Re spray or leave? 280TE w123

[grober]

A car of that vintage will have a solvent based paint system. Modern paint systems are water-based and less resistant to rust--- keep it original.

 

[Gnasher141]

It sounds to me that the paintwork is oxidised and therefor the surface of the paint will have texture that is full of craters if you could look at it under a microscope. You need to have it wet flatted down to remove the oxidised surface, then machine polished. After that use a UV resistant sealer/wax to preserve the shine. You would only need to flat the faded surfaces, so colour matching will not be an issue and originality will be preserved. May be worth getting a paint thickness test done to if it’s been polished before(especially on body line edges)
Hope this helps - you could always try one panel or part panel as a test.

 

[lplplp]

It sounds to me that the paintwork is oxidised and therefor the surface of the paint will have texture that is full of craters if you could look at it under a microscope. You need to have it wet flatted down to remove the oxidised surface, then machine polished. After that use a UV resistant sealer/wax to preserve the shine. You would only need to flat the faded surfaces, so colour matching will not be an issue and originality will be preserved. May be worth getting a paint thickness test done to if it’s been polished before(especially on body line edges)
Hope this helps - you could always try one panel or part panel as a test.

Top man, thanks. I’m well armed for a specialist detailer now.

 

[Gnasher141]

Top man, thanks. I’m well armed for a specialist detailer now.

A quality detailer should carry out an assessment of the paintwork before any corrections, but as the panels have had a number of polishes, with each one removing some of the original paint there could be the risk of polishing through to the primer underneath. If this happens, you will have no alternative than getting panel/panels repainted.