Buff, polish, wax or repaint?

[alabamafrog]

My little 94 Ranger is starting to look its age. I took it to the local classic car detail shop today to ask them about buffing and waxing it for me. I was figuring $100 or so.
The guy took one look at it and told me I’d be better off taking it to MACO for one of their cheap paint jobs.
I bought the thing new and used to wax it and wash it every 3,000 miles when I did the servicing on it for the first 10 years, it has been taken care of well. The paint doesn’t look that bad to me, a little faded and chalky from oxidation and one scratch on the side where it got keyed 13 years ago. I had my 16 year old boy attempt to buff it last year and he left wax all over it but the paint looks too good to me to sand off and repaint.
BTW, if it needs repainting I will do it myself.

So what do yall think, anyone got any good tips/tricks for revitalizing old paint?
What products and methods should I use to strip it down to the bare paint and polish and wax it back to looking like new?
Or am I better off to just drive it like it is or paint it?


Here is a pic of how it looks now;

 

[daniel3507]

It looks like you may be able to polish it with a buffer and get the gloss back. I did a two stage polish on my truck over the summer. It took a long ass time but the results were great. The paint wasnt as faded though. I used a Porter Cable dual action polisher with Megs 105 with Lake Country orange pads and then 205 with a black pads. Im not sure if it will bring the gloss back on yours though and it will take awhile to do it too. After the cost of the polish, pads, polisher, and time you might be better off with new paint

 

[akalogan]

Well if you are very bored and have a long weekend you can wet sand it by hand.ultra fine grit sand paper, a pail of water and a cooler of beer. Awful clean truck to repaint. I am thinking that you would have better luck cleaning her up.

 

[alabamafrog]

I hate to repaint it, she is in nearly new stock condition except for the oxidized paint and the 220,000 miles. The engine has perfect compression, uses no oil, has no leaks, everything is tight and well maintained. Under the hood is clean and looks like new, the interior is good, the headliner and carpet have some stains but the seat had seat covers on them from new until last year. It has weird seats, they have power lumbar and the sides power squeeze in and out and the front of them extends in and out. I bought the truck in Jan 95 with less than 10,000 miles on it and less than 6 months old so I just say I bought it new.
I’m getting too old to be scrubbing on it for days, I could pay my teenagers to do it but I doubt they would do it right. I wouldn’t mind spending about 6 hours stripping, buffing, polishing and waxing it if that would work but I’m not sure exactly how to do it.
What about rubbing compound and an electric buffer?

 

[eric17mx]

I had a 93 xlt with tan interior with the seats like you described, i never seen them in other rangers either, also had the pop out back windows? Waxing by hand is usually the best, hard to say until you wax it, then go from there.

 

[adsm08]

buff it up, she'll start to shine again.

 

[alabamafrog]

Mine was supposedly special ordered with the nice seats and manual 5spd shift, manual locks, manual windows and the big 4.0 and with black bumpers and grill. On the title it says xlt but there is nothing on the truck but Ranger. It does not have the pop-out side windows or the sliding rear window.

 

[alabamafrog]

Should I use rubbing compound or what? What grit or brand and what kinda pad on my cheap electric buffer?

 

[daniel3507]

No matter how much you wax it it wont get the gloss back. If you wet sand it be very very careful you dont remove all the clear coat or it will never be glossy.

 

[eric17mx]

Maaco does a pretty decent job for what they charge, ive seen a couple cars maaco'd and they looked just like stock.

 

[alabamafrog]

No matter how much you wax it it wont get the gloss back. If you wet sand it be very very careful you dont remove all the clear coat or it will never be glossy.

It doesn’t look to me like it has or ever had any clear coat on it?
I know when I tried to polish it a few years ago the sponge turned orange and the run off water was orange when rinsing. Also over the years when waxing the sponge would turn orange. I always figured it had some sort of single stage urethane type coating from the factory instead of 2 stage base/clear?

 

[alabamafrog]

Maaco does a pretty decent job for what they charge, ive seen a couple cars maaco'd and they looked just like stock.

If I decide to paint it I will paint it myself and put good quality paint on it. I plan to keep this truck for a few more decades.

 

[James Denton]

Wet sand it with 1500 - ---Be easy on the on the edges and don't sand threw the clear.Then buff it out and put a good wax on it.

 

[Original_Ranger84]

Shoot I would wet sand the clear off and then Hit it with a few nice layers of paint then get a new clear coat on that puppy!

If you wanna attempt to restore it I would get a clay bar and clay bar it first then do a rubbing compound not sure which one I got some turtle wax compound but I might throw it out. wash it again. then try a few layers of really good wax, I like mothers or the Meg's tech paste 2.0. and do a couple coats then hit it with a buffer. if you want you can use an anti oxidizing polish too like I used nu finish paint restorer on my old 84 and its doing fine. Heck never been repainted and its still pretty shiny.

Even just constantly waxing it will probably bring back some shine.

 

[Original_Ranger84]

It doesn’t look to me like it has or ever had any clear coat on it?
I know when I tried to polish it a few years ago the sponge turned orange and the run off water was orange when rinsing. Also over the years when waxing the sponge would turn orange. I always figured it had some sort of single stage urethane type coating from the factory instead of 2 stage base/clear?

In that case you would be better off wet sanding it till it doesn't do that and spray a good 3 or 4 or 5 more coats of paint and then hit it with a clear because paint can't oxidize if its protected by clear coating.