The Official 356Talk Forum

All polishes have abrasives. Be very careful if you polish it. I wouldn't unless I knew for sure the paint was thick enough using a good meter.

Polished mine. It turned out great. The car was repainted in the previous owner's driveway....Lots of orange peel. Had to wet sand then polish with Griot's 4 step products. Think you would be fine with either the new Griot"s products or the 3 step from 3M. For top dollar, polish it.

Not 356 related but same sort of deal with a 71T. Late 80's insurance claim repaint. Wet sand and same Griot's polish 4 step process. Good results for this driver, much like the '59 356 I did.

John
If you don’t want to do the polishing your self, you could take the car to Griot‘s in Tacoma and they will do it for you. Cost a few bucks, but I was really impressed with one of their demos at a bull session. Just be gentle on original paint.

Hi John
I was at one of their sessions as well, they are very good.
Thanks, John

John,
If the car still retains its original factory paint, that adds significant value to the car. If so, I would not try and polish it yourself as the factory paint is already thin and who knows how many previous polishes have occurred. If you do decide to have it polished, I would research who you choose very carefully, preferably someone with experience preserving old, fragile paint. Also, many interested parties who would be willing to pay a premium for the original paint would likely want the car as is so they could decide to leave it or have a conservation polish performed. Good luck.

Reinforcing what Chuck said please read what John Willhoit said about original paint thickness vs his repaints before you start polishing: viewtopic.php?p=279020&hilit=paint+thickness#p279020

Good point, Doug, thanks for the reference.
On a newer Porsche with orig paint the meter shows a consistent 6.5 mils,
on the 65 it shows a consistent 4.5 mils.
With Willhoit's table I now at least have a reference.
Thanks, John

There are many grits of polish, similar to sandpaper, The final polish is super fine and used to remove the swirls marks from the coarse grits used before it..
When I polish old paint finishes I ONLY used the final swirl removing polish, It still works great and will not cut into the paint at all or very very little.

Thank you all for your comments.
I have decided to tackle the job myself as Bill suggested above, with
final polish.
I tried some on the bumper and it works well.
Thanks again for your interest.
John

NO machine polishing !
Some years ago, Our White FTO was looking faded and went to a spray shop for a mop. It looked wonderful when it was done. But after a couple of years many areas of surface rust have come through to where the paint was buffed almost down to bare metal. Never again !
Regards Jay

Good Luck with it John, post some before and after pictures..

Well I decided to polish by hand and do it myself.
I used Meguiars fine cut cleaner and the results are acceptable.
See pics of before and after.
Thanks for all of the help, I will be posting the car for sale later.
John

Here is a pic of before

Nice work, John.

Mike