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Acura TL Paint and Exterior Care
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Comments
I get it now, much better...
Bad News:
There's nothing you're going to do to get those to look any better.
Good News:
Those pieces are replaceable and really shouldn't be all that expensive. (Even if you have to hit a junk yard)
I believe they're held on with clips, so they can be removed and replaced.
Let me know what they say!
at any rate, yes, the dealers know all about it whether they admit it or not. my local acura parts department told me that even though i could replace it, it would just do the same thing. appalling. anyway, what he did tell me is that what people are doing is removing the trim including the black plastic trim on the pillars (eg, front right trim on driver door) that peels and oxidizes, is remove all of it and paint the underlying metal flat black at an auto body shop.
and honestly, come spring i'm going to do that as i don't even like the shiny black trim... he told me they were doing it for about $200-300. :lemon:
Thanks all for your comments and feedback.
It does NOT like the elements.
Waxing alone won't help Nighthawk Black Pearl.
Bird droppings on most cars, you have 12-48 hours to get it off without ghosting or damage... not on the Acura Black.
You have seconds...minutes at most.
I clay my cars twice a year.
Once in the Spring and once in the Fall.
If I owned a Black TL, I'd clay every month.
At this point I've given up and just accepted the 10,000 buck hit I'm going to take when I get rid of the car. Estimate on a full body re-paint was over eight grand and it isn't worth it after already undergoing 3 warrantied transmission replacements. :sick: Guess a lot has changed at Acura since I last owned one.
For "paint protection" visit zainostore.com
'21 Dark Blue/Black Audi A7 PHEV (mine); '22 White/Beige BMW X3 (hers); '20 Estoril Blue/Oyster BMW M240xi 'Vert (Ours, read: hers in 'vert weather; mine during Nor'easters...)
Is the protection they put on your car worth $600?
Absolutely NOT!
And that's assuming they even put it on to begin with.
What may be worth the $600 is the warranty it comes with.
Some people claim that their package comes with a lifetime warranty on internal or external stains.
Check the fine print before shelling out your hard earned dough.
If the warranty stinks, as it did with my Acura dealership, then yeah... spend a percentage of that on good car care chemicals and do it yourself...it's not hard and doesn't take much time, unless your slightly obsessive like me or laurasdada up there. :P
I also like Zaino.
It works well and is very easy to work with, once you learn the steps.
If you want to learn more on dos and dont's, check out Autopia
'21 Dark Blue/Black Audi A7 PHEV (mine); '22 White/Beige BMW X3 (hers); '20 Estoril Blue/Oyster BMW M240xi 'Vert (Ours, read: hers in 'vert weather; mine during Nor'easters...)
Dawn
Clay
Wash
Dry
Z-5
Z-6
Z-2
Z-6
Z-2
Z-6
Z-2
Z-6
Z-2
Z-6
Wax
Wax
Wax
Obvisously, dress tires & wax wheels as well.
Haven't informed the wife yet. :sick:
Start early, sun is setting too early now!
'21 Dark Blue/Black Audi A7 PHEV (mine); '22 White/Beige BMW X3 (hers); '20 Estoril Blue/Oyster BMW M240xi 'Vert (Ours, read: hers in 'vert weather; mine during Nor'easters...)
A coat of Z-6 may hamper this filling/hiding affect.
Z-5 is the very first thing to touch my babies butt. :P
I will start early and tend to the crazy wife's chores between coats.
As for early sunset, that's what the garage is for!
'21 Dark Blue/Black Audi A7 PHEV (mine); '22 White/Beige BMW X3 (hers); '20 Estoril Blue/Oyster BMW M240xi 'Vert (Ours, read: hers in 'vert weather; mine during Nor'easters...)
I should consider that...
The problem would be explaining it to the crazy wife.
She hates when I wash my car, never mind when I offer to clean someone else's!
I read elsewhere that some polish might remove the paint marks. I guess I should try polish first and then rubbing compound.
Sonus has so many kinds of polish products and someone suggested using Zaino Z5. Any other ideas? What should I do?
Thanks,
Zaino won't work... it's called a polish, but it's really a non-abrasive polymer sealant.
Try good ole' Scratch-X.... that should get the job done.
Glad it's only the lower bumper... it won't be noticable to anyone but you once you get it cleaned up.
BTW, Scott what's the count down for your spring ritual? I think my wife would kill me if I spent 8 hours cleaning my car, even if hers was included. :P
The Spring ritual will take place in a few weeks.... just waiting for the warmer weather. I froze my butt off last weekend.
I can't wait.... the car needs it SO badly.
It's going to take some serious bribery this year.
The wife hates the amount of time I spend on the car and although she put up with it in the beginning, I think she thought this love affair would wear off.
It hasn't.
It'd be best to have a reputable body shop touch it up for you, but if you are dreading the cost, you could try to touch it up yourself, since it's a fairly small scratch.
Hit it with some touch-up paint and use This System when applying it.
It won't bee 100% perfect, but it'll protect it from getting any worse and you'll be the only person who knows the scratch was ever there
I parked underneath a tree yesterday for 3 hours yesterday and as I drove away, I noticed plenty of tree sap spots on my entire car. For fear of making it worse, I haven't tried to wash my car by hand because the sap was sticky and I didn't want to harm the paint.
What do I do? How should I remove this sap safely? I wanted to take my car into the detailers but I want to make sure they are careful with this sappy stuff. It looks like a risky job. Otherwise, I would prefer to take care of this myself. Help! Any ideas are appreciated.
I got a car a few months ago, and it had been on the lot for months, and that would explain a little of the swirl marks, but with my waxing and upkeep, they are basically gone. Took awhile though to get all the imperfections. Now, of course, now that I have bough it, I found 2 dents on the sides of the car, and this is an owner that does not even park remotely close to anyone that can even ding me, so they were there when I bought it, I just didn't notice it. They only thing I noticed were the scratches on the rear bumper, which keep coming back, but I think once, I come in for my first oil change soon, I will get my salesmen, and tell him that they didn't come out when I had them remove them, they are still there. The dents, they won't believe me now though. Oh well. they are so small, you can barely tell.
I have noticed, that keeping the front of the car, bumper and hood, mirrors waxed with extra layers of wax, you can keep the bugs from sticking to the car. It makes so much easier to come off when you use a manual wash bay.