Buffing the paint.

[JonB]

Hang on a minute - is that the original paint?

Outstanding...

[Grizzly]

He already said it was a flat colour with no lacquer.

There are forms of Direct gloss in everything from Cellulose to 2k (2k just means the colour is mixed with a hardener) it's only Water that requires a clear coat (Water is only available in base coat, there is no water base direct gloss) but 90% of body shops have moved to water to meet VOC.


I'd skip machine polishing and T-cut by hand, then seal with an appropriate wax (some waxes are designed for Clear coats and will speed up oxidisation of direct gloss)


If you have original paint you want to cut off as little as possible, personally i'd do some really careful reading up, maybe even go into a quality restorers and ask their advice..... Don't just use standard main stream modern practices imho (especially on Yellow which is quite transparent and will be very easy to go thin on edges).

[vincereynard]

The answer to "is it original" is - some of it yes. I don't know how much and I would not know how to tell the difference between original and later, presumably, 2K? Spyder apparently did a "stone chip" repaint of the front at some point. Maybe including the bonnet? It was only a few years back so I doubt they used cellulose. It's not a big thing. Most of the time the difference is not noticable. Only at certain angles and in certain light conditions. In fact good enough that I only noticed the imperfections a week or so ago!

As Chris advises, I shall be careful. Take the bonnet off and give it a good clean and clay bar session.