Bringing a red '67 volvo back to life?

[red92s]

I'll be picking up my first "fun" car this weekend, a 1967 Volvo 122s. 80k miles, original owners, pretty much all original (including the paint). It's spent a lot of it's life in a garage, but is still in need of some help as I don't think the owners cared for it as much as they got older.

From what I've been able to learn on the forum, this is almost positively a single stage paint due to the age.

At this point, I'll probably be working only by hand, as investing in power detailing equipment is out of my budget right now.

What should be my plan of attack? Obviously a good wash (non-detergent, I've been reading) is the first order of business, but what about after that?

I found a thread with a pretty dramatic transformation of a similar era red Mercedes, but with little information about the process used.









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[Andrew C.]

Re: Bringing a red '67 volvo back to life?

Take a look here and I would suggest doing the same exact process:

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1818&page=4

Do you want to restore the single stage finish on your Miata by hand or with a dual action polisher?

Do you want to do everything you can to take your Miata's finish to it's maximum potential or would you prefer to wash and wax it?

By Hand

• *Wash with your choice of Meguiar's car wash, we used NXT Car wash on this Mercedes.
  * Clay with Quik Clay System
  * Clean with ScratchX, focus most of your energy on this step.
  * Polish with Deep Crystal Polish, apply a thin coat, work in well and then remove.
  * Protect, apply two thin coats of your favorite Meguiar's wax.
  * Maintain, try our new Speed Detailer in-between regular washing and waxing.

By Machine using Meguiar's G100 Dual Action Polisher

• *Wash with your choice of Meguiar's car wash.
  * Clay with Quik Clay System.
  * Machine polish with M80 Speed Glaze using a W-8006 foam polishing pad on the 4.5 to 5.0 setting. Be very careful around sharp edges when working on Miata's with single stage paint as it's easy to burn through these areas by hand or machine. Consider taping these areas off with some blue painters tape.
  * Protect - Apply two thin coats of your favorite Meguiar's wax using a W-9006 foam finishing pad on the 3.0 setting.
  * Optional - Remove wax using our M9920 Ultimate Bonnet
  * Maintain, try our new Speed Detailer in-between regular washing and waxing.

Hope this helps...

Mike

[red92s]

Re: Bringing a red '67 volvo back to life?

Take a look here and I would suggest doing the same exact process:

Thanks. What should I add to the products below to best apply them? I've also been recommended to try using Klasse All-In-One followed by Klasse High Gloss Sealant Glaze. Obviously there will be some strong brand preferences in this forum, but can a convincing argument be made for one over the other?

	ScratchX® 2.0	IN STOCK	$10.99		$10.99
	Deep Crystal® System Polish	IN STOCK	$7.49		$7.49
	NXT Generation® Car Wash 18oz	IN STOCK	$7.99		$7.99
	Smooth Surface® Clay Kit	IN STOCK	$19.99		$19.99
	NXT Generation® Tech Wax® 2.0	IN STOCK	$17.99		$17.99

[Andrew C.]

Re: Bringing a red '67 volvo back to life?

I personally like Gold Class Car Wash better than NXT, get the gallon size off ADS, it is the most amount of car wash for the price.

Pick up some Supreme Shine Microfibers or some of the ADS microfibers

If you wanted to, you could replace The DC polish with M07 (it is a bit tougher to work with)

Pick up some Foam applicator pads for application and a couple microfiber applicator pads (you may want to use these with the Scratch X to cut a little more of the dead paint off)

Also, Ultimate Quik Wax isn't necessary, but you will love it when maintaining the car, it works sooooo well.

If you want, pick up some more QD of your choice (QD, UQD, M34, M135, Last Touch (very economical, great for claying))

Get some grit guards for washing if you don't have them already, and a water magnet waffle weave towel is great for drying

[Murr1525]

Re: Bringing a red '67 volvo back to life?

Wash - I like Gold Class also.

How to Wash Your Car Show Car Style

Clay - I'd pick up an extra bottle of QD for claying.

Just watch, if you find your clay loading up with red paint, I would stop claying, and move to the cleaning step. In that case, I would apply SwirlX with some passion to the car, then come back and clay. It would be up to you, after claying, if you felt you needed to reapply the SwirlX a second time, or even move to a stronger product like ScratchX 2.0 or UC for defect removal.

Clean - SwirlX is a good mild cleaner, or you can step up to stronger products as mentioned above if needed.

Polish - This would probably respond well to a pure polish step, like DC2 or #7 as Andrew mentioned.

Wax - Yeah, Nxt 2.0 is tough to beat.

Maintain - UQW and UQD are great products for future maintenance.

And then of course we can get into the wheels and trim, etc after that.

[StoneRaizer]

Re: Bringing a red '67 volvo back to life?

I love ColourX and would recommend it as a cleaner, but is it safe for single stage paint?

[Murr1525]

Re: Bringing a red '67 volvo back to life?

Yes, ColorX is safe for all paints.

The only problem is individual steps tend to be more effective than an all-in-one product.

So using something like a pure polish will get a lot more polishing oils into the paint, and a dedicated cleaner, esp when working by hand, will remove more defects and dead paint.

[Justin A]

Re: Bringing a red '67 volvo back to life?

I would say that Color-X might be a good choice for restoring that paint. You're on the right track with the Klasse AIO, but it's not as strong as Color-X.
Klasse's sealant is great and lasts a long time from what I've read about it, but I've heard that Menzerna's FMJ (Full Molecular Jacket) is pretty much THE synthetic sealant - it was designed to weather the German winter and look good while doing it. Pictures of cars that have FMJ as their LSP look absolutely incredible...it's 100% on my "must try" list of products.
Hell, depending on how soft the paint is, you might be able to get away with the 3 step Deep Crystal set - DC1 actually worked VERY well on my Black single stage paint. The old single stage paint will just drink up whatever polish you put on it, and because SS paint shines up so nice, it will look great with whatever LSP you use.

[red92s]

Re: Bringing a red '67 volvo back to life?

So I've heard votes for ColorX, SwirlX, and ScratchX. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I have these listed in order from least--> most aggressive, right?

ColorX is a cleaner/polish, while the other two are pure cleaner products and more aggressive?

[Calais]

Re: Bringing a red '67 volvo back to life?

I vote ScatchX or ColorX, though you may need some Ultimate Compound for all that oxidation and God knows what scratches its obscuring. Go with a pure polish too, as everyone said.

Proper Wash>Clay>ScratchX>Pure Polish>Synthetic Sealant>Wax

[red92s]

Re: Bringing a red '67 volvo back to life?

Thanks for the input everyone. I'll be posting some better pictures when the car is safely home this weekend.

Is there any simple tests or evaluations I can do to determine which cleaner (ScratchX, ColorX, SwirlX) would be the best candidate?

[Calais]

Re: Bringing a red '67 volvo back to life?

Is there any simple tests or evaluations I can do to determine which cleaner (ScratchX, ColorX, SwirlX) would be the best candidate?

Try each one from least aggressive to most aggressive on comparable test spots on the car. Whichever one you are most happy with is your choice.

[zeegs]

Re: Bringing a red '67 volvo back to life?

Great car, and looks in wonderful shape (considering) my first ride was a '64 122S, lated me 250,000 miles. Had to sell it and the guy that bought it totaled it in 3 months

[Murr1525]

Re: Bringing a red '67 volvo back to life?

You might have to detail the car once, and the nstep back and get a good look at where you may want to improve in the future. SwirlX is the product you want to use, and if it is not strong enough, then you could try Ultimate Compound.

But as I said in my previous answers, restoring the paint can be a little tricky, so get up to claying ,and see how the claying goes at first.

[stlted]

Re: Bringing a red '67 volvo back to life?

Welcome to MOL! Make sure you heed MURR's advice and you will be fine. I've heard of those old Volvos getting over a million miles on them! Make sure to post pictures of your results and have fun.