DETAIL: Extreme Oxidation

[canadam]

My girlfriends 94 Corolla has extreme oxidation. I'm not looking for a show quality finish, but I'd like to brighten it up.

Who's had the best experience with what products ?

[bufferdan]

3M Fine Cut compound! Then some meguiars NXT or mothers FX wax

[N8s93turbo]

Originally Posted by bufferdan

3M Fine Cut compound! Then some meguiars NXT or mothers FX wax

nxt is awesome, buffed my car and used it this past weekend.

If your not scared, 2000grit sandpaper and some water. lightly wetsand then wax. should look like new when you are done.

[PHOENIX]

Originally Posted by N8s93turbo

If your not scared, 2000grit sandpaper and some water. lightly wetsand then wax. should look like new when you are done.

That is probably the best way to get rid of oxidation unless the oxidation has gone completely through your clear coat. Then all you'll be doing is sanding off whats left of your clear to your normal paint. Keyword in the statement above is "lightly",

I think what n8s said is probably the best way unless its a very light oxidation, then buff the hell out of it.

[N8s93turbo]

yes LIGHTLY, you do not wanna sand through the clear coat. just take the top edge off.

[MR2_SW20]

i use meguiars buffing compounds at work and they are pretty damn good. Range from low to diamond cut.

i also use meguiars wax lol. pretty much all the stuff we use is meguiars, leather care, vinyl cleaner (amazing stuff), compound, show glaze, wax etc

[MR.twooooo]

I got some rubbing compound and rubbed the crap out of it. then some meguiars NXT wax. Its the best wax to use

[chuck]

also may want to check out the zano write-up; http://www.mr2board.com/forums/body-...eover-2-a.html

[ALLSHOTUP]

www.autopia.org - This is a valuable website.

[blue-sun]

i bought a new daily driver last fall, a 91 Integra that was SEVERELY oxidized!

first detail attempt

finished detail, sort of

I ended up using Meguiars Diamond Cut with a wool cutting pad via a PC 7424. (note: not to be used by amateurs)

I had to do this 2 times on the entire car to cut the oxidation. I topped it with Meguiars Dual Action Cleaner And Polish with a Meguiars cutting pad then topped it with Meguiars NXT Tech Wax.

[TomsMR2]

3m perfect-it extra cut is a FANTASTIC compound. incredibly easy to use compound that gets the job done quick.. it swirls so you have to finish it with something like finess-it, or another good swirl remover.

[joshb_]

Originally Posted by blue-sun

i bought a new daily driver last fall, a 91 Integra that was SEVERELY oxidized!

first detail attempt

finished detail, sort of

I ended up using Meguiars Diamond Cut with a wool cutting pad via a PC 7424. (note: not to be used by amateurs)

I had to do this 2 times on the entire car to cut the oxidation. I topped it with Meguiars Dual Action Cleaner And Polish with a Meguiars cutting pad then topped it with Meguiars NXT Tech Wax.

thats amazing......I think ill try this out before I spend the money for a repaint

[Xceler8]

Yeah i was just about to put in the plug for Perfect-it Heavy Cut. I've wetsanded cars with 1000 grit and that will take the sand marks out really quickly. The best swirl remover i've used is the Meguires #3 machine glaze.

The key being that you are useing (and know how to use) a Rotary buffer and not an orbital. Orbitals just sling wax around and don't really do much to take stuff out of the paint in comparison with a rotary... granted a rotary can burn through the paint in a blink if you let it work an area too long and swirl the shit out of your car if you aren't careful and take your time

[stealth]

Ok these cutting compounds, can they be applied by hand, are they hard/dangerous to apply by amateurs?

[blue-sun]

Originally Posted by Xceler8

The key being that you are useing (and know how to use) a Rotary buffer and not an orbital. Orbitals just sling wax around and don't really do much to take stuff out of the paint in comparison with a rotary...

My restoration was done 100% with an orbital. It's all in knowing how to use it.

Originally Posted by stealth

Ok these cutting compounds, can they be applied by hand, are they hard/dangerous to apply by amateurs?

No, the amount of heat needed is too much by hand. Sure, you can try and have a sore hand and make your paint "better" but it won't fix it like mine did. Best bet, find a detailer locally that can do the hard part for you. It will cost you a few hundred, but it'll make a world of difference. Oh, and then the most important part after that is the upkeep. By Sep this year the paint had started to fade pretty badly again on that integra of mine. I ended up selling it too in Oct after the head gasket blew on it and got a 01 Protege MP3 for a daily drive.

[Tuna]

Originally Posted by blue-sun

My restoration was done 100% with an orbital. It's all in knowing how to use it.



No, the amount of heat needed is too much by hand. Sure, you can try and have a sore hand and make your paint "better" but it won't fix it like mine did. Best bet, find a detailer locally that can do the hard part for you. It will cost you a few hundred, but it'll make a world of difference. Oh, and then the most important part after that is the upkeep. By Sep this year the paint had started to fade pretty badly again on that integra of mine. I ended up selling it too in Oct after the head gasket blew on it and got a 01 Protege MP3 for a daily drive.

I used a 3M product that worked well to get rid of my oxidation. I did it by hand too. Just sold the car a couple months ago and the paint was still in good shape almost 3 years later, so I don't know where you're getting your info about needing more heat or whatever.

The whole process is detailed and stickied here:

http://www.mr2board.com/forums/atten...eover-2-a.html

[blue-sun]

Originally Posted by Tuna

I used a 3M product that worked well to get rid of my oxidation. I did it by hand too. Just sold the car a couple months ago and the paint was still in good shape almost 3 years later, so I don't know where you're getting your info about needing more heat or whatever.

The whole process is detailed and stickied here:

http://www.mr2board.com/forums/atten...eover-2-a.html

maybe the 3M product is different that the Meguiars stuff I used. If you applied 6 coats of Zaino and upkept it regularly, sure it'll last for years. But if you could put your car side by side with itself 3 years ago with it when you sold it, i guarantee you the freshly detailed one will be brighter, deeper and clearer. I'm not a n00bie about detailing either, been doing it as a side business for over 4 years now.

The restoration process of my MR2, day 1 with Diamond Cut

The 2nd day of restoration of my MR2

The preparation of my car for NA2005, 3 days of sealing and QD

The car sat covered and cleaned/QD'ed frequently all the rest of 05 and begging 06. Never saw another coat of polish until summer 06, where I　ｈａｄ　ｔｏ　ｒｅｐｏｌｉｓｈ　ｔｈｅ　ｃａｒ．Ｔｈｅ　ｃａｒ　ｗａｓ　ｓｔｉｌｌ　ｂｅａｄｉｎ ｇ　ｗｈｅｎ　ｗａｓｈｅｄ　ｏｒ　ｒａｉｎｅｄ　ｕｐｏｎ before the repolishing, but the depth and clarity of the paint had started to fade. This is just the truth with a single stage paint, it won't last if exposed to lots of sun. And as stated, my car sat covered when not in use and saw FREQUENT washing and quick detailing．

After last summers repolish and sealant was applied

Now on to my old daily driver, 91 Integra that was EXTREMELY oxidized. I duplicated the process that I used on my MR2, eventually using the HARSHEST compound I could find and the HARSHEST pad after everything else failed. The Diamond Cut was barely able to bring a high gloss shine back the integra like it did to the MR2. Sure, it was loads better than before but nowhere "great" condition. Within a year of originally using the harsh stuff, I could see the fading starting to come back.

For the record, I learned alot of my detailing knowledge from working with an experienced detailer the first summer I really got into it and from www.autopia.org. I haven't posted alot over there, but I first found that site I read pages and pages of posts for the knowledge. It's common knowledge that you CAN achieve great results by hand, but at what price? hours and hours of working a product to get it to break down until it does the job it's suspossed to, or relatively minutes with a machine, be it a rotory or an orbital.

Let's agree to disagree on products and technique. What I've done has worked wonders for me and i'm not about to change, and if yours works for you, so be it.

If you wanna see some more of my work - Click through my galleries/Photos of cars I've done. that's just a small fraction of them also.

[Tuna]

Originally Posted by blue-sun

maybe the 3M product is different that the
This is just the truth with a single stage paint, it won't last if exposed to lots of sun. And as stated, my car sat covered when not in use and saw FREQUENT washing and quick detailing.

That's probably the difference right there. My cars have always had a home in the garage and little exposure to the elements, including rain.

Originally Posted by blue-sun

Let's agree to disagree on products and technique. What I've done has worked wonders for me and i'm not about to change, and if yours works for you, so be it.

I didn't really mean to disagree with you. Sorry if it came out that way. For some people it just might not be feasible to buy an orbital and learn how to use it properly. Because let's face it, while it definitely is less time consuming, like most things, that also means there's a greater potential to screw it up if you don't know what you're doing. I just wanted to make it clear that it is possible to do it by hand if you need to and still get good results. I think you'll notice in my thread that it did take me a considerable amount of time (over 20, IIRC) to do it a good job, but I still feel it was well worth it rather than paying somebody else to do it. I tend to trust myself more than I trust others unless they come very highly recommended or I've seen lots of their past work.

Nice shots of the car though. It's always cool to me to get to see the progress of a proper detailing job. That NXT is a great product for the price. I've fallen in love with Zaino, but if i were to buy an off-the-shelf polish it'd definitely be NXT. How long have you found it to last before needing to get another treatment?

[blue-sun]

Originally Posted by Tuna

I didn't really mean to disagree with you. Sorry if it came out that way.

It's all good. Sorry if I responded harshly.

Originally Posted by Tuna

For some people it just might not be feasible to buy an orbital and learn how to use it properly. Because let's face it, while it definitely is less time consuming, like most things, that also means there's a greater potential to screw it up if you don't know what you're doing.

Actually, the Porter Cable Dual Action polisher is pretty fool proof. You have to try very hard to burn paint with it.

[turbomr2]

check out www.griotsgarage.com they have some great tips and awesome products.