Jngrbrdman
New member
This paint was absolutely destroyed. It is a '97 Altima and it had sat in the Phoenix sun for probably all ten years of its life. The paint was beyond restoration by any stretch of the imagination. The owner had taken it to a local detail shop and they apparently took a wool pad on a high speed polisher to the roof and really screwed it up. They told him that the paint was too far gone and there wasn't anything that could be done. I take that kind of language as a challenge, so I told him I'd take a look and see what I could do. 
Here are some nasty before pictures.
Damage on roof:
I really did try and do my best on this one. I brought the PC and the UDM with me as well as an assortment of pads and products. I hit it with the yellow Edge 2000 pad and XMT3 to start with. I figured with paint this bad I couldn't really do much to hurt it. It seemed to do a fair job at first. You can see the difference on the driver side in this shot:
Then I took a picture with the flash on to simulate sunlight since I didn't want to pull it out of the garage just yet. It didn't look so pretty.
That is why you can't always trust pictures. That is the exact same surface only one is with the flash. The clear is just lifting right off the paint and there isn't a whole lot you can do to correct it. I did make a difference in optical clarity though. These pictures show the hood reflecting the same object, but just on different halves of the paint.
It was pretty much just screwed up beyond all repair. Even with the UDM I couldn't make a difference. In fact, I tried the PC on one side of the roof and the UDM on the other side. I spent the same amount of time with the same product and the same pad. Both machines were kicked up to 6 and they really couldn't make much of a difference. In fact, the PC did a better job of clearing up the paint than the UDM did, but that could have just been a matter of lighter damage on that side or something. The PC was used on the driver side.
I did manage to clear up the headlights though. That was a good thing. I used the UDM and a Meguiar's red pad with XMT3 and a little Detailer's Pride glass restorer to give them a good shine. The driver side headlight was actually in worse condition, but I didn't get a good before shot on it. Anyway, it looks better.
Overall I think I made a positive difference to the car. The paint is still ruined, but it is at least somewhat respectable now. Here is a before and after on the clarity of the hood and then some more after shots. I used Danase Wet Glaze on the car as an LSP. I had wanted to use this new Diamondite wax that came with an Autogeek order, but that stuff was like concrete to buff off, so I switched to Wet Glaze.
hood before:
hood after:
car before:
car after:
Here are some nasty before pictures.
Damage on roof:
I really did try and do my best on this one. I brought the PC and the UDM with me as well as an assortment of pads and products. I hit it with the yellow Edge 2000 pad and XMT3 to start with. I figured with paint this bad I couldn't really do much to hurt it. It seemed to do a fair job at first. You can see the difference on the driver side in this shot:
Then I took a picture with the flash on to simulate sunlight since I didn't want to pull it out of the garage just yet. It didn't look so pretty.
That is why you can't always trust pictures. That is the exact same surface only one is with the flash. The clear is just lifting right off the paint and there isn't a whole lot you can do to correct it. I did make a difference in optical clarity though. These pictures show the hood reflecting the same object, but just on different halves of the paint.
It was pretty much just screwed up beyond all repair. Even with the UDM I couldn't make a difference. In fact, I tried the PC on one side of the roof and the UDM on the other side. I spent the same amount of time with the same product and the same pad. Both machines were kicked up to 6 and they really couldn't make much of a difference. In fact, the PC did a better job of clearing up the paint than the UDM did, but that could have just been a matter of lighter damage on that side or something. The PC was used on the driver side.
I did manage to clear up the headlights though.
That was a good thing. I used the UDM and a Meguiar's red pad with XMT3 and a little Detailer's Pride glass restorer to give them a good shine. The driver side headlight was actually in worse condition, but I didn't get a good before shot on it. Anyway, it looks better.
Overall I think I made a positive difference to the car. The paint is still ruined, but it is at least somewhat respectable now. Here is a before and after on the clarity of the hood and then some more after shots. I used Danase Wet Glaze on the car as an LSP. I had wanted to use this new Diamondite wax that came with an Autogeek order, but that stuff was like concrete to buff off, so I switched to Wet Glaze.
hood before:
hood after:
car before:
car after:
