Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Not a scooby but the family have a red 2002 Astra 5 door. Its not been looked after that well in the last 7 years and has likely not been washed too often.

Anyway, the paintwork is severely faded over all of it. I spent a happy hour with some t-cut and a rag and some of it looks a lot better (where I did) but it still looks slightly patchy. There are also a lot of little spots that even on a test area I spent 10 minutes polishing hard, don't go away, so when you rub off the t-cut they are still noticeable.

I don't want concours but what is the best way and order of application to get the colour back as best as possible? What should I use? I could rub away for a couple of hours with the t-cut but what would achieve the best result?

Car drives lovely and is mechanically really good, so its worth tidying it up a bit.

the shreksta

iTrader: (20)

use a machine polisher

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

OK

With what? T-cut, some other form of polish? Then what?

birchy2010

iTrader: (12)

Cutting compound. Something like megs cutting with a medium pad works well on vauxhall red.

Willowsdad

iTrader: (2)

A decent compound and a machine will bring it up like new. It can be done by hand, but it'll take forever.

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

That looks an awesome job

On exactly the model

Willowsdad

iTrader: (2)

It's an easy job, even for a weekend warrior like myself. Unfortunately I only got half the car done that weekend, and the owner sold it before I could finish it. Can't beat a good pink to red transformation.

gazney101

iTrader: (5)

G3 an machine polish and lots of water while youre doing it

B0DSKI

iTrader: (17)

Machine polisher, Menzerna FG400 and a Hex Logic Orange pad and you'll be good to go.

Don't attempt to use T cut via a machine polisher as It's far too aggressive. You could quite easily do more harm than good