Hi all, spent the day washing and waxing the Z today and there are a few areas which are seriously letting me down. I got rid of pratically all the swirl marks and minor scratches and scrapes, but there are 4 areas in particular that I have issues with, mainly due to fading. I have called them the 'plastic' parts of the body though there is prob a better term for them somewhere. They are;

 

1 - The lower part of the front bumper, its also cracked but at least if I could get it sprayed or do something to it it would make it look miles better! Is it better to replace or spray? Can the bottom piece come off seperate or is it all part of the front bumper? In other words to replace would I need to get a whole front bumper or can I just get the splitter section?

 

2 - The mirrors are faded, not a major issue but one I would like addressed. Any way of refurbing these or restoring the colour without a respray?

 

3 - The targas of course, again can the colour be brought back easily? You wouldnt think a small area like that would make a noticeable difference to the visual impact of the car but when the targas are off it looks so much better cause the faded area is removed.

 

4 - The back bumper, bit more of an issue with this one, few deep scratches, and a scuff mark where it seems like a black plastic bumper off another car has rubbed it, thought it might T-Cut out but it didnt, its definately a surface mark only though so there must be some product to remove it.

 

Other than those items she came out pretty good and shiny, was surprised actually the difference 3 coats of wax made to her, mightnt show up great in the pics but in the flesh it looks a lot better than it did. If I could get those items addressed though she would look pretty much as she did in the good old days I reckon.

 

 

Oh and heres a pic that just came to me as I was going out a car park as the sun set, just one of those moments. :)

Personally I'd prioritize fixing that front bumper, that's what lets it down the most in my eyes. I don't think the bottom part of the bumper comes off, though I've never attempted to remove it so don't quote me on that.

 

For the Targa I'd say the only solution is paint. Unless someone has a better solution.

 

I've seen a friend of mine use a heat gun to bring faded black plastic parts on a golf back to life, perhaps the same would work for the red covers on the mirrors.

 

Not so sure about the rear bumper. you could spend an hour or two trying to remove the scuffs on the side, but you'd still have those deep scratches. I'd liken that to pouring perfume on a pig.

 

Whatever you decide, I hope it ends up pretty as a picture..

 

..Like me:wack:

Well i would say take it to a bodyshop mate and let them now what you want resprayed, and you could get the small dent sorted on the rear passenger wheel arche aswell.

Surely that wouldnt come to £££ if you where to go in, as basically they are going to be buying enough paint to do all that anyways even if you just went in to have only the bumper sprayed.

 

Bumper wise if you choose to you could always just buy the best match of paint and spray yourself.

Ya its the front bumper thats really annoying me at the moment, if that was sorted then the rest would just be simple enough. Think I might chance spraying the mirrors and targas.

The dent in the rear I'm going to try and pull out using the 'dry ice' method, if that doesnt work then I might bring it to a body shop all right. If I was able to get a good paint match it might be easier to do it myself, the paint is pretty good in the metal panels, as in unfaded, so it should be close to the original stock code.

The bumper is a complete unit, it could be repaired, but would need removal to fix, which after the time and money spent, you could pick up a decent 2nd hand one.

The other areas are not to far gone, if your any good with a mopp (sponge on a grinder) it just looks like dead paint.

Go and see a valeters or vehicle detailer, should be a cheaper option to repair.

We had a 190e merc when i used to valet, came in much worse than your targa, as the whole car was that colour, went out looking like new.

Cheers Stu, would you reckon so that a cutting compound would go towards getting some of the colour back?

I've worked with resin before so might try that on the front bumper to fix it up.

There has always been a problem with red paint fading in the sun and in the past I have brought this paint back to life just by useing a good t-cut and polish. I would try this first before getting it resprayed

mickeybigzed did wonders on jon's red z with a mop and some compound had to be seen to be believed the difference.

 

dan.:cool:

i'd try and give it a good polish first, you'd be suprised how good the paint will come back :) as for the front bumper, maybe you could mask it up and give it a quick blast with black spray paint til you get a new bumper?

The front bumper needs repairing for sure. Also whilst it's being sprayed get the centre grey bit resprayed to match too. Always think that looks good all one colour.

The targas and mirrors. Have you tried any of that colour magic. You can get red. Give it a go with that and see how that goes. I think it's a mild t-cut but in the same colour as the rest of the car so I reckon that'll work.

 

Ivan

best bet for the front bumper is to buy a lip spoiler for it from stillen.

 

pics are before and after :wack:

Hellraiser thats exactly the type of thing I was wondering could you do! That would do the job nicely!

I'll try the T-Cut and the colour restorer on the other bits, hopefully it'll do something to bring it up a bit.

Cheers all. :)

I decided today that the faded areas are so bad that I'd try cutting compound on them, if it doesnt work then I would end up spraying them anyway so might as well have a lash off the compound first. Tried it on the targas as a sample,

 

Before:

 

After:

 

Went to the mirrors then;

 

Before:

 

After:

 

Next was the weird piece that was faded on the back bumper;

 

Before:

 

After:

 

And while I was at it I decided to try it on the scuff mark by the rear wheel;

 

Before:

 

After:

 

All in all I'm happy with the results, I know they're not 100% perfect but when you stand back its a lot less noticeable, I'm delighted the horrible scuff is gone off the back, and I think the back bumper looks a lot better too.

nice one mate, looks alot better, good enough fix until you get it sprayed.

Absolutely ya, it'll do me for the time being anyway. It was just annoying to walk up to it and see those horrible marks, nice to get them some way less noticeable.

best bet for the front bumper is to buy a lip spoiler for it from stillen.

 

pics are before and after :wack:

 

one of those i would quite like on my TT bumper

Well done mate, good results there give it a good wax after compounding and repeat that a few times and you may get it a little better 2 :)

 

Chris

Cheers, was happy with the way it turned out. Bit more ot do but getting there all the same.

Not putting down what you've done, because you've done a good job there, but...

 

With fadded red paint, and looking at your pics they look crazed also, T-Cutting/Colour-Magic will NOT sort the problem, the only real solution is re-spraying the affected parts.

I had a red car in the past with a faded bonnet, once you used Colour-Magic it came up a treat, give it a few days and it started showing signs of fadeing again.