My '98 Subaru Legacy

Speedwagon · Oct 12, 2012

I've pretty much settled on the fact that the car really needs a new paint job. I've owned this car since 2003, when it had 98k miles. It now has 218k miles, but it isn't going away anytime soon. When the wheels fall off, I'll get some used parts and put them back on.

But that in mind, I figure it's a great time to learn techniques on a paint job that has seen better days, and can't really be brought back to like new condition.

I attempted to clay the hood today. Didn't have much luck. Don't know if I did something wrong, but it wasn't pulling off the crap that's on there. And there's a lot of it. Maybe I need a chemical way to remove this stuff? Not entirely sure what it is, but it seems to accumulate while the car sits, and it sits outside all the time. Doesn't get driven much, since I take my bicycle around town most of the time now.

Any suggestions on how to proceed on any of the following is greatly welcome. Again, I figure the end result is a new paint job to keep the car going strong. But in the meantime, it's learning time!

Rock chips:

Headlight bezel needs paint, as well as the peeling clearcoat from the bumper:

Seems like a good place to start practicing my touchup skills(2 and 3 are from a sideswipe while my car was parked on the street):

This is well, my own dumb fault from several years ago:

I have some rust to deal with:

Sunroof visor has worn away some paint:

And the fantastic Subaru factory paint:

I think someone/something hit me here, but I don't actually know how it got there:

And this is what I was trying to clay off today, without any success:

So I'm open to any comments on any of this. Specifically why my claying wasn't working would be an awesome start.

I should add, the car has essentially no wax on it anymore. I let it all slide when my right front fender was peeling pretty badly (car was in an accident before I got it, and someone did crap work). I replaced that with a used OEM fender, same color, from the junkyard. So now that that is fixed, I want to get back at it with repairing what I can, and practicing on the car.

ihaveacamaro · Oct 12, 2012

You said your claying didn't work, but what exactly did not work? Clay isn't a one stop fix all, it is designed to remove embedded contaminants on the paint.

If you are claying correctly, you should feel the paint go from gritty to smooth. Of course, on your car where there are dips (because paint or clear is not there), you will still feel the ridge of where paint is to where paint is not even after claying.

So when you clay, can you feel it go from almost gritty to smooth?

Also, what clay lubricant are you using? I don't think you mentioned, and I'm not sure what you know, so I will point out that you can't just use clay and water. You need to have a specific clay lube.

Hope this help

Speedwagon · Oct 12, 2012

I used soapy water(car soap), because I couldn't find my quick detail stuff. When I was pulling the clay across, after several pulls, the large chunks of crap didn't seem to be getting removed at all. In fact, the large chunks of crap were grabbing some of the clay and turning yellow (my clay is yellow).

ihaveacamaro · Oct 13, 2012

Interesting. Couple things of note that I would like to bring up:

1) Soapy water can be used as clay lube, although I would never recommend it. If possible, use an actual clay lube or quick detailer.

2) Seems like this "crap" is bonded pretty well to your paint.

3) Do you know what grade your clay is? If your clay is not working, you may need a more aggressive clay, however note that a more aggressive clay equals more paint marring. Considering the shape of your paint right now, though, I don't think it should be an issue.

4) I would recommend you try a strong all purpose cleaner. I know that all are not paint safe, however one that I do know is paint safe is Optimum Power Clean. This should be able to help release the bonded piece from your paint. It might have to be used before and in conjuction with your clay. Note that an all purpose cleaner is NOT a clay lube however.

After all of this, if you still have problems, then there may be a solution, but it wouldn't be safe at all... The above are much safer for your car's paint.

Speedwagon · Oct 13, 2012

I have Griots Garage clay.

And I don't know what this stuff is, but yes, it seems to be bonded to my car fairly well. It's all over the car, not just the hood. Though as I think about it, it might only be on the horizontal surfaces.

ihaveacamaro · Oct 13, 2012

Doesn't matter who's clay you have. All clay is manufactured by clay magic (?) clay eraser (maybe?). Either way one company has the patent on clay and makes all the clay for every company in the US. So manufacturer doesn't matter. What matters is the grade of the clay. You may have a fine or ultra fine grade clay. You may need a medium or even higher grade clay.

Accumulator · Oct 13, 2012

Speedwagon- Welcome to Autopia!

The rust spots look a bit serious, and IMO you oughta just have those areas professionally refinished. If that's just not in the cards, there are some...uhm..."moderately decent"

DIY approaches (too involved to discuss here/now).

The Griot's yellow clay is rather mild, and not aggressive enough for a really heavy-duty decontamination like your situation. BUT...more aggressive clays that might do better will also leave a lot more marring, so there's a trade-off.

I'd start with a thorough decontaminations using AutoInt/ValuGard's "ABC" system (link: http://www.autoint.com ). See what that does.

Then you'll need to polish the vehicle using first an aggressive pad/product combo and then a milder one. For this you'll need an electric polisher. And that's a *whole* 'nother, big long topic!

Hope my response doesn't sound like a blow-off, but your query is a little like ..."I have a plot of land, and I want to build a house with a swimming pool.. how should I do it?". It's not like you can't do it, and we can help, but it's a lot to process all at once.

Speedwagon · Oct 14, 2012

I understand. I know I put a lot in that post. I went on the presumption that people might take little pieces of it, and respond with their area of expertise. I know not everyone knows everything about, well, everything (despite what we all want to believe in ourselves

).

I'll look into what you suggested though, thanks.

edit: So I was sitting here, pondering the decontamination of the paint. I got to thinking about what I have sitting around my apartment that might be of use. I have automotive formula Goo Gone, Kirkland signature eco-friendly citrus based degreaser/cleaner, IPA, and acetone. After trying them all on a small area, the only thing that worked was the acetone. I can hardly knock this crap off with my fingernail. The acetone took it right off, no problem.

Any harmful effects of using the acetone to clean my paint? It already has no wax, which is probably why everything is so incredibly stuck to it.

edit again: Looks like I answered my own question, by searching for acetone on the forums. Mineral spirits seems to be preferred over acetone as being paint safe.

Speedwagon · Oct 19, 2012

Back at it again. These little turds are hard as nails! Mineral spirits doesn't want to remove it. IPA seems to with rather vigorous rubbing. Acetone took them right off. If I break one off with my nail (not easy to do), it has a yellow tint inside. I don't want to damage my paint anymore, but acetone seems like the only viable way right now, with as many of these things that are all over my car. Thoughts?

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

Speedwagon · Oct 20, 2012

Got the exterior done today. I ended up removing the sap(I'm fairly certain) with acetone, as nothing else seemed to work all that well. I did manage to miss a few spots though. Once that was done, I use Griot's speed shine to wipe down everything, then clayed the whole car. Decided on which of the products I wanted to use after that:

Klasse AIO + sealant glaze

Meguiar's 7 glaze

Meguiar's gold class wax

Meguiar's NXT tech wax

Ended up using the #7 and Gold class. Still a lot of paint correction needed. Mostly, I wanted to see what this combo could NOT do. I definitely need a more aggressive compound next time around. Now that's it all cleaned up, the swirls marks are evident all over, as well as a lot of scratches and rock chips.

Finished up by hitting the plastic with Meguiar's natural shine protectant, and cleaned all the windows last.

Pre decontamination of the sap: