Can this car be saved?

[ismaelg]

Hello,

A friend asked me if this could still be saved. He bought this car new in late 2003 (2004 Acura TSX) and has never really taken good care of it. Now it has faded and looks pink in some areas as you can see in the pictures. He said he sent it to polish a few years ago and I can see edges burned off and rubber trim parts with machine damage, clear signs of a lousy job.
I tried a small area with a Meguiar's clay bar, Meguiars 2, 9, 7, Deep Crystal 1 and 2 and it looks smooth and shiny, but still pink
I told him this was beyond my little experience but I would like to help him as well as gaining some knowledge. Any recommendations?
It is actually a bit worst than what the pictures show.











Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Ismael

[Daniel Kinder]

Re: Can this car be saved?

Hey ismaelg

Did you do a test spot?
What meguiars clay do you have?
How did you apply the products?
Is that the order you tried the products?

Do a test spot on the back of the trunk lid, apply a piece of blue painters tape up the trunk lid and then lay a micro-fiber towel half on the blue painters tape and then apply another piece of the painters tape on top of the micro-fiber towel and the tape you applied on the trunk to hold the micro-fiber in place while your doing your test, so as not to sling or get any product on the side your not preforming the test on and you will be able to show how much of an improvent you have made when your done. Just remove the tape and micro-fiber slow after your finished your test.

Start by taking a picture before you start any of your test and then after with the micro-fiber towel removed, to show what improvement you've made and that will help better show everyone where your talking about and then we can recommend any technique or product to you.

Next use your clay, and then use the #2 fine cut cleaner and work it in well as in 3 passes over a 18"X18" area, As in verticle-horizontal-and then verticle again and over lap each pass by 50% also make sure you applied enough product so as not to dry buff. It might take a couple applications, just make sure you keep seeing improvement with this cleaning step if you don't, try another application or use a more aggressive product like #1 medium cut cleaner and then there is #4 heavy cut cleaner. Just remember that the most important step in any detail is to make sure you spend enough time on the cleaning step because that's how you get that deep, reflective shine and clarity.

Next use the #9 swirl remover 2.0 cleaner/polish to help get any haze or marring you might have caused and to just help in getting that wet look from the polishing oils that's in there. After that there's no need for any #7 or DC 2 polish because of the #9, but you could try it out to see if it looks good to your eye's. Then I would apply 2 coats of your favorite lsp(last step product) I like to use #26 hi-tech wax,#16 paste wax or nxt tech wax 2.0, remember that 2 coats of a wax is for even coverage and
looks better to your eye's.

Hope I've help with what products you already have and hope you have a pc, if not and using a orbital buffer get some foam bonnets for using for your cleaning step, and some terry bonnets for the cleaner/polish and last use micro-fiber bonnets for your lsp.

Also check out the list o links and it will help you and can explain in depth more products and techniques on different systems and procedure's.

[benhui86]

Re: Can this car be saved?

83 and 80 combo on a G100.... it wont be bright red but it'd be reder.... lol

[seth1066]

Re: Can this car be saved?

I would want to try some pure polish, like M7, on the pink sections to see if it would darken up.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Can this car be saved?

Hello,

I tried a small area with a Meguiar's clay bar, Meguiar's 2, 9, 7, Deep Crystal 1 and 2 and it looks smooth and shiny, but still pink

After applying either the #2 Fine Cut Cleaner or the Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner, (Step 1), did you see any red color coming off onto your applicator pads?

Did you see any red pigment at all transferring onto your applicator pads or wipe-off towels?

If not then the car has a clear coat and if rubbing either the #2 Fine Cut Cleaner or the Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner, (Step 1), to a small section and then polishing and waxing these same section you're not seeing any dramatic visual change then that would make it sound like the problem is under the clear coat.

As in the pigmented basecoat portion of the car has faded and because it's under the clear coat, no amount of cleaning and polishing the top coat will fix what's under the clear layer of paint.

Are the horizontal surfaces more pink than the sides?

Or another way of saying this would be, are the sides more red than the horizontal surfaces?

Where has the car spent most of it's life? Both geographically as in where is the car located and has it mostly been parked outside?

If you are seeing color coming onto your applicator pads and wipe-off cloths then you probably can see it you just need to substitute a more aggressive product and put a little more passion behind the pad.

[RaskyR1]

Re: Can this car be saved?

I have the same car and color, except mine is newer. The car's paint has a tinted clear and I've found M66 or ColorX with a W9006 pad to be the best final step. M80 Works great on the PC too but I get a little Micro marring.

Hope you can save her.

[AJ C-Burg]

Re: Can this car be saved?

I couldn't tell, in the last picture of the door jamb, is that wax,dirt, a scuff, or a tape line from being repainted?

[jwinders]

Re: Can this car be saved?

I actually detailed an '04 TSX in the same color about two weeks ago, and the paint had the same issues. The girl I was detailing it for had never waxed it and it was outside 24/7. I threw everything at it I had in my arsenal - D151, M105, ScratchX, Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner - and nothing worked to fix it. After looking at it, you could tell I had polished the clear coat, but it looked as though the base coat had faded. She was going to take it to the dealership, but I haven't heard back from her yet.

[ismaelg]

Re: Can this car be saved?

Thanks all for your comments.

Mike, There was no red residue so it is definitely clearcoat. I don't have a rotary or a PC, just a DA, but I even tried a dremel with a felt polishing tip and M2 and never got any red residue.
I think the problem might be under the clear. The surface is very rough to the touch. I did a section on the trunk lid (about 12x12) with the Smooth Surface clay kit and it came out really smooth to the touch, and the clay is pretty much wasted so I think this car may take more than 1 bar. But no visual change in color. Then I applied M2 twice, M9, M7, DC#1 and DC#2. The surface is really smooth and reflective, but no change in the color.
Interestingly, the damage is in the top surfaces: trunk, roof and the top of the doors and fenders, but not the hood. The car has never been repainted.
The car has always been in Puerto Rico. Hi temp and high UV most of the time. It is not usually garaged and he never really took good care of it.
He told me that about 2 years ago he took it to a so called detailer to polish and wax it, and that's when it started getting pink. That sloppy job may have done more harm than good. There are burn marks in some edges and some of the plastic trim parts have machine damage.

Thanks,
Ismael

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Can this car be saved?

Did you see any red pigment at all transferring onto your applicator pads or wipe-off towels?

Mike, There was no red residue so it is definitely clearcoat.

If not then the car has a clear coat and if rubbing either the #2 Fine Cut Cleaner or the Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner, (Step 1), to a small section and then polishing and waxing these same section you're not seeing any dramatic visual change then that would make it sound like the problem is under the clear coat.

I think the problem might be under the clear.
I did a section on the trunk lid but no change in the color.

Where has the car spent most of it's life? Both geographically as in where is the car located and has it mostly been parked outside?

The car has always been in Puerto Rico. Hi temp and high UV most of the time.

It is not usually garaged and he never really took good care of it.

Suspected all that...

It sounds like a case of fading to the basecoat due to extreme exposure to the sun...

Only a paint job will fix the problem now.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Can this car be saved?

Are the horizontal surfaces more pink than the sides?

Or another way of saying this would be, are the sides more red than the horizontal surfaces?

Interestingly, the damage is in the top surfaces: trunk, roof and the top of the doors and fenders, but not the hood. The car has never been repainted.

The only common sense explanation is that at some point the hood has been repainted. It's possible somehow it had different paint from the factory, but that's probably one-in-a-million chances.

Don't really know of how else to explain the lack of fading to one area as compared to another area if all other variables are identical?

Regardless, the only way to make the paint look one uniform color in the future will be to repaint the entire car.

[Pocket_Aces]

Re: Can this car be saved?

Looking at the mismatch in color between the hood and the front fender near the head lights the car appears to have been definitely repainted. I wonder what all has been done to it.

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: Can this car be saved?

It does look like it was repainted at some point. It could just be a very poor attempt at color matching.

I would try #80 and the #66, see if that makes a difference. It may make it look a little closer match.

Good luck.

[seth1066]

Re: Can this car be saved?

The only common sense explanation is that at some point the hood has been repainted.

I agree. The new hood paint could have come from transport damage before the car was sold new or a lot of other ways. I appraised a prospective trade in once where several years before, a repair shop had damaged the car and got it fixed without telling him.