Advice for taking on a beater

H

Hakko

New member
My PC is coming soon, and I figured that rather than learn on my BMW, I'd check my technique on our '96 Subaru Legacy that we've kept on as a 3rd car. It's silver, and has been parked outside, under a tree for the last 7 years. My kids occasionally like to wash it with Dawn and sponges. They haven't felt like doing that for a while now, so needless to say, it's pretty filthy. It also has a few rust spots.



My plan is to wash it thoroughly with DG901 and my Gilmour, then clay, compound, polish, and seal. I'll be using the PC and Wolfgang Total Swirl Remover, Finishing Glaze, and Paint Sealant (2 oz samples of each; I also have plenty of the CG equivalent products). I have LC pads in 4" (Yellow and Orange) and 5.5" (Orange, White, Green, Blue).



  • Is there anything I need to be aware of taking a car this dirty and old?
  • Does the paint need different handling than newer paints?
  • Can the PC handle the rust spots, or should I just skip over them
  • Is a car this bad going to put a lot of extra wear on my pads?
  • Anything else I'm not thinking of?



I'm not trying to get this car to the concourse, i just want to figure out how to use my new toys w/o making the Subie worse than it is. :dance
 
I'm afraid I don't have answers to many of your questions but I can share some similar experience. This Saturday, just to be nice, I did a '91 montero that has never had a real detail. (Its care has been at the laser wash & before that a tunnel wash.)



Be prepared for the claying to take forever. I am chucking all the pieces I used because I could actually feel them basically fill with grit. It was unreal. (I'm new to detailing and have only worked on my new car. I couldn't believe how rough the surface was.) I used both grey and blue clay & lots of clay lube and MFs.



It took me so long to clay that I didn't have time (or energy) to do a full polish & wax. I decided instead to just do Klasse AIO, as I was more interested in cleaning and restoring the paint than getting rid of swirls. I used my PC and a white pad.



I too was worried about what would happen to the rust so I pretty much skipped over those spots. (I feared it would loosen more paint and didn't want to do that on someone else's car..)



I think that your pads will not have undue wear so long as you do a thorough claying, but in retrospect, I think I might have traded my time for a trashed pad. (that's probably not a good idea really. I just can't help thinking it.) My white pad cleaned up just fine when I was done.



Overall, I am very pleased by how rejuvenated the 91 Montero looks just after that bare bones intervention. (the car is that really nice green metallic.) I really enjoyed using the PC for the KAIO. I'm still a newbie and really felt at ease (apart from the rusty spots.) the owner was delighted.



Good luck to you.
 
claying it until the paint is like glass will save your pads. on a silver car that is in bad shape you may as well use a medium red clay bar, it will save you a lot of time.
 
As beachcities says, the clay step is important on a neglected finish. Meguiar's aggressive clay would probably save you some time.



You should either deal with the rust spots first, or avoid polishing them. You could lightly sand them and apply a rust converter, which turns the rust into an inert brown coating similar to primer. You didn't say how big the rust spots are, but you could repair them if they are small.
 
Joel_MD said:
As beachcities says, the clay step is important on a neglected finish. Meguiar's aggressive clay would probably save you some time.



You should either deal with the rust spots first, or avoid polishing them. You could lightly sand them and apply a rust converter, which turns the rust into an inert brown coating similar to primer. You didn't say how big the rust spots are, but you could repair them if they are small.
Click to expand...



There's an approximately 2" square patch on the driver's side front door and a couple of smaller ones in other places. There are also numerout chips down to primer or bare metal, which I will just avoid. I'm not going to do touch up painting.
 
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