Maguires Diamond Cut Compound on my Pre-war

[Corykip]

So I gave the bike a good cleaning soapy bath and degreaser for the heavy caked on spots. Gave it a very carful slow wipe down with the Maguires diamond cut compound. This is the equivalent of hitting your paint with a hammer when talking about how course this stuff is. I felt it necessary considering the build up over the years on the paint. You really have to watch what you are doing with this stuff. I am glad to say I made no mistakes, only because I took a lot of time in good light working on this. Next step was to bring the paint back with some polish, a more mild version of the first step. And lastly I used a glaze to fill in all the imperfections and really bring out the gloss I had rubbed off. Sorry I don't have better before pictures.
Everyone has there way of doing this process and this is just what I used this time because I felt the paint had a good chance of coming back. Normally I might just do the Polish and glaze steps. And other times just the glaze is enough.

 

[Corykip]

 

[DJ Bill]

Nice....even the ugliness at the top of the fenders shined up nicely. What happened there? Touchup or did a seagull poop on it? Either way a huge improvement.

Could you explain a little more about how you applied it and avoided rub throughs? Straight line or round and round? Foam pad or soft rag?

It looks almost like you shot the bike with a clearcoat!

 

[Corykip]

Nice....even the ugliness at the top of the fenders shined up nicely. What happened there? Touchup or did a seagull poop on it? Either way a huge improvement.

Could you explain a little more about how you applied it and avoided rub throughs? Straight line or round and round? Foam pad or soft rag?

It looks almost like you shot the bike with a clearcoat!

Since this old Schwinn paint is pretty robust and it's such a small area I just used the blue shop towels. If I was doing a car which is far less forgiving I would had used a clay bar then a machine buffer with the diamond cut and again the buffer with the polish. I personally like to hand apply the glaze. But everyone has there own way of doing this process. Because the bike is such a small area I was not able to apply the Compound in a circle motion. How I avoided "rub throughs" was to do a test spot in a spot not easily visible to see how hard I could and should hit the paint. I then went through the whole process in this area to see how many steps of my "process " were needed. Once I decided on a method I then attack one portion of the bike at a time.

 

[Corykip]

You can kind of get a idea of the process with this picture. The compound does the most damage because of how course it is and then you can see where I transitioned into to the Polish with less paint being on the towels, and lastly you see how little the glaze does. I should also note that between each process I thoroughly clean any residue left over with a show and shine product and the blue towels again. So that each new step I start there is no product left over from the previous step.

 

[Corykip]

You can kind of get a idea of the process with this picture. The compound does the most damage because of how course it is and then you can see where I transitioned into to the Polish with less paint being on the towels, and lastly you see how little the glaze does. I should also note that between each process I thoroughly clean any residue left over with a show and shine product and the blue towels again. So that each new step I start there is no product left over from the previous step.

Darn picture is upside down, fyi.

 

[Corykip]

Here are the products. I use what I get at yard sales for free. I am not hung up on only using one brand. They all pretty much do the same thing.

 

[Corykip]

Should note the diamond cut is at least 15 years old. Lol.