imported_themightytimmah
New member
This was a detail for the mother of one of my other clients - she had a black 2003 Highlander with the worst set of RIDS that I've seen so far. It had scratches on one side from the that she presumably parks a little too close to (they've got some mean thorns, lol I ran into them while I was working) and all sorts of scars on the other side - paint transfer, door dings, marks from metal trash cans, what might be key marks, etc. Before she found me she was looking at a repaint - almost $4000.00 from the dealer. She was floored when I fixed it for less than 10% of that.
Before:
The worst of the marring was hidden by a thin coating of dirt:
After wash and clay, the true nature of the problem came out:
Trim was faded, dealer sticker was baked on, removed with Prepsol and a Plastic razor blade, but wet sanding was required to get the fading out.
Most of the car looked like this.
Sides were 1500 grit sanded, I informed her that this was a one-time shot and if the marring was induced again a repaint would be necessary :sadpace:
Compounded with HTEC/wool cut pad/1500rpm:
Followed with OP/orange/1500rpm, M80/white/PC 6, topped with CG 50:50
Taillights compounded and polished, trim got CG gel.
It's still not 100% marring free (sorry no sun pics), but all of the light swirls came out and only deep marring remained. The wells and tires got Black Magic foam after APC cleaning.
Before:
The worst of the marring was hidden by a thin coating of dirt:
After wash and clay, the true nature of the problem came out:
Trim was faded, dealer sticker was baked on, removed with Prepsol and a Plastic razor blade, but wet sanding was required to get the fading out.
Most of the car looked like this.
Sides were 1500 grit sanded, I informed her that this was a one-time shot and if the marring was induced again a repaint would be necessary :sadpace:
Compounded with HTEC/wool cut pad/1500rpm:
Followed with OP/orange/1500rpm, M80/white/PC 6, topped with CG 50:50
Taillights compounded and polished, trim got CG gel.
It's still not 100% marring free (sorry no sun pics), but all of the light swirls came out and only deep marring remained. The wells and tires got Black Magic foam after APC cleaning.
I think I did it in early April or so.