take special care if those stripes are vinyl and not painted on.

You can also polish by hand and there are products that will make the swirls less noticable by using fillers and chemicals. I have used Klasse All-In-One on my black car with great results.

For the deep showroom shine on my red convertible, I clayed, polished and waxed, all by hand:

Before:



After:

 

I really like your stang ^^^ The only car I like in red besides supercars (ie. vette, viper, lambo, ferrari)I'm not a huge fan of the maro in red, not gonna lie.

 

Thanks.

 

for swirl marks, id try amedium cutting compound.(good for swirl marks, lightscratches, etc.)couple it with a porter cable random orbit buffer and alight cutting pad- youll get good results. clay bars work well but their main objective isremoving debris such as tar, sapand stubborn bird, not removing paint imperfections. to rid your car of swirl marks, you actually might (depending on the severity) have to 'cut' the paint,(similar to wetsanding)which is where the cutting compound comes in. it turns the buffer into a super-light-duty wetsander.whatever you do, make sure to finish it with some type of wax or sealant otherwise the paint will turn chalky because a quick detailer (used when claybarring) removes some layers of the wax, leaving open pores in the surface of the clear coat. as far as what products to use, i would strongly recomend checking out Chemical Guy's products. ( chemicalguys.com )(i use their cgc-2 medium cutting compound and their wet-mirror finish glaze). if you want to invest in a buffer, i would recomend the porter cable 7424(or 2474, i forget which). i learned on my friend's unit and it is nealy impossible to burn the paint with that thing, just use your judgement

 

for the swirl marks try some 3M Imperial hand glaze. stuff is great. Got my corvette back from the recon shop with swirl marks everywhere. put some of that on it and it was like new paint