oops - not a technical thread; wanna; move it to 'chat' there Andy...










I went twice over each section. This pic is after 4 gentle soap and water rinses, rubbing with my hand. You can tell how much wax is left on each section. Remember; wax and oil will conceal the scratches and swirls, as danspeed and I were discussing in DaleD's thread...

I've dried it, and the pics are hard to believe which is which; I'm goin' over each section once more and re-shoot. post 3...

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My paint is so shot, the only thing that will help is sandpaper, primer and paint.

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You sure? Paint? Or clear coat... My clear had hundreds of droplet etchings in it - looked like acid (or base) etching, probably from Weyerhauser in Plymouth NC, where the original owner was...

Anyway, here's a third go-over and THOROUGH soapy wipe down afterward to remove the waxes. 3 with flash, 3 without.

2 of the products are loaded with waxes and oils. One is HEAVY on wax - you can tell in the first pic/first post where wax remained.

The one which left the best finish also left a couple of scratches. It's obvious that the wax-laden products rely on the wax to conceal the unremoved scratches/swirls. But if they are 'removed' from sight (by wax), then the product is a 'remover'.

The final test will come with application of finishing wax. If a good wax will conceal the scratches left in the first section, it's a no-brainer.

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Now you just gotta pick and do the whole thing

Well, the jury is in here, on scratch / swirl remover.

This is with mid-grade wax; no flash - the reflection is the carport light.

Which product is which section???

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Must be something you have to see in person, cause I can't tell a difference, sorry.

Matthew

Oh, no... it's the paint.

There are stone chips all the way through to the gel coat.

The bumper covers are so faded, there is no hope for them, at all.

18 years and 169k miles have done their damage.

The pictures make it really hard to make a determination, but from the inital photos you took a month ago, you have made tons of progress. The car is looking real good.

I find that most people don't see the same things I see. For example, Matthew seems to think it looks great and can't tell the difference. So lately I tend not to go NUTS when doing this sort of project.

Again, coming along really well! Anything you learn from this experience; tips and tricks; post'em over in the DETAILING SECTION... its still dead over there, and the crickets are getting to me!

DG

Dan,

You make good sense. Moving this!

Several years ago, my Mom's Accord was in need of some TLC. I spent a day alone working on the hood. It was stained by water spots and bird droppings. She had a carport, and that's really the worst thing... they don't allow for fast enough drying to keep the water from sitting there, and the lack of rain never washes off the bird droppings fast enough.

I hit it with all sorts of scrubbers and a buffer. It looked nearly new when done. But there were still some stains that never came out.

The one by the windshield looks best to me.

It's hard to tell any difference here using photos, I think you can only tell by getting at the right angle and feeling the difference yourself.

So which product did you like the best?

I have tried a few too, and I keep going back to the 3M professional products, which seem to do a great job.

I use a Porter Cable buffer so I don't wear out my arm.

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The polish I used at the windshield section left the best finish BY FAR. It removed more swirls than the other 2 products. It also left some NEW scratches (which did slightly conceal later with the finishing wax. Turtle Wax Premium Grade Polishing Compound.

The polish that I used on the middle section had TONS of wax in it. You can see that by the washoff pic first post. It didn't polish as well as the TWaxPG compound. It took finishing wax well. Nu Finish scratch doc.

The third section, above the headlight, I used Meg's Scratch-X. It had less wax in it than Nu-Finish, but it didn't leave nearly the shine that the TWaxPG compound did (nor did it leave the new scratches). Once it was washed off, it looked the LEAST impressive, maybe because it's the most abrasive of the 3? But once I waxed with finish wax, it looked the best of all 3 sections.

Summary, for swirl and scratch removal:

Turtle Wax Prem Grade Pol Compound:
Best finish, left new, VERY fine scratches. Improve this, and it will be the best.

Nu-Finish Scratch Doc: Heavy on wax; not good, not bad. Removed swirls, most all scratches.

Meg's Scratch-X; did the best of all 3, but if TW can improve QC on abrasives, watch out. Follow up with Meg's Polish might be the KO punch...

I was in a friend's garage when he was using Scratch-X, it worked Ok but he was applying it by hand and pressing very hard using a circular motion which actually created more swirls. I had him try another spot using figure 8's which reduced the swirls a little. Doing it with a machine is much easier. Scratch-X dosen't have much wax in it which is good.

The whole "bringing back the paint" thing is a pain in the ass no matter what products you use or how you do it. And there are many ways to do it. At least when you're done, the next time is usually wax only.

What I did to the Black Rose 92:
The clear was very oxidized and I had one large birdshit blemish that had eaten into the paint.
I used touch up paint in the birdcrap and chips with the Langka Chip Repair Process. Langka worked Ok on the chips but the birdcrap spot had to be sanded (with a 3M pad) with 2500 & 3000.
I should have done the whole car with 3000 but I'm too lazy and figured that I'd have plenty of hours in the buffing.
I washed the car with a heavy solution of Dawn.
Then Clay Barred the car, an extremely important and easy step to do which keeps you from grinding the crap imbedded into the clear back into it when using cleaners.
Then went over the car with a rotary using a medimum pad and Medimum Cut Cleaner (Meguiars).
Then, the same thing using Fine Cut Cleaner.
This took almost all the oxidation out.
Next, went over the car with Meguiars Swirl Remover and a soft pad.
Then a cost of Show Car Glaze (polish which brings out the shine).
Finally I hand applied a coar of NXT wax.
I'm not that thrilled with NTX. It dosen't last that long.

1.21.09

Just wondering if there are any updates on this project, or final results?

DG

The back of my car is the part that needs repainting. It is very oxidized. I will vouch for the Scratch X by Meguiars. It worked good on our explorer but the paint was good and the scratch was hardly visable. I doubt it would work with something major like a key mark. I also used a 8 inch orbital buffer to.