Maintaining New Paint

[brawl]

I have a recently acquired 14 year old Rav4. It looks like garbage. I browsed the net to find some miracle of making the car look good. I only learned that it's hopeless for a detailing noob like me.

Deep Scratch at One Panel


Deep Scratches at the Hood




A Primed Fixed Dent


Chipped Paint


Clear Coat Failure



Forgive me if I was wrong with the terms I used. (Noobie here)

I am sure that a lot of people here can restore this pitiful ride. I've seen photos of your work and your posts reflect the knowledge that you have. But me? I know nothing. I have no DA and RP. Heck, I do not have detailing products yet. So I decided to have the car painted. I also asked the painter to paint over the black plastic trims with BC and CC so that I can care the black and green the same way.

Here are the shots of the devastated plastic trims.





The car is scheduled for painting tomorrow. After the paint, I ask your guidance to maintain my ride.

[brawl]

Re: Maintaining New Paint

The pics work earlier when I "previewed" my thread.
Well, here are the links (don't know how to edit my original post):

http://img239.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=33649_IMG_0006_122_107lo.JPG

http://img199.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=33657_IMG_0042_122_548lo.JPG

http://img249.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=33659_IMG_0043_122_37lo.JPG

http://img290.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=33638_IMG_0002_122_503lo.JPG

http://img227.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=33641_IMG_0004_122_472lo.JPG

http://img165.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=33648_IMG_0005_122_161lo.JPG

http://img128.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=33661_IMG_0044_122_47lo.JPG

http://img165.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=33648_IMG_0005_122_161lo.JPG

http://img292.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=33656_IMG_00422_122_467lo.JPG

http://img242.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=33658_IMG_00432_122_448lo.JPG

[John Keeling]

Re: Maintaining New Paint

Welcome to MOL!!!!

Even for someone who is very experienced, painting would probably be the best option. I am excited to see the transformation after it is painted.

[brawl]

Re: Maintaining New Paint

Thanks John. I thought so too. But with the works I've seen, I wont be surprised if someone can pull a miracle out of that ride. I already left the car for the painting.

Here's my initial plan.

1) Let the paint cure for 15 days.
2) At the fifteenth day, polish it with Dual Action Cleaner Polish and top it with Deep Crystal System Step 2
3) Let it cure for 30 more days
4) After 45 days (from paint) wash and clay it. Clean it with DACP, glaze it with DCS2. Top it with NXT Generation Tech Wax 2.0.
5) Let the NXT Gen Tech Wax cure for at least 12 hours and top it with second coat.
6) After twelve hours from the second coat, finish it with Deep Crystal System Carnauba Wax

That's generally the plan that I came up after reading a lot of threads about detailing. Any comments, suggestions and violent reactions are welcome.

Those are the only Megs products available to me. The shelves of the local stores here in the Philippines mostly carry Turtle Wax, which I learned as a Big NO NO in detailing.LOL Most of them were shipped to me by my mom in Reno, Nevada. Megs here cost more than 2x the price in the US. Hence, the shipping across the sea. I am optimistic that the products will be here after the paint job.

The next decision that I would make is whether or not wetsand the paint job. I can have the wetsanded paint compounded and polished by a rotary polisher. Will it improve a new paint even if the paint job was done well? Should I leave it alone and just maintain the new paint?