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Car Paint care
Hi, I have a 1996 black buick lesabre and the paint on the trunk lid is terrible. The problem is that the paint can very easily be scratched, when compared to the paint on the rest of the car. The paint also appears to be somewhat faded. Does anyone have recommendations on how I should treat this problem? Someone advise me to repaint the whole car but the rest of the paint on the car is fine.
Thanks.
Thanks.
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Anyway, I believe that trunk lids and hoods are made of different metal, so the fact that the paint is fine on the other parts of the car is not suprising.
You may be able to eliminate the fading by having it buffed professionally, but if it is as delicate as you say, then it may only be a temporary fix. So if you have to, just get the trunk lid repainted. Color match should be ok, since it is black and that the car is not that old. The factory paint on the rest of the car will be much more durable than any repainting - unless you want to pay a fortune for a good repaint job.
If you are a long-time GM customer, you may be able to get them to pay for the trunk-lid buffing and/or repaint. As long as you don't mind complaining a bit.
Good luck. The Lesabre is a nice car.
This is not a permanent solution, but may help.
I've used Meguiar's with consistent results so this is my experience. Purchase the following: A random orbital buffer if you don't have one(Don't use a rotary buffer); Kitt's Haze remover; Meguiar's #7 showcar Glaze; (if none of these restore color Meguiar's #9 swirl remover and clear coat prep) Mother's or Meguiar's clay bar system with lubricant; Meguiar's Gold Class Liquid Wax, and Meguiar's Hard Yellow #26 Paste or Mother's Pure Carnauba Wax Paste. Blue Dawn.
Be ready for some paint to come off. But this will help in the future.
1. Wash the trunk with Blue Dawn to remove old wax and grease.
2. Use the haze remover with it's light abrasives to see if that restores the finish. Expect a fair amount of color to come off. At this point color, not shine is what you need. If it does not match the rest of the car, you have a tough choice. You can try a more agressive cleaner, Meguiar's #9 Swirl Remover, and Clear Coat Prep first, and if that doesn't work, possibly a Meguiar's chemical scrub. I had to use both on my heavily oxidized 1991 red Mazda. If you use these, do only a light quick machine application. Use the least agressive one to get the results you want.
3. Wash the trunk again with Blue Dawn.
4. When dry (make sure there are no fresh waterspots) use the clay bar and lubricant to clean off surface imperfections. Make sure the clay residue is completely removed and wash again with blue Dawn. The surface should feel as smooth as glass.
5. Machine apply the Showcar Glaze #7. This will add paint restoring oils. You should see some shine on the surface now, but you will probably still have some pigment in the applicator.
6. Apply a coat of the Liquid Gold Class by machine.
7. Top off with a coat or 2 of the Meguiar's Hard Yellow #26. Mother's Pure Carnauba is also good. The issue at this point is that you don't want to use any thing with abrasives.
The good news is that after this multi-step treatment maintenence is a lot easier. Every 3 months (depending on environmental conditions, and whether you have a garage) Use the Meguiar's Hard Yellow, or Mother's Carnauba. There should be no pigment when you wax with these products. Every 6 months I repeat steps 5, 6 and 7.
My car shines better than many new cars.
Umm.. I hate complaining to GM since it'll take a long time for them to take any action. Yes, the lesabre is a very nice famiy car (if not the best GM family sedan)
I'll try to follow your advice rayfbard but from where I live (Ont, Canada), it's so difficult to find a good hardware store. The closest one is called Canadian Tire and they have a very limited supply of car treatment products.
I might also look into re-painting the trunk lid because the other day I accidentally (!) backed up too far and the needles on the pine tree planted near the end of the parking space scratched the trunk!!!! There are now 5-6 vertical lines added to my collection of scratches on the trunk lid.(it looks like a bear tried to claw open the trunk.. LOL!)
www.mothers.com
Thanks for the response.
Should I be waxing this trim or is there something else I should be doing to protect it?