Polishing bloom out of car paintwork

[Drake]

I've got a red car that has developed an unusual dull bloom in the paintwork on its roof and bonnet. I managed to cure the bonnet by rubbing the hell out of it with Auto-Glym and then polishing it to death - by hand. Auto-Glym was the only polishing compound that worked properly. Other stuff like T-Cut appeared to work, but then whitish streaks would appear after a day or so - no matter how hard I polished it. Waxing didn't help.

I now want to tackle the roof, but I want to avoid as much of that hard work as possible. Would it pay me to buy an electric car polishing tool, such as

? Or will an electric drill with a buffing wheel attached do just as well? If so, does anyone know where I can buy the buffing wheel or polishing attachments at a reasonable price?

Or would I be wiser to just let a local body shop do it for me? Anyone know what would be a fair price to pay?

Thank you,

Drake

[TonyK]

From the sounds of it your better off finding a local paint shop that will do a mop for you. Then you can just polish and wax every few months to keep the finish. Alternatively invest a few hundred in a porta cable polisher, some bonnets and a basic 3 stage cut, polish, wax.

[Phil L]

Only take a drill to it if you are thinking about scrapping it.

There is a polish out there called 'Mer', worth it's weight in gold and does a lot of the work for you, just follow the instructions.

[Doki]

You can polish a car yourself, but you need something along the lines of the right tools. Bare minimum is a proper polisher (looks like an angle grinder, speed tops out at 3000rpm and is variable - the sort you linked to is s**te), and some Farecla G3. You can fit a proper foam polishing mop to a drill, but it's not really at the right angle (or speed) to be easy to use on car bodywork. Porter cable are reputed to be the best (AFAIK they have a similar action to a DA sander to avoid swirl marks), but most body shops use the bog standard basic type of polisher because a) that's what everyone else uses and b) most people don't notice or care about the swirl marks left by polishing. Hence Autoglym etc. selling well - if you polish a dark coloured car with something like AG Super Resin, it will look like a sack of shit.

I've gone through how this stuff done before in the uk.rec.cars.* groups if you want to have a google.

[dingbat]

There's not much point in random orbital action if you're using a mop. They're only of value if you're either sanding, or you're using something like Micromesh which is fairly stiff. If you've got a thick layer of foam or a lambswool bonnet on it, it'll just swallow up the movement of an orbital. For all practical purposes, just stick with a rotating polisher.

A cheap lightweight power drill isn't a bad substitute, so long as it has a side handle on it for control and you're careful not to dig the edge of the pad in.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It's likely to go dull again quite quickly - red paints just age and there's not much you can do about it after the event. Keeping it polished from new can delay the process.

These domestic units are a waste of time. Faster to do it by hand.

Assuming it can be cut back properly I'd say about 100 quid. But you'll have to do the polishing (with wax) yourself.

[John]

Don't know why it does it on certain red cars but it does. My mate had a red Mitsubishi Colt that went 'pink'. I had a red Honda Civic same year etc, that has stayed red. We live within 5 miles of each other so sun, climate, etc are the same. He had his 't-cutted' at a local garage and sold it on. He saw 'his' car a few weeks ago and it was going pink again. I don't think there is a long term solution to the problem, if you keep polishing you will soon get down to the undercoat.

HTH

John

[Rob Horton]

what's a bloom?

[Guy King]

The message from "John" contains these words:

Red cars are more prone to the paint degrading in general. When you think about it, it makes sense - paint works by absorbing the unwanted wavelengths which in the case of red means absorbing all the high-energy photons from the blue end of the scale. Blue paint only has to contend with the much lower energy reddish end.

You can see this in old posters - they're usually blue tinged where the reds have faded, likewise with litter in the bottoms of hedges - if it's been there in the sun for a while it'll often only have the blue printing left.

From this you might think that black paint would be worst of all, but it cheats and uses completely different pigments.

[Guy King]

The message from Rob Horton contains these words:

Sort of whitish dusty looking effect on the surface of paint. Same as plums look like before you polish them.

[Staffbull]

You need to look at sommat like this.

got a similar one, a jar of G3, make sure the sponge is wet when you apply or it will "burn" the paint. It's a messy job as the compund spins off on startup so dont wear your best clothes!! once you have done the mopping seal it with stage 2 and stage 3 Mcguiars (halfords do em) and if you want a top protective shine do an ebay for diamondbrite two pack, they are ridiculously cheap on ebay! its a trade polish mostly used for preparing new cars, thats why they look well shiny ( not just the new paint!). You will be pleasantly surprised with the results you will get from doing it, and you'll have the kit should you require it again. Set yourself a good 5-6 hours to do it right.

[Doki]

Bloom is when paint takes a milky look. Can happen if you spray when it's too cold. What the OP's actually referring to is fading.

[daddyfreddy]

Some manufacturers use a lacquer coat on their fade prone solid colours. That may have made a difference. And just washing more regularly with a wax added shampoo will help.

Had a 12 year old red Peugeot 306 in the family which was sold recently. The paintwork was as new with no special treatment.

[daddyfreddy]

I bought it many years ago but it's not much more than a wax. The guys selling it at the exhibitions claim it will create miracles. ;-)

[Doki]

Seconded. Every time I've seen it used it seems no better than T-cut.

[Doki]

All cars are Base & Clear now.

I've got a Golf that I'm in the middle of painting (16 years old). The paintwork's knackered because it was never washed.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

*All* the expensive polishes are a con. Something like Turtle wax Extreme is as good as any.

[Drake]

Well, the bloom does polish out - and then it doesn't look faded. I pretty much cured the bonnet. I pilished the bloom out with autoglym about 6 months ago, and finished with some kind of surface-sealing oil

- and it's still looking good. So if all else fails, I'll do the roof the same way. (Hard work though, and time-consuming, by hand.)

Thanks for all the helpful and experienced replies on this one. £100 is more than I want to pay to get it polished professionally, so I guess I'll have a go with whatever electric polisher I can get hold of.

I should have mentioned that I just want to get it looking good to sell it. I never bothered much about the bloom on the roof while I was driving it, but now it's time to sell, I want to make it look nice and shiny.

Drake

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Be my guest, but if you think it will save effort you'll be disappointed.

[nog]

You polish your plums?