[AMR91]

Need help cleaning my rear bumper, spoiler, rims and headlights. I took some pic's to show all that I need help with.

Here is the spoiler..It is like oxidation bubbles or something that can be scraped off with fingernail but don't wanna do that unless I have to...If you notice also there is oxidation on the top of the brakelight. Dont know what to do about that either.


close up of spoiler...


The back bumper was hit or scraped by something. Its not dented or anything but looks bad and had already been tried to be touched up as you can see from the different color paint...



Rust on rims...this is the worst one, the other rims are not nearly as bad. I heard that coke and aluminum foil would to get the rust off, but don't know if thats true.


fogged headlights...don't know how to clean these either...maybe buy a cleaning kit but would that work that well? Anyone know any alternatives?


Top of back bumper..The paint is very rough and not to shiny. Any ideas in what to do?



I was thinking maybe I could just take off the spoiler and bumper and have that painted. But I don't want to spend a lot of money, and if I had both of them painted then they would be shinier/glossier than the rest of the car. It would probably look better than it does now anyways though...So idk what to do..Help would be much appreciated.

P.S. Sorry for the big pics.

[AggieStang]

Wow you must live next to the ocean. Sorry I have no idea how to clean that, i'm no where near saltwater. It shouldn't be that hard though. Someone around here should know.

[AggieStang]

Google is your friend.
Paint: How can I restore dull, oxidized paint?
Other: How to clean Oxidation from the Plastic Exterior parts on your car - Massdriven Automotive Forums

[AMR91]

Originally Posted by Hillsbaseball08 Wow you must live next to the ocean. Sorry I have no idea how to clean that, i'm no where near saltwater. It shouldn't be that hard though. Someone around here should know.

Haha yeah, I live by the ocean...

[04DSGV6]

Here are my suggestions.

For paint and bumper
1.Give a good wash
2. Buy a claybar kit and meticulously claybar the entire car.
3. Wash car again using a paint system cleaner like this Deep Crystal® System Paint Cleaner A3016 Product Information
4. Polishing compound
5. Wax

Rims
That looks to me to be more like brake dust because it can be scratched away(bottom right of picture) Try all wheel cleaner or brake cleaner.

Headlight
1. Heat oven to 350.
2. Put in headlight for a couple mins.
3. Take out and pull apart front of the headlight from the rest.
4. Wipe down the inside.
5.Put back together and let it heat in oven another couple mins to seal back up.
6. Seal with silicone both headlights.

There is a write up on this somewhere.

As far as the scratch on the bumper I would say the bumper can be easily wet sanded and buffed out by a paint shop.

The spoiler I would guess should either be removed and holes filled or should be repainted. If you scratch that stuff off what is underneath? Does it pull up paint?

For the love of god if you take care of all this stuff start washing and caring for your car better and more often. The saying goes "Are you washing weekly or weakly?"

[AggieStang]

And after you fix it move out of california.

[AMR91]

when i scratch off the stuff on the spoiler dull black paint remains...And I do wash the car every week and wax it about once a month. When I received the car it was in that condition too BTW...So its not lack of care on my part

[AggieStang]

Sell it and buy a prius like all the other hippies in california

[04DSGV6]

Originally Posted by AMR91 when i scratch off the stuff on the spoiler dull black paint remains...And I do wash the car every week and wax it about once a month. When I received the car it was in that condition too BTW...So its not lack of care on my part

Oh okay. Well that dull black is primer so I think you should either get the spoiler repainted or get rid of it. If you take off the spoiler be sure to bring it over to the original owners house and beat em over the head with it.

Also what wax do you use and why so often?

[Tigerwhite1]

Originally Posted by 04DSGV6 Oh okay. Well that dull black is primer so I think you should either get the spoiler repainted or get rid of it. If you take off the spoiler be sure to bring it over to the original owners house and beat em over the head with it. Also what wax do you use and why so often?

waxing one a month is a lot? huh... how often do you wax?

[AMR91]

well i've only had the car a month so yeah...haha

[Lt_Crazy]

Originally Posted by 04DSGV6 Oh okay. Well that dull black is primer so I think you should either get the spoiler repainted or get rid of it. If you take off the spoiler be sure to bring it over to the original owners house and beat em over the head with it.

LOL and +10000000000

What kind of clay bar do u guys recomend cause i used the turtle wax liquid clay bar and its really shitty.....?!?!?!!?

[04DSGV6]

I use mothers claybar but meguiars works well too. And to the guy who said waxing once a month is not alot, it is if you use cleaner wax. Shit will fuck your paint up. Maybe if your using a paste wax like a polish but if you are you really don't need to once a month either.

[travis_afx]

Magic Clay is the best clay bar I have ever used, the blue bar will take most anything off, but if the blue bar doesn't work you can get the red bar i've never seen anything that was on top of the paint that the red bar could not remove, although buffing is sometimes required after the red bar.

As for the OP

Your spoiler's clear is delaminating from the oxidation. The only way to repair it is a repaint.
The bumper will also need to be repainted because of all the cracked paint on the corner. The top might be able to be saved with a claybar, or a sand a buff job. But it has to be repainted to fix the corner so unless you just want to clean the rest of the bumper off till you can get it repainted their is no need to do it. If you do want to and the clay bar will not work and you want to try your hand at buffing, use some 1500 lightly, then step up to 2000 and sand it smooth. Then you can either go ahead and buff it with a buffer using a white synthetic wool pad and your compound of choice. Followed by pass or two with a black foam pad and finishing glaze. Or if you have access to an air compressor and a D.A. then i highly recomend going over it with 3m Triazict 3000 paper. You can not believe how much it makes buffing easier. You can buff it with fewer passes and lighter pressure. So your both getting it done faster and being safer from burning through.

I can't gaurantee the buff job will fix it because of a couple factors. First you might have to sand too much clear off to remove the damage. You might burn through while buffing because you had to remove so much clear or you let the surface heat up to much and to fast. So I would only recomd you doing the buff job if you feel like you can do it. I'm not trying to discourage you, anyone can do it you just have to pay attention and keep the buffer moving at all times. Also never buff over an edge, always buff up to the edge from both sides and the edge will get buffed while never actually going over it.

[AMR91]

Ok thanks for the help..