Unfortunately, the paint on this Cobra has definitely seen better days. Simply put, the paint on this car was pretty beat from a lot of high way driving, water etching, and acid rain. The paint also had a lot of scratches, chips, and touch ups which we had to be careful of. The owner really likes the car and tries to keep it up as best he can. He washes it pretty frequently and has used a PC on it. However, it appeared that when he used the PC on it, something got on the pad and scratched up the paint pretty good. There were buffer marks scattered around the car. The plan for this car was to level out the paint and remove the marks from the PC and the washing induced swirl marks.

This first set of pictures shows the condition the paint was in upon arrival.



























The Polishing Process


After a thorough wash and claying, we inspected the paint and decided it definitely needed a 3 step polishing process. I took the spoiler off and decided to take some before, during, and after pictures of the process which we did on the entire car. All of these pictures were taken using manual focus in order to focus on the paint and not the reflection.

Before


Step 1: Defect Removal. For this step we decided to use a compound and a wool pad on the rotary.


Step 2: Gloss Enhancement. For this step we decided to use a mild cutting polish on a light cut foam pad.


Step 3: Final Jeweling/ Burnishing. For this step we decided to use a finishing polish on a finishing pad. Here is a 50/50 shot of the final result.


During the polishing process, the car was rewashed twice. Once after compounding was completed. Then again after the entire process was completed. A de- ionized water filtration system was used during the last wash to insure a spot free finish.

The car was then pulled out into the sun for inspection. There is no wax or sealant (LSP) on the car at this time. I tried to take a picture of every single panel with the sun shinning directly on it. All of these pictures were taken using manual focus in order to focus on the paint and not the reflection.

























And here is the final result after applying the LSP which was a synthetic wax. The tires and wheel wells were dressed after taking these pictures.