help me buy some product, forgive noobness

[mikeswickednick]

hey guys im new to the forum and basically new to detailing, im looking for some good products for tiwn mr2s, one color is SMG (steel mist grey) its a very light color, while the other is AMP(aqua marine pearl) witch is a very dark, changin color. Both colors have clear coats.



here are the pictures, ill start off with the SMG







there it is from the front, i love the color of this car and i would really like it to come alive again. the hood is probably the worst part of this car, heavy swirling and some moderate oxidation.







you can see the ox there.



the onther problem area is the engine lid, there is some heavy ox there also, heres a pic









so what would u guys suggest for this car? i need everything but a clay bar. wash polish and wax

[mikeswickednick]

now heres the other car. The SMG up top is a turbo while this is my NA daily driver. i picked this car up for about 400 dollars, and has been worth every penny!



but the paint has some problems. while the stock color is gorgous when its cleaned correctly right now its in some shabby shape.



heres the overall car.







now the problems... here u can see where the bumper is almost a differnt color than the rest of the car.







there are some scratches all over the car, mosly on the hood. it looks like a cat used it as a scratching post :hairpull







the bumper and side were recently hit by an elderly couple who didnt realize that there car moves if its in drive and they are not touching the gas pedal. they wedged up against me and rubbed off a good amount of paint.









and there is a big ox spot on the wing.





and finally the trim peices are dulling very bad.

[mikeswickednick]

now heres them both together!





the green one is NA, silver is turbo. and dont worry im putting some rims on both in the next month













now what products would u recomend for both, they have some of the same problems but the colors are so extreamly different. so what do u guys think!





thanks so much!



-Mike

[buellwinkle]

Start off with a good wash using any name brand car wash soap. Then get a clay kit, the Meg`s is cheap, $10 and clay the car using lots and lots of detailing spray the kit comes with, dripping wet. Then go to the nearest auto paint supply store (find in yellow pages) and get some polish, either Meg`s #83 DACP or 3M FP II (both are very common) and a 6" polish and a 6" finish pad and backing plate for a PC buffer. Go to Lowes and get the Porter Cable 7336 or 7224 (same) and learn how to buff using advice/videos on this forum, pretty easy, hard to mess up unless you drop the buffer on the hood. When the car is absolutely at it`s shiniest, apply some high quality wax to protect it, I like Meg`s NXT because it`s easy to apply, dries clear and has a nice slick finish but there are lots of brands to choose all have some pluses some minuses. Use the finish pad to apply the wax, remove with MF towels (Costco, 20 for $9).

[mikeswickednick]

bump, anyone else? i really dont feel like i should be machine polishing

[Setec Astronomy]

Well, you`ve got some pretty nasty swirls, water spots, paint transfer, and oxidation on the flexible plastic/urethane parts. Machine polishing with a Porter Cable (PC) dual-action orbital buffer is safe, and probably will be what you need to improve your finish. As I said all of your defects look as if they could be pretty serious, don`t expect that even with a PC you will be able to correct all of that swirling, water spotting, etc. And be careful on the plastic/urethane parts, they are frequently painted with a different paint for flexibilty or because they can`t be baked to as high a temperature as the metal parts. Either due to that, or the differing thermal conductivity of plastic vs. metal (gets hotter in the sun), the paint on these parts tends to degrade faster than the rest of the car (hence the "almost different color" you are seeing), and you may not be able to get them back to matching the rest of the paint.



Browse around here and soak up some more info, there is tons here.