So, Ive been living with this terrible white paint job on the 2003 vic. It had totally failed long before I bought it. All the Clear on the upper portion of the body, that wasnt protected with the lightbar or decals is completely gone, and what IS left is yellow. Whats left of the white looks like the surface of the moon, with thousands of tiny holes exposing the primer underneath.
What I noticed however, is wherever paint had been chipped, what was exposed wasnt metal. It was the original color. Arizona Beige.
I bought some supplies and worked a small area. I think Ive got a plan, but wanted to get input.
Use 220 grit foam blocks to remove the white paint, stopping when grey is exposed
800 grit, wet sanding until its starting to become translucent and I can see the OE paint coming through
wet sanding with 2000 grit to remove 95% of the remaining primer and expose the paint completely.
My thought is, Im not going to try and get every last bit of the primer off with the 2000, but leave the small discolorations until I have the paint completely exposed. At which point I will use compound on a DA to remove the last traces along with the scratches, and bring a, reasonable amount of life back to the paint.
There is one problem with this plan. The hood. The hood is from a factory white 2006. Im not sure why it was changed, as the rest of the front end is original, VIN coded parts. So I know that it will have to get painted to match the factory color that Im taking it back to.But itll be far cheaper than the entire car.
While gold isnt my favorite color, I know I will enjoy the look of the car a lot more if it was gold and not white, and if I can get it back to that, and have it be better looking than what I have now, Ill be happy.
Attached is my test spot. The 2000 leaves it pretty dull, but I think some compound on a DA can get it looking pretty good. Certainly several orders of magnitude better than that horrid white.
What I noticed however, is wherever paint had been chipped, what was exposed wasnt metal. It was the original color. Arizona Beige.
I bought some supplies and worked a small area. I think Ive got a plan, but wanted to get input.
Use 220 grit foam blocks to remove the white paint, stopping when grey is exposed
800 grit, wet sanding until its starting to become translucent and I can see the OE paint coming through
wet sanding with 2000 grit to remove 95% of the remaining primer and expose the paint completely.
My thought is, Im not going to try and get every last bit of the primer off with the 2000, but leave the small discolorations until I have the paint completely exposed. At which point I will use compound on a DA to remove the last traces along with the scratches, and bring a, reasonable amount of life back to the paint.
There is one problem with this plan. The hood. The hood is from a factory white 2006. Im not sure why it was changed, as the rest of the front end is original, VIN coded parts. So I know that it will have to get painted to match the factory color that Im taking it back to.But itll be far cheaper than the entire car.
While gold isnt my favorite color, I know I will enjoy the look of the car a lot more if it was gold and not white, and if I can get it back to that, and have it be better looking than what I have now, Ill be happy.
Attached is my test spot. The 2000 leaves it pretty dull, but I think some compound on a DA can get it looking pretty good. Certainly several orders of magnitude better than that horrid white.