Decals on black paint for 2 years +

[Flexin]

Hi I'm new here so HI.

I have a suv at my shop that is going to give me a headache. I was wondering if you guys/girls have any ideas. Heres the story.

Ok. I stripped the vinyl off of Kia Suv for a customer. The SUV is black and has had the vinyl on for about 2 years. So as you can guess this thing has faded around the vinyl. It looks like heck to me. They want me to buff it so I tried some of it but its not looking that good. They are asking me to try wet sanding now. I have done some before and don't mind doing small scratches but a whole SUV is going to annoy me [edited for language; 2hotford]. Would this even fix it enough to be worth it? I'll try to post some pictues in a few minutes.

James

[Flexin]

Here are some pictues.







James

[sneek]

scratchX, #7 , NXT??? im not sure this would fix it but i think it would make it better

[Flexin]

Scratch X didn't work. #7 I don't have. Rejuvenator seems to be working. And NXT does seem to make it look better.

James

[Flexin]

I was asked to post this on another forum so I thougt I would add it here as well so you can see what I'm dealing with.

Let's see the pics showing the results so we can suggest further.

Ok. Keep in mind that these are quick test spots.

Untouched.



Meguiars Daul Actioni #83



Malco Rejuvenator



James

[SpoiledMan]

It looks like some heavy cutting is in order. Break out the wool pad, some 84 and have some 85 handy. Test an area with the following process.

84 with wool pad on rotary
83 with cutting pad and rotary
83 with polishing pad and PC
80 or 82 with the PC

[SpoiledMan]

Hey, another thing. Is there any adhesive or anything left on the surface?

[Flexin]

No. There is the odd spot of adhesive that I find and then remove it. We spent a lot of time removing that.

James

[the other pc]

If the paint is basecoat/clearcoat and the base color has actually faded (as opposed to just being obscured by cloudiness in the topcoat) there’s nothing you can do to bring it back. Since you can only work the topcoat there’s no way to fix any problems in the basecoat.

If the defects are only in the upper region of the topcoat you should be able to buff it out OK.

Just from the pix I’d suspect that SpoiledMan’s correct about it needing an aggressive process.


PC.

[Flexin]

I thought I would add some more pics.

Me working.



You can see the paint condition and the outline of Rosie the Cows behind.



Here you can still see the outline if you look hard enough.



Still a work in progress. Light a match.



James

[Pete-FWA]

Looks like you're on the right track. I've done quite a few of those types of jobs and one never knows until you put the polisher to it. Each one is individual.

[Mike Phillips]

I would agree with Pete and what Spoiled Man and the other pc have posted.

The graphics have left impressions in the paint where they were attached. Just like a swirl or scratches, (and like the swirls and scratches in the paint), in order to remove these impressions you'll need to remove a little paint.

What it Means to Remove a Scratch

[Flexin]

Oh I agree Mike. But with the work I have done on this I don't know if it would be safe to try and remove it completely.

James

[Mike Phillips]

Just to note...

I've buffed out a number of cars like this where a person will have purchased a car from a company and then removed their graphics. In my experience you can't always get 100% perfection from where the impressions have left their mark in the paint but you can usually get it to the point most people can't tell.

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by Flexin
Oh I agree Mike. But with the work I have done on this I don't know if it would be safe to try and remove it completely.

James

Looks like you typed faster than I could add the above insight.