Bringing paint on the car back to life.....

[Podie]

Coloured polish... and elbow grease?

[Oi_Oi_Savaloy]

What's the best way to bring faded paintwork back up to new (without respraying)?

And that wont cost a small fortune!

[pdv6]

Yep- ColourMagic or similar

[Oi_Oi_Savaloy]

Looks like the wife's going to be busy with the car polish then

[Podie]

Oi_Oi_Savaloy said: Looks like the wife's going to be busy with the car polish then

What are those electric polishers like...?

[Oi_Oi_Savaloy]

Cranky/intermittent at best I'm afraid.

[se6b]

T-Cut!

[plipton]

se6b said: T-Cut!

T cut's brilliant stuff (or Brasso if you have no T Cut)

Better still - Use the stuff paint shops use. When a bucket of scaffold fittings fell off a lorry and hit the Chimp's OSF wing it looked like a respray job.

5 minutes elbow grease with cutting paste and it was like new again (pity coz a respray on the scaffolder's insurance would've been nice).



>> Edited by plipton on Wednesday 19th March 15:54

[Oi_Oi_Savaloy]

plipton - is it actually called 'cutting paste' or does it come under another name?

[Big Chris]

Podie said:

Oi_Oi_Savaloy said: Looks like the wife's going to be busy with the car polish then

What are those electric polishers like...?

Electric polishers are great. Saves time and effort and makes your motor all spangly and shiny. I'd give it a full Autoglym treatment

[CarZee]

Podie said: What are those electric polishers like...?

a polishing pad on your cordless drill works a treat.. it did on my S

>> Edited by CarZee (moderator) on Wednesday 19th March 15:55

[incorrigible]

Oi_Oi_Savaloy said: Cranky/intermittent at best I'm afraid.

Very good if you pay the money need to spend over £100 though, it'll need well over 1kw to have the torque for a good polish

Bring up faded paint use either t-cut or another mild cutting compound (I use Farecla G3) apply with a polisher or by hand. If you're doing it with a polisher use plenty of water on the mop head

Once you've got the colour back remove fine lines with a machine glaze (or don't bother (this is what I do)) and hand wax/polish with what ever takes your fancy

[clubsport]

cutting paste / compound is good .it is a more abrasive than t-cut...basically you are cutting back or removing paint with this,,make sure you have enough paint to start with!
I would start with t-cut to remove dead oxisised paint,basically to see what you have got before doing anything else...if ok then wax the car to preserve the finish...the colour waxes are cheap & don't look good a short while after application,fine if you are selling the car.

[Oi_Oi_Savaloy]

when you said electric polishers i thought you were refering to the wife rather than actually asking about 'electric polishers'. really wasn't thinking straight there for a minute!

[pdv6]

plipton said:

se6b said: T-Cut!

T cut's brilliant stuff (or Brasso if you have no T Cut)

Better still - Use the stuff paint shops use. When a bucket of scaffold fittings fell off a lorry and hit the Chimp's OSF wing it looked like a respray job.

5 minutes elbow grease with cutting paste and it was like new again (pity coz a respray on the scaffolder's insurance would've been nice).



>> Edited by plipton on Wednesday 19th March 15:54

Bear in mind that every T-cut removes some more paint, so not to be done as a regular operation!

ColourMagic etc can do wonders if the paint is slightly faded / lightly scratched, but will need re-applying every so often.

If the paint's really bad, then a T-Cut & polish is the way to go, followed by re-application of polish from time to time.

Oh, and don't wash the car with washing up liquid, as it dries the paint & causes it to fade more quickly...

[mrsd]

T-cut plus electric polisher will burn any edges/corners down to the primer in seconds if you're not careful Which is expensive

[incorrigible]

mrsd said: T-cut plus electric polisher will burn any edges/corners down to the primer in seconds if you're not careful Which is expensive

OTOH you can re-apply paint straigh over a cut surface

IT'S IMPORTANT TO USE A POLISHER THAT ROTATES SLOWLY

I reckon a drill maybe slightly too fast and will cause the edge problem MrsD talks off

PS are you speaking from experience

[plipton]

Oi_Oi_Savaloy said: plipton - is it actually called 'cutting paste' or does it come under another name?

I didn't do it - just watched in amazement as the mess vanished before my eyes.

There's a guy on here who runs a paint shop, www.pistonheads.com/gassing/profile.asp?h=0&memberId=22632 called Jon.

Email him via his profile - he seems like a good bloke and will no doubt tell you what the best product is for the job.

Plipton

[CarZee]

incorrigible said:I reckon a drill maybe slightly too fast and will cause the edge problem MrsD talks off

I expect you're right if you're talking about T-Cut - but I'm not - rather a colour polish or something Autoglymmy..

[DRG]

Use Zymol polish instead. IMO it's far superior to Autoglym (This is from someone who has just about everything Autoglym makes!) You don't need the expensive stuff either, the tenner a bottle stuff from Halfords is still better than super resin polish.

I have pictures of my Porker after a good zymoling which demonstrates the finish you can get. Oh and it's four years old and lives outside!

http://freespace.virgin.net/dr.allangreen/Index.htm

:lifesmissiontoadvertisezymolcarcareproducts:

>> Edited by DRG on Wednesday 19th March 16:28