need help

[Tcwhite1980]

I bought a 2008 Accord coupe back in November from a friend. When he originally bought the car in 08' there was a sunroof visor on it. He left it this way until I bought it. I didn't like it and I really didn't see a purpose for it. Anyway when I removed it there is an outline on the roof of the car where this thing sat. The bolts that held it on were on the inside of the sunroof. No adhesive or anything I saw. I'm trying to figure out what I could use on this to remove the stain. I've tried rubbing alcohol, clay bar. Nothing seems to work. Any suggestions? I know I'm new and this is my first post. I tried searching but couldn't find anything. Any help would be appreciated.

[ricadodetail]

Do you have pics so we can get a better idea?

[04blkpearlcoupe]

Re: need help

I would try some Ultimate Compound. It seems to be good at removing tough old stains. If nothing seems to work, l'd wetsand it with 2000 grit paper, then polish it out.

[Murr1525]

Re: need help

A pic would help most.

Is it actually a stain, or is it an outline of the visor where the paint under it has not been exposed to the sun, and so is the original color?

And we wont recommend a new person to start wet-sanding things.

[Tcwhite1980]

Re: need help

here are the pictures. They are the actual size. Do not really know how to make them smaller. Yeah I'm not going to wetland anything. I have had a good friend wetland my sub before after taking the pinstripe off but this looks like it never got any sun. I haven't tried compound yet but I did clay bar it and nothing happened. My stereo friend used some spray and wipe product he had and nothing happened.

[04blkpearlcoupe]

Re: need help

The pics are too far away to really tell whats going on. That line could be embedded dirt (but the clay should have gotten it), or it could be scratches or a chemically bonded stain of some sort. I would still try some UC. It can't hurt, and its not real expensive.

[Murr1525]

Re: need help

Still a little hard to see, but your guess that the area looks 'out of the sun' is what I might expect as well.

The problem is that if the area under the visor is the original color, it is not that area that needs fixed up. It is the rest of the car that needs worked on, to get it back to original as much as possible.

And these fade issues do tend to fade away quickly once out in the sun...

[Tcwhite1980]

If I have time this weekend I'll clay bar it again and use UC on it. If that doesn't work I'm nit going to deal with it. Prior to me having the owner kept it in the garage. In almost three years of having it he only put 17,000 miles on it. I've already put 10,000 on it in less than a year.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: need help

Having some personal experience with this on more than a few occasions I can tell you that generally you're dealing with a below surface defect caused by repeated, though minor, movement of the visor against the paint. In some cases I've actually had to do some fine wet sanding and compounding to remove the marks as they've been quite deep. In some cases, and this will depend on how long the visor was on the car, the marring wasn't too bad at all and a moderate paint cleaner like Ultimate Compound took it out. Yes, this defect does sometimes look more like a stain than an abrasion, and it could very well be that there is some staining involved (whether from the rubber itself, or products that had been applied to the rubber strip under the visor) but it's still a below surface issue. That means you need a paint cleaner, and some level of energy behind its application, depending on the severity of the marring.

[Tcwhite1980]

I had the foam applicator that connects into a drill this past weekend after clearing my Dads suburban headlights. I clayed the area around the sunroof and then used the foam applicator with compound. Then I polished by hand and waxed it. It looks better than it did but still noticeable. Will continue this process till it is gone.