[RAIIIJudge]

hi, friends,

this 69' Judge was re-painted during a body-off in the mid 90s .. restoration was never completed and car has sat in my dad's garage since. over the years the paint's been failing and has issues.

KolorKorrect in NJ provided me some 0% gloss for my upper dash so I had them send me a spray can of #57 lacquer for body as well.

I suspect I'll just be chasing my tail trying to "stabilize" these cracks in car's paint but there's no way any pro body work is going to happen in the near future, I figure I'm not going to be driving in the rain and seeing as I've got this can of midnight green ... is there anything I can do to avoid rust and at least from a distance, hide these bare patches?

thanks!
mike
MA

[VCho455]

Do you have a bunch of free the available?
Do you have a carport and compressor?
If not then a DIY paint job is probably out of the question.
I am no expert but I will offer my backyard repair opinion. There's nothing that I am aware of that will save that paint.

To save the sheet metal from rusting you might try wiping the car down with Ospho and then neutralizing it completely.

Another method would be to get a weed sprayer and coat the car with a creeping rust protection coating like Fluid Film. It will be messy but it will protect the sheet metal. You will have to renew the Fluid Film from time to time but it will save the sheet metal from moisture.

For advice from professionals and accomplished DIYers try post your question on the SPI forum. But I will add that as great as the SPI forum is there are some folks that will tell you there is only ONE way to do things. Which in the real world generally isn't true.

Good luck with the car.
Any more photos of it?

http://www.spiuserforum.com/index.ph...s/shop-talk.6/

[433lemans]

I used to paint with lacquers and enamels back when, like 40 to 50 years ago or more. Lacquer can be brought back to life to a degree. It might be possible to restore the rest of the finish by buffing the surface with a good buffer and compound. Any minute cracks may blend and sort of "melt" together.
If the rest of the surface is like your pictures, then not much hope except to wax or do as suggested earlier to seal to create a moisture barrier. If the cracks are deep enough to go to bare metal then corrosion has probably started in there. What kind of primer system was used? Lacquer primers are somewhat porous and will allow moisture to permeate thru over time. If a higher quality primer, like a two stage was used you might be okay.
The areas you show will need to be sanded down and primed and then blend in the paint which is a bit of a lost art but can be done as long as the surrounding finish is okay.
My 2 cents and good luck!

[b-man]

Simple answer is just clean the areas that need touching up and dab some touch up paint into the bare spots with a small paint brush. You may need to build it up with few coats after letting it dry between coats but after you’re finished visually the bare spots won’t stand out any more.

Short of repainting the entire car that’s how I’d go about it.

Don’t sweat the small stuff, touch it up the best you can without spending a bunch of time or money and drive, drive, drive.

[MUSLCAH]

Get a can of Black Fluid film ....spray some in the cap,and use an acid brush to fill in those rusty voids...repeat if necessary.

Stand back 20 feet and evaluate

[Greg Reid]

I never heard of that... Interesting stuff-
https://youtu.be/H86EBhO6oyc

[1965gp]

My dads 67 Camaro had a similar issue. I agree that buffing the paint will help considerably which is what I did. I also found that a few coats of Zaino with ZFX hardener really brought the color back.

Last resort- wrap it.

[MUSLCAH]

Buffing will just enhance all the cracking....compound with find its way in those cracks ...and stay there.

Iam old enough to know this.

[RAIIIJudge]

fellas,

I really appreciate the suggestions .. I'm an absolute beginner at body work. like I mentioned car's upper dash was bubbling and flaking as well so I'm in the midst of addressing this as windshield, interior and front fenders/nose/hood can't go back till it's finished.

got a lot of balls in the air ha ..

[Greg Reid]

I like the Fluid Film suggestion, especially on that dark color. If you can't repair the spot you'll at least make them much less visible and arrest the rust at the same time.