Should paint really be this terrible?

[sailnaked007]

Well, to start off, my car was keyed last night after I parked it when I got back to college in our overflow lot...so today after class, I took my car home so I could try to get rid of the scratches (There was a combination of 3 of them but none were really anything that should require professional attention). I had some light Turtle Wax polishing compound that comes in the bottles...I didn't use any of the rubbing compound, not a fan of it and plus the Turtle Wax stuff is one of the only scratch/oxidation removers that I found actually work. But anyways, I went to town on the scratches with the polishing compound for about 20 minutes and noticed that I had displaced enough paint to expose the primer/sealer and completely went through the red paint...which for 15 years old, shines like gold. So, I guess what i am trying to ask is; is the paint on the 3000GT's really that thin? I wax the car as often as I can, which is once every week-10 days now that the weather permits it. I say this to lead into my other question....Every time I wax the car, I've always applied wax to whole car to give the wax time to be absorbed into the paint and when I remove the wax, it comes off and leaves the rags red in some areas. Would that be paint or maybe removing wax that was absorbed into the paint and took the color? I use Black Magic wax and have waxed several other cars the same way and never seen this happen before.

[sailnaked007]

And I would also like to ask if anyone has any ideas what to do other than take it to a shop...I'm still in college and I have a hell of a time affording that...I do have touch up paint, if that would help.

[91STT]

Typically polishes will remove a very fine layer of paint. Waxes would not. If a wax is advertised as being able to remove oxidation than it is essentially a polish even if it says wax on the bottle. I haven't used Black Magic before so I don't know if it is a wax or a polish. Check the bottle to see if it says it can remove oxidation. It is possible that the other cars that you used this product on has a clearcoat finish. In this case you would not see it on the rag you use to remove the haze. I am assuming that you have a 1G red 3S in which case you have a single stage finish therefore no clearcoat over the red paint.
It is recommended that polishing be kept to a minimum since it does wear down the finish. Frequency of waxing is really up to you. Waxing usually does not hurt the finish. I usually wax my car when I see that the wax starts to lose it ability to bead water. Which can be 2 weeks or a month or more, depending how much I drive it and how long I leave the carcover off.

[Stealthee]

The red is a non clearcoat paint. Thats why this happened

[carsoncars]

i have a 92 Stealth with pearl white. does this have a clear coat?

[91STT]

Originally Posted by carsoncars

i have a 92 Stealth with pearl white. does this have a clear coat?

It is a tri-coat. There's a basecoat, midcoat and clear coat. Pain in the ass to match.

[SerebReal]

Red 91 and 92 Stealths were not clearcoated. Thus, anything you do to them may be removing paint.

I had a red 93 stealth, and it was clearcoated. However, at one time, someone had used red 'colormatch' wax on it to try to cover up paint issues. From then on, red stuff continually came off the car when I waxed even though it was clearcoated.

[Mike1992]

Every time I wax mine, which is usually twice a month. I get alot of color on my pads. Maybe I should switch from the Mothers carnuba cleaner wax/polish to more of a wax type agent? My car was repainted a different then factory maroon, so I'm not sure what kinda job it is, but it shines up really nice.

[Alt0id]

I have a 94 sl red, I am under the impression that its clearcoated all but the front bumper, spoiler, and mirrors, am I correct on this?