How to sort out ageing paint work
 

Hi.
As to expected my 20 year old Rovers paintwork is showing signs of age.
More specifically the top clear coat. Its not peeling away or looking mottled but when the sun shines brightly (what's that i hear you say) the whole roof and bonnet appear to have lots of very fine light scratches. It almost looks like something you would expect if you where to clean your car with a green scourer. It's not particularly bad and when it's overcast its completely invisible to see.
I've tried various different ways to tackle it without any success. Auto Glym, T Cut seem to help but after a few days its back again. Before I go out wasting money on anything else would you have any suggestions in remedying it once and for all. In an ideal world i obviously just get it repainted but money is always tight nowadays.
It the worst comes to the worst i even considering vynl wrapping the roof in a conservative colour such as black.
I think it would look reasonably good against the Zircon silver (each to there own i understand).
Anyway thanks for taking the time to read and all answers are greatly appreciated,
Johnny 👍

Clay bar and correct lubricant should take care of that. Loads on Ebay. Don't go for the cheaper end as they are not so good.
Geoff

Thank you Geoff for your help.
I've been thinking whether to try a clay bar. As i said before the scratches on the clear coat are very light and can only be seen in full sun. I think i will do some research on YouTube and find out more about it.
All the best to you 👍

Sorry, but I don’t think claying the car will remove scratches, it will only remove particles on/in the paint.

By all means use clay to start with, it will give a 'smooth to the touch' surface, but then try a polish with fillers, like AG Super Resin Polish or Poorboys White Diamond (for a light coloured car, Black Hole for dark colours).

You say you’ve tried this, but the scratches come back. Did you apply any sort of sealant? AG say use their UGP, I'm a fan of protecting with wax, such as G3 Super Paste was.

If this doesn’t work, then maybe a machine polish?

Why not ask the same question on the Detailing World forum, for more expert answers.

HTH

I didn't to be honest. I've got some Auto Glym UGP lying about in the shed somewhere. When the weather improves i will try it.
Many thanks for your advice and help baxlin

A session with a clay bar to remove bonded contaminants, followed by a machine polish, tpped off with a good quality wax or sealant of your choice will sort things. You can do the polishing by hand, but it's hard work, will take forever, and you'll have arms like Popeye at the end of it.

Filler waxes / polishes will mask the problem for a while, but the marks will soon return.

It's worth reading up about good wash technique as well, as most of these "swirls" are inflicted during washing/cleaning the car.

Cliff

Hi Johnny. Some good information in the sticky "swirl removal" here in the valeting section.

Many thanks for all the invaluable advice and support given . When it eventually dries up outside (I'm feeling optimistic) im going to give to give it a proper detail.
I'm considering taking to a professional valeter who will have the proper tools and expertise to get it looking like "new" again. In the mean time whilst the weather is not at its best I will find a decent dry day to clay bar it and apply some AG resin polish followed by a coat of AG high gloss finish. You never know this alone may work miracles.
All the very best,
Johnny

Any update?

Been in the same place with mine and could never get it we’re I wanted it to be so, spent a bit of cash buying a da polisher and all the kit I needed to have a bash at correcting the paintwork, now I’ve very limited experience with paint correction but I got myself YouTube trained 😆, here’s what I did

Gave the car a good pre rinse
Snow foamed the car
Washed the car making sure all NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD- was off it
Clayed the paintwork, amazing result to be honest and this is a must

So I set off polishing with the da, these things are easy to use and leave the paint looking really good, working 2x2 ft areas at a time using G3 cutting compound to remove the swirls and minor scratches and other minor defects, now this took me 12 hours to do the above.

Finally the car was polished with meguiars ultimate polish and finished with poor boys wax/glaze , to be fair I’m amazed with the results , problem
Now is I’ve got family asking me to do there’s 😆