Starting from scratch with a problem car... advice needed!

T

TristanCSI

New member
I have just purchased a 94 Civic LX, and I'm looking forward to taking care of it... however, I have some special problem areas that I don't know how to deal with.



1- Primer. The car has a large patch of bondo and primer onthe rear bumper/trunk lid, and it's going to be several months until I can paint it. I have no idea if I should wax over this, or what.



2- Hard water spots. The car was a daily driver for a guy that really didn't care, so it has about a year of sprinkler system hard water spots built up on the sides. Beyond fine steel wool (which terrifies me) the only thing I can think of is a diluted CLR type mix.



Any help is greatly appreciated.



Please note- I don't have a garage, nor a PC, so I'm on elbow grease and what cleaning products I can pick up at Kragen/Pep Boys/Wal Mart etc.



Thanks again!!
 
Clay, clay,clay.

CLR is a good paint stripper, so if you go that route, you may wnat to budget for some paint. :) Just clay it first and see where you end up.
 
I don't know what I'd do about the bare primer... I'd be tempted to leave it alone and just sand and reprimer it when the time comes, but that's just my guess.



There is more than one way to deal with water spots depending on if they're water spot mineral deposits, or water spot etching damage. If it's the former, another technique is to use vinegar on them. If it's the latter (and I have a feeling that it is seeing how the car was neglected) then you'll have to polish them out with something abrasive of appropriate strength. Run some searches on water spots to read up on this. Good luck.
 
Thanks for the input all... this morning, by way of testing, I tried some white vinegar on one of the rear view mirrors. It seemed to clear some of the water spots, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to go with a more aggressive treatment. The paint I'm not so worried about, but does anyone have ideas for what to do with etched glass, short of getting new glass?
 
Try some glass polish and elbow grease. Hard work, but that might do the trick depending on how bad it is.
 
TristanCSI- I *STRONGLY* encourage you to take BlackRegal's advice and get some paint over the primer. If you don't it *WILL* rust underneath the primer and you'll have to redo the entire repair, bondo and all. I'd use a color that contrasts with your paint (like black or gray on a white car). It'll look like a "work in progress and I know what I'm doing"-type repair, as opposed to a crappy "I think I'm done, duh..it almost matches, duh.."-type repair. That's what *I*'ve done with situations like this. Clean it with PrepSol, scuff it with 360-400 grit, paint with a spraycan before it gets too cold (wait until a sunny day with no rain forcasted for 24 hrs.). If you don't, I'm afraid you'll really have a mess by Spring.



No real advice on your glass, but there HAVE been posts on professonal glass repairs that touch on this. Same ole same ole- try a search or two.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top