How to restore the paintwork?

kilohawk

kilohawk

kilohawk

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Hull-Oxford
I had my mums 10 year old Astra which she has owned since it was 6 months old on my grandads ramps yesterday to replace the front coil and brake pads, and i washed the car afterwards with the high pressure power wash (used for cleaning trucks and the like) which ridded the car of the LS badge on the drivers door, and uncovered nasty large bit of rust on the rear wheel arch.

So the car has been neglected since she bought it, it's probably been washed like once a year, and it shows. I'm going to do the rust myself, which will probably mean cutting a bit out and replacing with fibreglass :p

I've been told i will be getting the car in a year or so's time, so i'm trying to limit the harm done to the thing :D Mechanically, its good, its only done 86000 rush hour miles with regular servicing and only ever fails on things like lights and worn out brakes.



Soo, after that long winded part, my question is, what shall i use to get the paintwork looking good again?
I've just found an interesting technique involving a heat gun for returning the plastic to looking black instead of grey, and some original hub caps from the auction site for £25 (i HATE aftermarket hubcaps)

I don't want to spend much (£30 ish max) for some polish or something, and some car shampoo. I have a machine polisher if that helps :cool:


Thanks in advance for your suggestions, they are much appreciated!!!
 
dwarf said:
T-Cut and Autoglym Super Resin Polish should be fine. Maybe a wax/sealant as well.
Click to expand...

Which wax/sealant?

I'm new to this game ;)


Morbius said:
It might just be surface rust in which case you could grind it back.
Click to expand...

Yeah, i was gonna start grinding until i hit good steel, but due to the look of it that might not be the case.

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That rust looks like you should be able to grind it back to fresh metal. It doesn't look bad at all actually. As for wax/sealant I would just go for something cheap like turtle wax. You won't get an amazing result but it will be good enough to protect the finish for a bit. Just wash the car with washing up liquid first time round but after that you will need to get a car shampoo so it doesn't strip off the polish/wax.

There are much more knowledgeable people than me on here about this stuff. Have a look through this thread:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17888389
 
Yeah that doesn't look terrible to me either - give that you're going to be cutting back I'd just do the whole arch, stopping at where the lip ends on the rest - This will help blend your (I'm assuming) dodgy rattle can respray in a bit better. As long as it's roughly the right colour it won't matter with something like an old astra & it's possible to get a reasonable job if you take your time
 
Thanks for the link dwarf, looks like i've got a lot of reading to do!

And, rodenal, unfortunately I am using a rattle can, the cars only worth 1K so there's not much point in paying for a good re-spray :p its just to stop it before it gets too far into the door sill.
Is there a good guide for using the spray cans? My grandad should know, but its probably best to look at a few anyway ;)
 
You could easily do a decent job with a rattle can aslong as the prep is good, same for the wheel trims, just rattle can them in silver paint, will look ok.
 
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