noob question

D

djlunchbox

New member
sooooo... i have yet to get a camera for some pics of my truck. i stare at this thing and it bugs me. i will do my best to give a rough idea of the crap shape it's in.
this is a 1989 chevy truck , maroon/dark red metalic paint. appears to be original. pain t was maintained as good as a work truck would have been. prolly washed every now and then. not too much rust other then the usual cab corners and spots on the rockers. there are dents, scrapes, all the usual stuff you'd find. i know it's not worth it to try and get a nice "glass like" shine on it, but the paint is dull and i'd like to see if i can shine it up for sh!ts and giggles. the best way to describe the look is dulled clearcoat with some tree sap spots that can;t be repaired.
if you had to get a heavily oxidized truck as clear as possibile, had access to a nice rotary buffer,( but very limited experience) and no idea where to start as far as how aggressive i need to get, what would you reccomend? ( and no, paying someone else to do it is not an option, lmao) please remember, this is a dumpy old work truck , that i just want to bring back a nice shine to and make it a 50 footer :D
this is not a project i want to spend too much on, the truck is not worth it. my main goal is to "uncloud" that clearcoat so it will reflect much better.
i don;t have to use that rotary, and i am not going to buy a PC yet. i'll put it on the xmas list from the gf :)
 
My first guess would be that if it's cloudy, there's a good chance it's not clearcoated or that the clearcoat has deteriorated and peeled/flaked off showing the base coat underneath. If it's the former, you're in good shape, as single stage paint can be brought back to life with some attention. If it's the latter, you won't be able to do much good.

If it were me, I'd try a chemical polish to begin with. Something like Meg's ColorX or Poorboy's Pro Polish or something along those lines would be a good place to start as far as polishes go.
 
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Take some polish of any kind and rub an area and see if the towel comes back the color of the car....that would tell us if its clear coated or single stage...if its the later of the two there would be a different approach....
 
Send me a PM I am sometimes in the Manchester area for work...I can swing by and take a look at it and give some recomendations.
 
sweet advice guys :D well, i've been spot testing the truck with everything i've had on hand. it is clearcoated, but i think it can be brought back to a 7-8 out of a 10 as far as clears go. i can tell it's cleared because i can see where something (tree sap?) ate through a few spots on the hood, right to the base. (again, this is no beauty of a truck, i just want her as clean as possibile. i'm tired of driving all my vehicles with flat paint, lol(( show truck is in sealer)) :D) i also have used polishes, glazes that i had on hand from my last rotary disaster, clay, and even (eeek) some turtle wax rubbing compound on one of my many door scratches as a test. no color was on the rag when done, just a little browner (i'm guessing cause of the dirt i scrubbed off.
the compound by hand didn't even get it to where i think it can be. maybe i'm just expecting more, but from what i've seen here and my other various hunting around on you tube and the net, i think it can be shinier if i use some sort of buffer. i wish i had a damn camera .
 
oh, lol jared, what i mean about a 50 footer is that it will look good at 50 feet, but when you get close it will still look like a turd:D
 
djlunchbox said:
oh, lol jared, what i mean about a 50 footer is that it will look good at 50 feet, but when you get close it will still look like a turd:D
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Haha, I see. I get it now, and it's very funny. Gotta get my mind off the Becker CPA review course.... I've seen way too much of Peter Olinto, Rick Duffy, and Tim Gearty these past few months.
 
holland_patrick said:
Dj do you work week day???? I'm more then will to habe you come down or me come up and we can work on it...
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i work wedensday through saturday, 830am to 7pm as a broadband tech for cox communications :D patrick, you should be familiar with our services i assume.
the truck was supposed to be registered yesterday, but dmv jerked me around, so it will be sitting in manchester for at least another few days till i can get back to the dmv on tuesday.

i just want to point out again that this vehicle is nothing like the pics you all post up. it's pretty trashed at the moment :) i need to pull off alot of the things that came with it such as running boards, ladder rack, etc. i'd hate for you guys to take a trip down, and think " oh damn, that thing sucks, why does he want to even bother" lol. i think it'd be a good learning experience for me, and i'd like to have a mildly clean vehicle for a change :bigups
 
I'm sure it's not as bad as you make it out... Yep I use cox.. can you get me a deal???


I'm free tuesday if you want to spot on by after your done with the old DMV
 
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