I have a 1996 850 Turbo wagon, Classic Red, with 265K miles, that is finally in excellent mechanical condition. I am now turning my attention to the paint and interior. The entire paint job appears to be original, single stage red, with no clearcoat. There are some minor scratches, but the paint is still a beautiful and shiny red. My main concern is the appearance of the paint...it has what I can only describe as micro-cracks all over the horizontal surfaces. The cracks are tiny and about 1/16" long or shorter, running in all directions randomly...there is no pattern to the cracks. I assume this is sun / pollution damage. Has anyone else had this issue? Any recommended fixes? I have no desire to repaint the car at this time. I took a closeup picture and will post ASAP. Thank you, Greg

 

 

No clearcoat, eh? Well, it's definitely not swirling. But, seeing as how you don't want to repaint, have you tried polishing? Meguiars 105 followed with Meguiars 205. And, use a good DA polisher, not a random orbital. I know Harbor Freight sells a halfway decent dual action polisher.

Here is a 50/50 shot of my hood before and after polishing. I washed and clayed the car. Then I used a Griot's Garage polisher, Griot's Garage orange polishing pad, and Meguiars 105.



I followed everything up with Griot's Garage machine polish 3 and Griot's Garage wax. Compared to a new car, it still looks crummy. But compared to what it was like when I got it, it looks fantastic.

Good luck.

 

Thank you for the feedback. I think I will try your approach and post the results. No time today though.

 

I bought a black 2004 S60 with 73,000 miles on it from a girl friend who needed the money. I probably paid too much for it ($5,500) despite the low miles, because it needed brakes and control arms , and the paint was a mess where she had tried to fix scratches with FLAT black! Also dents from where a tree limb fell on it. I had planned to sell it, but after sinking money into it and driving it with its stick shift, I fell in love with it, so I decided to have it painted. Our local Maaco did a great job for $1,000. Maaco probably isn't where you are going to take your Ferrari, but for a ten-year-old Volvo it turned out to be a really nice job. Now I have a semi-sport car suitable for a 79 year old going through his old age crisis. I'm going to change the timing belt prematurely next.

This is my second Volvo. My first was a new PV444, which lasted so long I got sick of it.

 

I think that car does have clear coat, which is cracked. A polishing compound may rub down most of those cracks but that's from years of no wax. My sister's '05 Accord is like that.