What to do with this car?

[RyanCan]

Hello everyone!

I am new to this forum and to car detailing. I bought this car over a year ago and would like to do something about its gaudy appearance



The car is a 1997 Pontiac Sunfire 2.4L DOHC Convertible with 169,000 kms. I bought it from a business for $800 and removed the decals they had put on there. Unfortunately, as I've come to learn, the paint around the decals had oxidized and faded so that there is a sharp contrast between the yellow under the decals and the rest of the car. This car used to be white as can be seen by looking under the hood.



I bought this car primarily because I don't have a lot of money and I'm looking for a cheap solution to the paint job. I have a bottle of Maguiar's Ultimate Compound and I am considering applying this to the vehicle, however I am not sure how much yellow paint is over the original white paint. I don't know if I can restore the yellow - what I would like to do - or if possible it will remove all of the yellow paint and leave the car white.

Like I said I am new to all of this but doing the research to figure out what my options are besides having to pay $2,000 for a new paint job on an $800 car. I am also new to car maintenance in general and wonder what people think about the price and quality of this car. I know it is not a high-end car, but its affordable and I like it. Any tips or advice you can give me would be very much appreciated.

Thanks!
Ryan

[Murr1525]

Re: What to do with this car?

Well, the first thing would be to use a foam applicator pad, and try applying some of the UC and see what happens. Probably not in the middle of the hood....

The hood/trunk is probably worst, but starting on a low fender/bumper may start to tell how the yellow will look, or if it cuts through, etc. Don't apply too aggressively, but evenly over a small area.

[RyanCan]

Re: What to do with this car?

Well, the first thing would be to use a foam applicator pad, and try applying some of the UC and see what happens. Probably not in the middle of the hood....

The hood/trunk is probably worst, but starting on a low fender/bumper may start to tell how the yellow will look, or if it cuts through, etc. Don't apply too aggressively, but evenly over a small area.

Thanks Murr! I will try doing that. I will apply a small amount to one of the fenders. Actually one of the quarter panels looks like someone had rubbed something into it and the white is already showing through, so I may try it around that spot to see if I get different results or if it just comes out white.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: What to do with this car?

It appears they previous owners may have done a fairly cheap respray in single stage yellow and it has faded badly except for where the decals protected it. You should be able to bring back that yellow color, even by hand, without too much difficulty using Ultimate Compound. If you have a good corded drill at home you might want to pick up our DA Power System and let it do the hard work instead of tackling all this by hand.

[RyanCan]

Re: What to do with this car?

It appears they previous owners may have done a fairly cheap respray in single stage yellow and it has faded badly except for where the decals protected it. You should be able to bring back that yellow color, even by hand, without too much difficulty using Ultimate Compound. If you have a good corded drill at home you might want to pick up our DA Power System and let it do the hard work instead of tackling all this by hand.

Thanks Michael!

UPDATE: I rubbed a little UC on the aforementioned quarter panel and the spot that was white is now yellow and the area is a few shades darker than before. It looks like UC will be a good solution to this paint job, however, scrubbing by hand I spent a good 30 minutes working on one 2' sq spot and it isn't as dark as it could be. I will definitely want to pick up a DA system to do the whole car.

Another question: I peeled some of the decals off and when I did so it removed all of the adhesive except an outline which comes off really easy with Goo Gone, but the previous owners had used a different method to remove some of the decals which left most of the adhesive on the vehicle and scrubbing this with Goo Gone takes a long time and is really messy. Is there a better solution to removing this adhesive than sponging Goo Gone on by hand?

Thanks again Murr and Michael, I will update with photos when I can.

[Murr1525]

Re: What to do with this car?

You may like to follow up with something that has a lot of oils, like Ult. Polish, before waxing.

Yeah, the DA power system is solid for an easy way in to working by machine. You may want to have 2 or 3 of the cutting pads on hand, but 1 wax pad, and even 1 pad for the Ult. Polish may get you buy. Finally got some pictures for Michael of a test spot on my dads car, and it was literally 2-3 minutes to remove swirls, polish, then wax a section of the hood.

Is it big sections of the car? You could soak a paper towel, and let it rest on the surface for a bit. Or other bug/tar/adhesive removers.... If it was just little spots, clay may do it.

[RyanCan]

Re: What to do with this car?

You may like to follow up with something that has a lot of oils, like Ult. Polish, before waxing.

Yeah, the DA power system is solid for an easy way in to working by machine. You may want to have 2 or 3 of the cutting pads on hand, but 1 wax pad, and even 1 pad for the Ult. Polish may get you buy. Finally got some pictures for Michael of a test spot on my dads car, and it was literally 2-3 minutes to remove swirls, polish, then wax a section of the hood.

I do have some Ultimate Polish and wax! How important is it to do this after applying UC. The area I just did, I did not polish or wax when I was done.

Is it big sections of the car? You could soak a paper towel, and let it rest on the surface for a bit. Or other bug/tar/adhesive removers.... If it was just little spots, clay may do it.

It is really just a couple 6" sq. areas along the bottom of the doors. Also I need to apply some touch up paint to various areas of the car and clean off some rust spots, is it best to do that prior to applying UC?

Thanks again!

[Murr1525]

Re: What to do with this car?

Well, faded paint is usually dried out, so getting a nice coat of oil on the surface to sink in will help keep it healthier longer. And of course wax for protection.

One thing that wasnt mentioned is ff the paint on the car is still pretty healthy, and just the surface was messed up, your results should stay for a long time if you keep it protected. If the paint is failing, then your results may start to go back white again after a few days even if protected.

You dont want to pick up rust on your applicator pads, but other than that, probably easier to UC before doing lots of touch ups.

[RyanCan]

Re: What to do with this car?

Well, faded paint is usually dried out, so getting a nice coat of oil on the surface to sink in will help keep it healthier longer. And of course wax for protection.

One thing that wasnt mentioned is ff the paint on the car is still pretty healthy, and just the surface was messed up, your results should stay for a long time if you keep it protected. If the paint is failing, then your results may start to go back white again after a few days even if protected.

You dont want to pick up rust on your applicator pads, but other than that, probably easier to UC before doing lots of touch ups.

Is there any way to tell what condition the paint is in? And what is single stage paint? Is that just primer, base and clear rolled into one?

Here is a picture of the door with the adhesive and rust. I have been using a soft wire brush to scrape off the rust and go over it with Sun Yellow Rustoleum - I started on the inside-bottom of the doors to test colors and initially started with Holland Yellow Tremclad but it didn't match well enough. The rust here doesn't look too deep and some of it came off while scrubbing with Armor All Car Wash

[RyanCan]

Re: What to do with this car?

Well my camera is not as good as the one used to take the other photos. But here is the trunk lid after applying nearly a whole bottle of UC with a 6-in buffer over the course of about 2 hours.



It looks great but is there something I'm doing wrong that it is taking so long and using so much of the UC? I've watched the instructional videos on youtube and tried to duplicate them.

[RyanCan]

Re: What to do with this car?

I'm using a 6-in buffer because I was able to borrow it, but I used a foam bonnet for it, should I be using something else?

[Murr1525]

Re: What to do with this car?

Does the UC seem to be soaking up into the bonnet too much, or drying out too quickly?

[RyanCan]

Re: What to do with this car?

Does the UC seem to be soaking up into the bonnet too much, or drying out too quickly?

It does I get maybe 5 minutes with a heavy coating of UC before it disappears. But if I run the buffer along an edge UC accumulates along the edge as if it was being scraped off the bonnet, and I can touch the bonnet and its wet, but the car surface is absent any compound after about 5 minutes.

[Detailing by M]

Re: What to do with this car?

It just looks like your not working it long enough.
there shouldn't be any compound on your paint after your done working it.
This is a common mistake.
Use less, a lot less a nickel size at the most, very little product will go a long way.

[RyanCan]

Re: What to do with this car?

It just looks like your not working it long enough.
there shouldn't be any compound on your paint after your done working it.
This is a common mistake.
Use less, a lot less a nickel size at the most, very little product will go a long way.

Thanks for the tips. Would you say downward pressure is more important than RPM? If I apply more pressure the buffer runs slower - maybe burn the motor out that way?