restoring the shine

[bosco]

I have an old banger (1989 Audi 80) that I am trying to clean up and sell. It is silver metallic in colour. The only problem is that the paintwork looks like someone has gone rubbing it with light sandpaper. Living near the sea has probably caused this to happen.

Has anyone any products they could recommend to get the paintwork back to its showroom shine? Some guy in a garage gave me a sample of the product he uses on his cars but this doesn't seem to have worked (I don't know the name of the product but apparently it is only available to car dealers / garages)

I would prefer to obtain a product that is cheap (but effective) as this car probably won't sell for much anyway.

[BrianS]

I really hate advising people to to do heavy polsihing by hand. Autoglym make a product called Paitn Renovator, costs about 9 Euro. The danger is that it would shadow or bruise paint very easily. The abrasives are so big in it, that it actually leaves scratches. I used to use it but I had to follow up with a high speed polisher to give the paint a mirror finish again.

Meguiars have a range of products, I think its a three or four step package, but its expensive stuff, good as it is, you will be looking at 50 to 70 Euro worth.

I'd say try the Autoglym, use a clean soft 100% cloth - some shops have terry polish applicators for about a fiver - really good. Go lightly with the polish. Don't press down, even on the scratches. Make sure the car is spotless clean before you start. Schedule three or four light passes on the car rather than one heavy one. I'd say you have three or four hours work there!!
(Or maybe I have bad picture in my head of the car- it may not be that bad).
Good luck! Let me know if you want other info and I'd be interested to hear what results you got.

Later,

B.

[Ketch]

Sounds like the clear is "powdering" which is common for clear technology of that time period which were not protected and cared for.

Bout all I could recommend is as Brian says, try to "cut off" a minor layer of the damaged clear and wax up, but be prepared to have the shine or gloss factor to be rather short time in it's staying that way.

Get it up to a sorta of acceptable shine, and try to sell it within a week or so.

Ketch