Faded Paintwork

[kevin5952]

Hi people,just bought a celica gt 1990.A bit old i know but it goes lke the wind and you never feel like you are going to break down.Problem is the white paintwork could do with a real good buffing up..whats the best way to try and bring it back to something that is not perfect but looks good..cheers..kev

[daktari]

Dont use a buffer. Thats my first bit of advice. I`m afraid there`s only one way. Elbow grease. Follow 3 simple steps.

1/ Wash car and rinse well, Chamois leather it dry.

2/ Get the T cut out and use good quality mutton cloth. (You might have to do it twice)

3/ Get the best quality silicon free polish you can afford and apply.(You might have to do this a few times to get a good build up of polish)

It`ll take the best part of a day to do, but atthe end you`ll be able to see your face in it at a hundred yards.

Tip: Don`t do a white car in bright light. And not when it`s hot.

[cookci]

why not use a buffer?

[daktari]

Sorry. Should of said IMO i wouldn`t use one. The ones they sell in Halfords are next to useless. And if you use a professional one and don`t know what your doing, you`ll be down to primer or if your really unlucky down to metal in no time, especially on older cars that have already had a few microns of paint removed by previous cutting back.

I wouldn`t personally if i didn`t know what was what. :D

[frodo]

My white 1987 Celica came up a treat and felt like glass to the touch using MER polish.

And that is what I use most of the time on my red 1993 Celica - and red is very prone to oxidisation (fading).

I have tried lots of polish, including Autoglym and Meguiers, but still come back to MER, as its also very useful at repelling damage from seagull poo, which we tend to get a lot of where I live.

[daktari]

My white 1987 Celica came up a treat and felt like glass to the touch using MER polish.

And that is what I use most of the time on my red 1993 Celica - and red is very prone to oxidisation (fading).

I have tried lots of polish, including Autoglym and Meguiers, but still come back to MER, as its also very useful at repelling damage from seagull poo, which we tend to get a lot of where I live.

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Yep. No stranger to seagulls here either. Mind you from the last time i was down Cornwall i think your gulls might be half Eagle or something. They`re :censor: in` massive.

[frodo]

Thats true enough, and the result is some seriously large acidic deposits ending up on the car. MER seems to protect a lot better than other polish, and have only had three real paint eating disasters. They needed a lot of work with scratch remover and a buffer to get rid of - although not entirely. And two of those occassions were when I had 'other' polish on the car. Most of the time I can simply moisten and remove.

But, having said all that, MER does give rather a lovely glossy finish.

[sotal]

Is there any way to just restore the plastic parts?? With my Celica being Red it's prone to Fading, but everything is perfect and shiney except for the door handles. Everyone I've asked has said they look fine just a different shade, but everytime I clean the car I think they look Pink!!

I tried a bit of polish with red stuff in (colour booster stuff) which worked for about 3 days then they looked faded again! Any ideas??

[daktari]

Is there any way to just restore the plastic parts?? With my Celica being Red it's prone to Fading, but everything is perfect and shiney except for the door handles. Everyone I've asked has said they look fine just a different shade, but everytime I clean the car I think they look Pink!!

I tried a bit of polish with red stuff in (colour booster stuff) which worked for about 3 days then they looked faded again! Any ideas??

←

I imagine the door handles are plastic coated as opposed to painted? Might be worth trying something like Armoral or similar plastic refurb stuff.

[TheNissanMan]

Meguiars 3 stage after some scratch x should bring it up a treat, make sure nice and clean with a good shampoo first....

[frodo]

Scratch removal, or t-cut (used carefully) should bring it up nicely. A decent polish will be needed to keep it looking red, and frequent applications.

Go mad with the t-cut and you will go through to the primer. I managed to do that with my bonnet spoiler/deflector. Luckily it was easy to remove the spoiler from the bonnet, so I repainted/laquered it. Not sure how easy it is to remove the door handle sections.

[mikeb]

The door handles and other plastic parts (mirrors) are painted, and you can t-cut them. For some reason they are more prone to fading, possibly because of the different primer used, or maybe the top coat has a slightly different formulation.

One some of the corners, mine is just worn down through the top coat from t-cut usage.

[sotal]

My Mirrors and the spoiler are all perfect, it's just the door handles and it looks worse after a good clean!

I've got some T-Cut stuff in a tube for removing light scratches and swirls - I'll give that a go next time I polish the motor and see how it goes

[parmo]

gotta go with MER for general cleaning week to week and a good quality wax for the monthly

i notice with mer on my new car it does stop stone chips ( may be wrong here ) but water based paint is very soft ( and takes an age to harden ) s o applying mer seems to help it

[cookci]

i had a red car once and it kept fading.

i tcuted it many a time then waxed it and it kept fading

now apparently according to an expert valeter the paint needs to soak up the new wax so therefore needs about 7 coats of wax... once a week for 7 weeks... that shud help the fading

it worked for me