Got my PC from lowes for $69. Now what???

S

snapdemon

New member
To give a brief history:



I recently sold my 2003 20th Anniv. GTI garage queen due to the fact that with the birth of my son a year ago I was feeling guilty about having that amount of car sitting in the car and depriciating, so I sold it and with the money I got from that I put away 10g in a 529 college savings plan for him and bought myself a all original 49,000 mile VW Corrado.



The Corrado is near mint besides some door dings (quoted $200 to get them all removed at a paintless dent removal place), a rust bubble around the hatch window sill smaller than a dime, a few rock chips, and paint that has 16 years worth of swirls from non-Autopian washing and drying.



I picked up the PC from lowes for $69, and need to decide what pads and backing plates to get to remove the swirls and minor scratches.



I have searched the forums and read on this but... I read that VWs and Audis have hard paint, Is this for more recent VWs or will the 1990 dub have the same hard paint?



I see alternate suggestions for dark and light paint, is Tornado Red (same ferrari style of red seen on new Beetles, Golfs and Jettas) dark or light?? All of my previous cars have been black, white, or silver and the answer was obvious.



I am looking for an easy to use product and pads to take care of this car primarily and secondarily my wifes 2002 white Impala. Are the pads going to be able to be used on my wifes car after mine without leaving red or pink traces on her paint???



I dont mind applying waxes and removing them by hand so initially I am looking mainly to get the Corrados red paint to look better than new. Wax application and removal pad suggestions are welcome but do to my budget I may have to wait on those.



On the GTI I was using Klasse AIO, Poorboys EX, S100 wax and paint cleanser in various configurations and was very happy with it on the Black Pearl paint.



I havent owned a car except purchased new in the last 17 years and took care to never induce any swirls so I have never had to deal with any of this really. I would appreciate all input, suggestions and comments.



Thanks,



Snapdemon





Car I had to get rid of :cry: :cry:

1MPDF.jpg
 
I don't know if your Corrado's paint is as hard as the new beetle's that i regularly work on, but if it is, be prepared for an all out war against the clearcoat if your using a PC. It took three applications of Optimum compound on a 4" yellow pad @ speed 6 to remove improperly used rubbing compound swirls on one 2x2 area on the hood of the beetle. Then, it took an application on Optimum polish on a 4" white pad to remove the haze. Yes, the paint was pretty bad to begin with, but I wasn't expecting something like that. Your car's paint sounds like its in about the condition so be prepared for a LONG day (or two, maybe three).



The only red color that I've worked on was a friends srt-4. I used RMG/Natty's Blue. It came out dripping wet. I really liked how it looked.



Propel and Lake Country make good pads. Exceldetail is where you get the propels and alot of other vendors sell the LC pads. I'd suggest that you get your heavier cut pads in a 4" size. They make defect removing faster and easier than it is with a larger pad.



Sexy GTI ;)
 
I have a friend with one of those and the paint is very hard. Which is good, but make working on it with a PC very time consuming. I use my Hitatchi rotary with yellow Lc VC pads to make a dent in the scratches. For what it is worth AIO+ Souveran is amazing on that color.
 
4 inch pads, or the bigger? How aggresive of pads with which polishes?? SSR 2, 2.5, 3? Another brand??



Remember initial goal is to get the paint prepped, I can stand to hand apply aio, sealant, waxes, etc. Would the PC improve the effectiveness of waxes, sealants etc. or does it just quicken up the application and removal of them??
 
I think AIO/EX/S100 would look fantastic on that Corrado as well. It's a big plus because you already have all those products.



Get the Propel pad kit from http://www.exceldetail.com That looks like a really easy car to work on with the PC, as far as the flat panels and all. You still might want to pick up the 4" pad kit though. It makes defect removal easier with the PC.
 
I use Sonus Pads.. with my porter cable



Sonus Blue and Green for pre sealants, and light compounds,



Lake Country black pad for sealants only



Lake Country Orange pad for compound work



for doing compund work with my pc, i've had good luck with Poorboys SSR series
 
Snapdemon, I just want to commend you on doing that for your son. That's extremely thoughtful. My dad had gone through my college fund before I was two, so it's nice to see a father who's worrying about his son's future :) Good work!
 
I would bring it to someone who can do decent work with a rotary, and maintain it with a pc from there.
 
a.k.a. Patrick said:
Sort of looks like the Sciracco (SP)......
Click to expand...



The Corrado is pretty much the successor to the Scirocco.. Both are damn fine FWD coupes :D.



I am still looking for a Corrado VR6 that is in decent condition.
 
JBM said:
I would bring it to someone who can do decent work with a rotary, and maintain it with a pc from there.
Click to expand...

If I knew someone who I was confident in I would take it in to be polished. But the places I see recommended put out some scary stuff sometimes. The only places I have here in my moderate sized Iowa town are large chains that don't really seem to having anyone that seems as dedicated as a detailer who is running his own shop.



My wife works across the street from a city park and the morons painting the soccer goals didnt put up any tarps and between 50 and 100 cars in her lot had white industrial style white paint on them. The local "Waterpark Carwash" crack detailing team decided that they wanted to tear into these cars with a rotary for some ungodly amount of money at the cost of her employer or the city, whichever wa to pick up the tab.



I told her since our Impala is white and I knew that since I had the paint well protected I should be able to clay off the overspray and not risk some 16 year old part timer burning up the clear on the car. After telling her superiors she declined the rotary job and explaining why ( I am assuming other people did the same) They ended up having a team of 3 guys from Texas come up and do 3 or 4 cars a day with just a wash, wax and clay from what she described to me. These guys did a decent job and did a full walk around the car with her after they finished and pointed out any imperfections in the paint and a possible solution to the problems.



If a company as large as John Deere wasn't able to find anyone locally to take care of the cars in the employee cars in the same city as there world headquarters, I don't think I will have much better luck.



I would be willing to drive to Chicago for a nice full rotary job though if I had some good recomendations and proof of experience from someone on here if the price was decent. I still think from examples I have seen on here I may be able to get this stuff out with a PC. Nothing really deep just quite a few swirls that are mainly seen when in direct sunlight.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top