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Car body(paint and washing) questions..

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Old 09-03-2002 | 01:01 PM
  #1  
doomtoo's Avatar
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Car body(paint and washing) questions..

First off, that little plastic bumbper on the side of the car is faded and "molding", but I can't find a good, semi-quick painting way of doing it. Went by checkers, autozone, and NAPA, none seemes to have paint for it. Home depot will probably be my best choice(but they don't have car paint). I also went by a car paint store, and lady said I would have to do all this crap, altogether costing about $60(I can get new ones for that much!!!).
Second thing, today I'm washing the car, but wanted to ask about those tiny little scratches on the, I think clear coat. You can really only see it when the light hits them from the side, and they're very tiny.
I searched, and found that it said to "wash --> use polish(removes top layer of paint??) --> wax".
Is that the best way? Will the paint job be really crappy in a few years if I use polish, but will it help even out the tiny scratches?
What should I use to wash/wax the car(like a hand towel?), that won't cause more scratches?
And with the plastic bumper thing, should I clean it real well with sand paper, use primer, spray paint, and finish with a clear coat?
Old 09-03-2002 | 01:15 PM
  #2  
KLoWnPR109's Avatar
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From: Irving, TX
Polish is an abrasive, but it will only take a tiny amount of the clear coat off. If you want, find a glaze or something like Meguire's #7, this will usually hide the fine scratches or swirls.
Old 09-03-2002 | 06:37 PM
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Z's Avatar
Z
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Joined: Nov 2000
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Belive it or not the plastic molding is not fading, it simply has some type of build up on it. Mother's Mag and Aluminum polish works quite well on it.
Old 09-03-2002 | 10:03 PM
  #4  
PDubs's Avatar
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Joined: Dec 2001
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Re: Car body(paint and washing) questions..

Originally posted by doomtoo
Second thing, today I'm washing the car, but wanted to ask about those tiny little scratches on the, I think clear coat. You can really only see it when the light hits them from the side, and they're very tiny.
I searched, and found that it said to "wash --> use polish(removes top layer of paint??) --> wax".
Is that the best way? Will the paint job be really crappy in a few years if I use polish, but will it help even out the tiny scratches?
What should I use to wash/wax the car(like a hand towel?), that won't cause more scratches?
And with the plastic bumper thing, should I clean it real well with sand paper, use primer, spray paint, and finish with a clear coat?
Don't know about the plastic bumper, but if you want your car to gleam, use Zaino. I used Meguire's Yellow 26 on my car for the first 1.5 years, and it was pretty good. But I just spent this week doing claybar, polish, polish lock, polish shine, etc over and over putting the first coat of Zaino on and OMG what a difference. Believe the hype!

Zaino works best on darker colored cars. If yours is a light color, I would just stick with the aforementioned posts rather than spend the money for www.zainobros.com
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