Paint and Body Maintenance & Repair

bretfraz

There are a few tricks you can try:

* Peanut oil. This really works. Peanut butter on trim is an old detailers trick. But if you want to skip the spread, use the oil.

* White eraser. Simply rub out the residue.

* All purpose cleaner, like Simple Green, and a small stiff brush.

* 3M Adhesive, Tar, and Wax Remover.

Any of these will take several applications and some patience on your part. I can't guarantee them but lots of people have used one or more to varying degrees of success.

redsox5

Will give them a try and let you know what works. Thanks.

FEHarper

I have always had a problem of hard water spots after washing my car at home, no matter how careful I am. I always wondered why no one had devised a hard water filter for garden hoses. Viola! I found a "Spot-Free" filter that connects to a garden hose for home use, about 300-$400. Wonder if this is worth the investment? Anyone have experience?

alternator

hard water calls for a softener, not a filter, IMO.

doe16

last year I got a dent on the hood and a small patch of paint came off a few months later. Being on the hood, it is not possible to use dent pulling to fix it.
My question is - if I go for a trade in when getting a new car, would it be better for me to fix this and trade it in or just let the dealer discount an amount for fixing it?
Its a 91 honda with 120,000 miles on it.
Or should I just patch up the paint?

swschrad

it ain't worth dealing with.

bigfur

go to a bone yard and take one off another honda...be lots cheaper.

fremsley1

Somehow, a ballpoint pen was left on my car's rear bumper and leaked a small amount of blue ink on the white pearl paint surface. I've tried tar and insect remover, rubbing alcohol, an emulsifying soap and finally peanut butter on the stain, but to no avail. Any suggestions?

swschrad

try hairspray.

microrepair

Has anyone tried the Autosharp Pens by Autovisual?
They are a felt tipped pen filled with a polymer paint and available in nearly all colors for most cars. Read about them at:

http://www.autovisuals.com/

I've got numerous stone chips and a couple of big scratches I'd like to make go away and their pen looks easy to use.. Any experience with it?

justin

My car was re-painted a few months back, and the body shop has since gone out of business. an appraiser recently looked at my car and pointed out the "overspray" - how can I remove that? My car is a 2002 Cabrio, and the paint was done on the bottom of the INSIDE of the passenger door, where a bolt rusted. Some paint got on the bottom of the outside of the car, behind the front passenger fender. The bottom of my car is painted black from the factory, but the body is silver. You can see some silver paint on the black part. Any way to wipe or clean off the silver paint from the black part?

Trying to sell the car, and two places have told me that the sloppy paint work makes the car look suspicious, when if the work was done right (so minor), it would never be noticed.

THANKS!

altimavr

I recently purchased a 2003 Honda Accord (silver) that was prepped by the dealer. When washing my car recently I noticed dirt or tar residue appearing in long straight lines right where the protective plastic sheets used on shipment used to be.
Does anyone have suggestions as to how to remove the tar and adhesive line that is attracting dirt from the paint without doing too much damage to the finish? Before you say Bug & Tar Remover, isn't that stuff really harsh on the paint finish.

Thanks,

jwilson1

Bug & Tar remover is fine, especially if you wash the car to remove it afterward.

But no way I'd do the job myself. That is sloppy prep work, imo, and you should return it to them with the evidence still visible, don't take "normal" for an answer, and have them make a record of t his in the file so if they cause damage later on you will have some recourse.

But then I'm one of those people who expect dealers to earn their money. JW

kkollwitz

Experiment on the least obvious place on the affected area.....
First I'd try to get it off with clay. Then I'd try swirl & scratch remover. Then I'd try mineral spirits. Then lacquer thinner. Then polishing compound.
Last resort: rubbing compound applied very gingerly, followed by polishing compound & swirl remover to restore a smooth finish, then wax.

jatdee

I recently in a parking garage stove in the left rear corner of the bumper cover on my leased Lexus IS300. At the body shop one of their techs popped it out with a pry bar. It came out pretty well - I was amazed that the paint was fine, except for the two scratches I put in at the same time as the dent. However, there are still two dimples in the bumper cover. They are not more than an eighth inch at most at the center (probably more like a sixteenth) but they are definitely visible, probably more so because of the dark gray metallic paint. I can push them out from the back by hand to the point they disappear completely, but they come back as soon as I release the pressure. Does anyone know of anyway to get them to stay out? The body shop wants over $500 to repair, including repainting, and $675 if they replace the bumper cover. It seems like there oughta be a way. . . . If anyone has any tips or ideas to explore I would be most grateful.

alternator

if the bumper dents can be pushed out from the backside, why not use a plastic-compatible epoxy to cement small (1" diameter say), fairly heavy SS sheet metal pieces over the dents from the rear (clamp in place, using care not to produce more dents or scratches!).

jatdee

Alternator, sounds like it might work on at least one of the dimples, the other is on a curved part of the bumper and might be more difficult. BTW, as is probably obvious, when I said a sixteenth to an eighth of an inch, I meant depth at the center. Thanks for the response - anybody else?

peppe1

My gold 300M had the same problem for about a year, every time I washed it it didn't seem to get the streaks out until I used Mother's Clay Bar now it is as clean as a whistle

jwilson1

Lots of people don't believe how good a clay bar treatment is. Probably because it's so "low tech." JW

hammen2

I work next to a place that manufactures and paints snowplow blades. This happened once before, and it happened again, where paint overspray got all over vehicles parked adjacent to their building.

I noticed the (red, orange, and yellow) overspray when claying my car before getting it professionally buffed out (to remove some scratches as well as some courtesy swirl marks put in the car when my dealer washed it).

However, after detailing the car last night, I still notice paint on the glass surfaces (primarily windshield and sunroof). I'm going to try claying tonight, but, if that doesn't remove it, what's my next step? I've already had my HR manager call the company, and they swear up-and-down that their new $300k paint booth won't allow this to happen (yet they frequently leave the large overhead doors open when they are painting. And gee, isn't it ironic that the paint colors on my car are the EXACT SAME colors they are painting the snowplows? Maybe the EPA'd love to hear about this problem... *sigh*)

--Robert

sddlw

Should be pretty easy compared to overspray on paint.

You can use a razor blade. Just spray the glass with a soapy water solution where you are working to keep it lubricated. You could also polish it off using a glass polish. Zaino makes a really nice glass polish (ww.zainobros.com) In place of glass polish you could use the same polish you can use to remove paint swirls. The really fine polishes are called glazes. 3M and Mequiars make a variety of paint polishing and glazing compounds that are sold in auto part stores. Or you can use toothpaste in place of polish. The whitening kind is more abrasive than the non-whitening kind, so I'd try the non-whitening kind first. I've used toothpaste for paont touch up too when I did not have any glazing or polishing coumpounds handy.

bigfur

ive worked in we used water and a VERY fine steel wool...takes it off in no time flat, just be careful of the paint.
Tom

cav5

You see it everywhere! No one seems to use caution when cleaning their interior wood trim. I picked up a otherwise beautiful used car and the wood is marginally scratched. Does anyone have a trick to take out the small scratches on the enamel coating that protects the wood underneath? Wax/buffing compound? Superfine steel wool? Any shops specialize in this sort of thing? Thanks.

lanzz

Hey all - my 2003 Infiniti M45 got hit recently, and I am looking for a good body shop in the New York City metro area.

The car is only four months old, and I really want to forget the whole thing happened, so a repair shop that can make it disappear is key...

Recommendations??

Thanks in advance - Ed

sddlw

I buy a plastic polish from Zaino that seems to work pretty well. It has a very, very fine abrasive in it. It seems to work well in the wood trim, with polyurethane coatings, in my 2 cars.

I like Bigfur's idea of fine steel wool for glass, but I think it would not work well on a polyurethane finish unless you were getting ready to put another layer of polyurethane down. I think even 0000 steel wool would dull the finish.

bigfur

use ONLY ONLY ONLY!!! on the glass. (seriously, only the glass)

cheapman1

I was responsible for accidentally placing a large (4" or so) scratch on a relative's brand new 2003 GMC Yukon with a garage door. It was bad enough that it took some of the paint right off-- you can see the white underneath.

I feel really bad about this, and I'd like to do whatever I can to repair it. What's the best way to accomplish this?

Are there services that will repair the scratch? If so, about how much could I expect that to cost?

I know there are touch-up paints, kits, and 'systems.' Are these adequate? Which "system" is the best?

How would a do-it-yourself kit compare with any service that might be available? Would either or both get it back to looking new?

Thanks a lot.

swschrad

you want "well, it's full of paint and the colors match," get a touch-up bottle from the dealer.

you want "eek!" make this your opportunity to learn how to do the above, then level it off with a buffer wheel and rubbing compound. the experience to make THAT work is why the body shop gets its money.

cheapman1

Any idea about how much a body shop should charge for this service?

swschrad

I may be high, depends on the type of paint, depth, etc. and so on.

bigfur

scratch? thats the main question. Example that a fender will be cheaper to repaint than the quater panel. Also if its on a door, expect to be charged to tear the door down to take the door handle off, plus pay to remove and reinstall all the moldings. A few hundred bucks sounds bout right. The depth of the scratch dosent matter, all the will do is buzz it down and prime and paint it. id say youll be looking at ATLEAST $300 or so unless you know a someone in the business. That was about what it was when i was doing it a few years ago.

sddlw

Is your intent to bring things back to "new" or to just try and hide the scratch as much as possible without spending a lot of money? No matter how well anyone fills and buffs the scratch, there will be telltail signs of this. But if you get a good paint match and someone who takes their time filling it might not be too bad. Metallic paints are near impossible to match exactly though and are likely to show to a greater degree than non-metalic paints.

But if you want the Yukon to look like new, you will end up having a body shop sand and paint the entire panel. They would normally blend over to any adjacent panels as well. I would be very wary of any shop that would do that for $300. Depending on where the scratch is and how much prep work, I'd guess $500-$1000. IMHO, I would shop for this work by reputation, not price. If you spend $500 and the panels don't match perfectly, why did you bother?

cheapman1

...right below the handle that opens the hatch, not to far above the bumper.

Obviously, I'd prefer to have it look like new, however if that's going to cost $500 I just don't think it's feasible (or worth it, as it's not like it's a 'tricked out' collector's car). I guess I was hoping for something more in the $50-$100 range, maybe a step up from the kits.

But if no such range/option exists, then maybe I'll just try to find the best kit. Any reccomendations?

bigfur

to an extent, which is why good painters will blend the paint with in the panel so its not very obvious. as far as "panel painters", usually the biggest hacks in the auto industy, care more about the money than doing a good job.

jwilson1

I've seen airbrushing used to good effect on stone chips. But I don't know a thing about it other than it turned out pretty good for the guy who had it done, about $40 and then he put a bra over it. Perhaps some of the experts here would know if this is feasible on the rear hatch. JW

alternator

without a dent in the underlying metal, most dealers have an air brush man who comes around maybe once a week and would charge perhaps about $50. Detectable on very close examination, but usually a practical solution.

sddlw

I've not seen this, but I have heard of it. Some of the "Dent-Pro" and such guys offer this in addition to removal of door dings and minor dents. A lot of these guts are independent franchises and contract with the local dealers to freshen up the used cars they take in trade. I would think that they could do a much nicer job of filling and blending with an airbrush than one could do with the normal touch-up brush or toothpick, and if they do it everyday, they should get pretty good at it. cheapman1, if you go this route, let us know how it turns out.

cheapman1

I'm going to call around and see what I can find out about an airbrush man.

Thanks, I'll let you know if it works (or doesn't work!).

marylizus

I'm trying to repair a small area of chipped paint(probably from a stone in the road) on the hood of my van. Any advice on using touch up paint? How do you smooth out the paint once you're finished?

One thing I read mentioned using a "polishing compound" to smooth out the paint. Can you buy that at an auto parts store??

Thanks!!

crashtestdingo

Concrete has been splashed on the front of our car (don't ask) and I'm wondering if anyone can add anything new or different to what was recommended when this question was asked almost three years ago (tjhsmith "Paint and Body Care" Nov 14, 2000 8:31pm). The car in question is 13-14 years old, and there's concrete on the plastic "chin spoiler," too. Thanks in advance.

kkollwitz

You can buy a bottle of touchup paint at a dealership that sells your model car. They're like fingernail polish with a brush in the cap.To fix your chip, carefully dab paint straight down into the chip using just the paint on the tip of the brush. Try to get the new paint to just touch the sides of the chip, to engage the edges of the existing paint without getting on top of it. The new wet paint should dome up a little bit above the surrounding paint. It will flatten as it dries.Each dab will only cover 1/8" or so of the length of the chip, so you may need to dab a few times. Avoid brushing. The brush itself shouldn't touch anything. It just holds the wet paint so you can touch the paint to the chip.

After it's dry you can re-dab as needed until you fill the chip flush with the adjacent paint. Later (e.g., two days)if you want to you can buff the affected area a bit with "scratch remover" or "swirl remover," (on a soft fleecy cotton or microfiber cloth) which are mild polishes. I would not use polishing compound which is a bit coarser....it might add more scratches than it takes away.

spyderturbo

I recently had my entire car repainted (due to an inferior paint application by the factor). I have always been told not to wax a newly painted car for at least 90 days, in order to allow the paint to fully cure. I've been told that waxing before then will seal the surface and not allow for proper curing. Following that train of thought, I was very surprised when the painter told me I could wax my car now (only a week after he painted it) rather than wait. He has been painting vehicles for the past 16 years (and he did one heck of a great job on my car) and he told me that today's paint technology is much more advanced, thus the lack of a need to wait so long for the paint to fully cure.

Does anyone have experience with "today's paints" and can confirm that what the painter has told me is accurate? I believe he used an acrylic paint on my car and he explained that today's acrylic paints set up very, very quickly and the drying time is accelerated because of this.

Does this sound right?

jwilson1

spiderturbo, sorry I can't answer your question, but I am looking for someone who can to a "great job" and would appreciate enough info so I can contact your painter. Thankx, JW

spyderturbo

Joe,

The painter lives in Caldwell, TX. If you would like additional contact info., please let me know.

jwilson1

but I still may ask for help if nothing comes up locally. Thanks, JW

jakethesnake1

I had bought a brand new 2003 KIA spectra a couple of months ago. Last week, while driving through a terrible storm, something "hit" the side of my har and left a 2 inch "pock" mark in the middle of the passenger's side front door. I has angry. I didnt't know what to do, but remembered seeing an infomerical about the ding king dent remover. Thinking It wouldn't work, I drove to the nearest auto supply store and bought a Ding King dent remover kit, knowing the store had a return policy if I was not pleased with the product. I brought it home, read the easy to use instructions, and had everything set up in roughly 10 minutes. When I actually used the pulling mechanism on the dent, I could hear a very loud pop, like a distant gun fire. I looked at where the dent had been, and to my pleasure, It was around 80% gone. You could barely make out were it used to be if you "studied" the car under a strong light. Just a small "wrinkle" was left were a big pock mark was before. Over all, I would say I was very pleased with this $19.99 dollar investment, and would recommend it to anyone with similar dents in their cars.

swschrad

if you were going to putty in the defect, at this point, you might have to bump it back in again to get enough surface for body putty to adhere to

do hope you have checked with a magnifier for paint cracks which may still have occurred from either the injury or the dent popping. if they aren't repaired (if you get there early enough, maybe just some clearcoat and polishing compound could do it) you can still get rust and have the whole section of paint come off to show a big rust circle in a year or two. that is depending on how nasty your local weather is and whether they salt the roads.

brozhnik

I just bought my first new car, a Passat. The dealer offered a "chemical protection package" at purchase for $850, which I turned down. It included (1) an interior component (basically scotchgard and armorall, i think), which eventually they threw in free. (2) rubberized undercoating, which seems unnecessary on a new Passat; (3) Paint sealant, which I've learned is teflon-reinforced wax.
I'm now wondering about that last one, the "paint sealant." The car looks great, and I'd like to keep it that way, and while I've waxed my previous cars (all junkers) they never looked that great. So... I'd like to inaugurate the car by hiring a detailer for $50-80 to do this.
Now to my question. One local detailer says he'd use cleaner wax, followed by butter wax. The other says, no, it needs carnauba-based wax.
Which one is right? This is all way over my head, as you can guess.
Thanks for any insight you can offer.

jwilson1

Very smart of you, brozhnik, to turn down the dealer's kind 'offer.'

The undercoating, btw, has been attacked by many folk I respect as actually sealing in moisture and leading to corrosion and rust problems ... don't know but it surely is unnecessary.

The wax deal is entirely different. The answer depends on you and what you want to achieve and what kind of a guy you are for maintenance. Do you have a garage?

First, no reason you can't do your own wax. It has to be done relatively frequently and can get expensive to have it done more than once in a great while by a detailer.

Second, if you're really 'anal' about your car ... or plan to be for this, your first new car, then you should research (here at Edmund's is fine) two or three brands: Carnauba based -- Zymol, Meguier's; polymer based -- Zaino. Be careful of the Zaino guys; lots of them have taken car maintenance to the level of a religion and have gone a bit whacko with it. But the stuff is good. Both have their adherents and each is good. Both require regular upkeep and maintenance (no matter what they say) to remain in topnotch shape. You'll want to be putting on a new coat (depending on your climate) at least once every 2-3 months and stripping the whole car to start over at least once a year. With all this work, you should handwash rather than use a carwash, but you'll find that out as you read.

3) If you just want to protect the finish and keep it looking okay, any wax is okay really. Some last longer (paste wax for example) than others .... and if it's a wax that doesn't last very long (like a liquid wax, which is what many detailers use), I'd hate to pay a detailer every ten weeks or so .... or every time the water beads flatten out and the car needs a new treatment.

I have a reaction to the first detailer who wants to begin with a cleaner wax -- I don't care for that idea on a new car. A cleaner wax actually has a fine abrasive in it; the idea is to remove the pollutants and oxidation and stuff that builds up on the surface. But it also takes a tiny bit of the clear coat with it -- So on a new car I see no reason you need a cleaner.

So of the two choices you gave me, I'd go with the carnauba treatment. If you're using a detailer to save time, why not search around for a highline guy who will be willing (for extra $$$) to do a thorough job with paste wax which will last a bit longer -- of course you have to figure out if it will be worth the extra money.

Sorry if this is more info than you wanted! JW

brozhnik

Thanks, JW-- just what I needed to hear. Appreciate the detail!

One piece of info that may change recommendation?-- the car was sitting on the dealer's lot for six months. Not being driven, but being sunned on, polluted on, and rained on. Would that mean the paint is not really new, and that it should be waxed differently? If so, what would you recommend?

Thanks!
Broz