RE: September SCC magazine, p27, Fight to the Finish.

[trnsfrma@ix.netcom.com (Shawn C. Meze)]

At 10:36 AM 7/30/97 -0700, you wrote:
>Hey everyone I have just read "Fight to the Finish" in the Used News 
>section of the latest SCC which describes Pierre Perrot's unconventional 
>approach to restoring old finish. The man seems to prefer Ajax, liquid 
>kitchen soap and baby oil to all the exotic chemicals available on the 
>market. I was wonderring if anyone on the list had any experience with the 
>mentined substances and would share it with the rest of us.

Well, amazingly so, I do have some experience with this. My Uncle has been 
a bodyman for a zillion years. When I pondered this to him a few years ago 
he said he uses a bucket of water with a 1/4 cup of any laundry detergent 
to wash his 9 year old paint job on his 19 and 48 Dodge showcar. 

Details: Red with flames, roof has been chopped, channeled, sectioned AND 
its a 4 door! Unheard of! suiside doors in the rear, custom interior 
bla-bla-bla. Its a one of a kind deal.) 

Anyways, the paint has just been stripped of of the car because he is in 
the proccess of updating or modernizing the bodywork since he origionally 
finished it in 1980. He lives in Las Vegas and it just sat in the back yard 
when he wasnt showing it or driving it. it got driven alot, it wasnt one of 
these trailer be!ches that you see at car shows. (Well, ive yet to see a 
trailered VW at a show either so that sez a bunch for us VW enthisiasts.) 
Anyways, he explained to me that the laundry detergent does a fine job 
stripping the old wax off of the paint without any damage to the surface to 
the paint itself.    

I wasnt able to read that article myself (cant find my mag!) and I dont 
recall my uncle mentioning anything else to restore paint. he did say to 
use a good buffer and McGuires (I think) polishing compound. 


> I appologize in advance if that has already been discussed. Also does the 
>same method apply to the cars with the finish in good condition or will I 
>damage it. 


Heh, nope, this is the first that ive seen of this topic on the list. 
Unlike the Speaker topic......  :)


>And finaly, does anyone now how to wash 10 years worth of dirt off the 
>16v painted bumpers (silver in my case)? Thanks a mill for all input.


All i use is water and a sponge followed by a good shammy wipe down. Ive 
yet to wax my car and my paint is only about 18 months old. 
When we got our GLi the paint was badly neglected and its amazing how a 
black car can oxidize. I washed it thuroughly then used a liquid rubbing 
compound then a polish and finally a wax on the GLi. It took a few hours 
and thanks to the buffer, saved me a day of sore muscles afterwords. it 
came out much better than I had amagined. The girl we bought it from came 
over a few weeks later to drop off the pink slip and wanted to know if it 
was the same car. Heh-heh! MINE GO-WAY!! 

Well, if need be I could go in the garage for the exact name and compound 
name if you want it. I just went to sear and picked up a cheap 7" buffer. I 
think I paid $29 for it and was skeptical it would do anything. Its now one
of my new favorite tools! It does a good job, especially for this lazy 
butt. 
Well, now maybe today I will get out there and do my .71 5th gear swap, 
tranny spline seals, throwout bearing replacement in the GLi. I meant to do 
it yesterday but ended up mounting a set of 6X9 SPEAKERS in the back of the 
GLi anyways. No I can go BOOM-BOOM like all the other kids... 


Shawn
86' Jetta GLi
82' Scirocco GTi
The Fastest, Quickest, Cleanest and
best looking Scirocco in all of San Diego!
http://www2.netcom.com/~trnsfrma/vws.html
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