Paintwork restoration

Since purchasing the car I've been in regular contact with the son of a previous owner, it has been great to hear the stories of his late father owning the car and the changes he made during his ownership. His father put many hours into improving and polishing the paintwork. Sadly it was something that always let the car down and I'd assumed could only be corrected with a re-spray. 

My father-in-law came to stay over Christmas and was confident under the orange peel was decent paintwork lurking. The whole car was pretty much like the door below.

Started off with a mild cutting compound and a rotary polisher, overall not much of an improvement. It did confirm however the issue seemed to be the clear coat applied on top of the paint. We (FIL) then switched to 3000 grit wet and dry to cut back the top coat. I looked away at this point! 

Throughout the whole process no red paint was removed hence the assumption the issue was the top coat. 

Further machine polishing to remove the scratches from the wet & dry and the difference was stark. Paintwork has flecks and resembles metallic paint! 

At this point with one highly polished door there is no going back so we (FIL) proceeded to work over the whole car.

It has totally transformed the appearance of the car.