My 1971 Lincoln always looked very nice and shiny when you looked at it from a distance, but I had a really hard time keeping the black paint in good shape. I applied a lot of coats of wax to hide swirl marks, fine scratches and other paint imperfections.
I even had the car at a professional detailer to have some of the paint corrected - but he gave up and said that there is nothing he could do for me as the paint would be too soft...
The paint really is very soft, and you could even make swirl marks with a soft microfiber towel...
The detailer left some wet sanding marks behind on the trunk lid, which were a big sore in my eyes.
So I decided to correct the paint by myself.

I bought the best dual action polisher on the market - the Rupes BigFoot 21. This is a professional machine which can correct all serious paint defects and bring the paint back to perfect condition. It takes some practice to do it correctly, but its not very difficult to do. I can't recommend this polishing machine enough!
See my previous post to check out the correct technique.
I also bought the complete Rupes foam pads, compound and polishes system, and the results are amazing.
The swirled and scratched paint came out like a mirror!
I´m very happy with the outcome.
I also did some touchups on some small stone chips and wet sanded some areas.

You can see the before and after pictures below.

I finally bought a professional polishing machine. The Rupes BigFoot 21. It's a great and very effective tool!


I removed the CONTINENTAL letters to be able to polish the hood better

Look at all the fine swirls and scratches

I will also restore the letters, as some of the black paint has polished off over the years...

Repainting the letters

The paint before and after polishing - as you can see all the imperfections are gone.

You can see all these fine scratches and haze and some wet sanding marks that were left behind from the professional detailer.

All scratches and imperfections are gone after polishing!

The Mark III looks spectacular after the paint correction. I have to reinstall the restored letters now.

The restored letters are back on the car. As you can see I´m very happy with the result.

The polished car

Tags:1971, Lincoln, Continental Mark III, Paint correction, Rupes, Bigfoot, Lincoln Mark III Repair Tip