1991 volvo 240 wagon

[devo]

Hello all,
I recently inherited a old volvo wagon it's white and not in too bad a shape the paint is chalky and and has some pits looks very dry.
I have some NXT that I use on my motorcycle so I tried some on a little spot and after some rubbing the paint is shiny !
My question is what would be necessary for me to bring it back? it took alot of rubbing and alot of white residue came off as i was putting on the NXT.
Sorry for the noob questions I just have no idea where to start with this condition paint.
oh BTW she has 239K on her!

Dean

[Murr1525]

Re: 1991 volvo 240 wagon

Any chance of pics?

I would be looking at purchasing:

Gold Class Soap
Smooth Surface Clay Kit
SwirlX
Deep Crystal Polish
Wax - Nxt is good, or something like Nxt 2.0, Ultimate Wax

It would be best to give it a good wash first of course. Normally you would clay next, but if it is real bad, you may want to SwirlX first.

On real dry paint, you could consider #80 Speed Glaze also if you found some near by instead of SwirlX.

[devo]

Re: 1991 volvo 240 wagon

Yes I will get some pics up tomorrow I'm still working on getting it smog ready so I can get her registered. But I will say this there is not a spot on her that has a reflection its really dull and very dry.

[Murr1525]

Re: 1991 volvo 240 wagon

Well, it certainly needs some cleaning and the polishing oils. Dont want to go strong starting off either.

Where are you from?

[Mister B]

Re: 1991 volvo 240 wagon

Assuming you are going to be doing all of this by hand, I would keep it simple and use a good one step cleaner wax like ColorX. This will save you time and save your arms vs. doing a multiple step polishing process by hand on the entire car.

Here is an older thread showing Mike Phillips process on an older Bronco II with an oxidized finish.

1986 Bronco II - Extreme Makeover

[devo]

Re: 1991 volvo 240 wagon

Thats a great post!
I am in Los Angeles

[Murr1525]

Re: 1991 volvo 240 wagon

ColorX is definitely a great product.

But with this being your car, and able to spend some time on it, I think missing out on the pure polish step would be a bit of a mistake, esp when initially restoring.

For quick details, ColorX would be great, and I use it for that sort of thing all the time.

[devo]

Re: 1991 volvo 240 wagon

Ok so where does the pure polish step come in??? would that be after the colorX??

[03z71]

Re: 1991 volvo 240 wagon

Would love to see some pics.

[Mister B]

Re: 1991 volvo 240 wagon

Polish would come before the wax step.

It's going to come down to how much time and effort you want to put into the car. Doing the car by hand will take a lot of effort on your part, but if you are willing, you can work panel by panel taking your time over several days or even several weeks if you choose.

So if time and effort is of no concern to you and you want to maximize what you can do to the finish by hand by all means check out Meguiar's 5 Step Paint Care Cycle in the link below.

The 5 Step Paint Care Cycle consists of the following.

Wash
Clean
Polish
Protect
Maintain

Check out the above link and if you determine that this is the route you would like to go, be sure to do a test spot to make sure that you can make that one test spot look good before you attempt to do all 5 steps to the entire car and at the end find out that the finish did not come out to your expectations. This way if you can make the test spot look great, you know that you will be able to make the entire car look great at that point.

[devo]

Re: 1991 volvo 240 wagon

I'm working on that I should have some tonight.

[Murr1525]

Re: 1991 volvo 240 wagon

Ok so where does the pure polish step come in??? would that be after the colorX??

Polish would be the Deep Crystal Polish mentioned in the first posts.

Going ColorX then Polish then Waxing is kind of a round-about way of doing things. If going to do all the steps, may as well have a good cleaner/polish, then polish, then wax. Get the best mild cleaning and the best polishing possible if doing all the steps.

[devo]

Re: 1991 volvo 240 wagon

Got it thanks for clearing that up. No I dont have any problems with the time involved but I just want to get a decent finished product for the amount of effort. If colorX can do just as good a job on 20 year old paint as the 5 step process I would like to hear someone chime in. if the advantage is minimal for the amount of effort required for the 5 step process than it would almost seem like a waste of products and $$$. I wish I had some samples to try it on 2 test areas to see which would come out better.

[Mister B]

Re: 1991 volvo 240 wagon

That is why you want to do a test spot first. No one can say with certainty if the 5 step cycle is going to give you far better results for your effort over just colorX with your paint condition without being there and seeing your paint and actually trying it out on a test spot first.

[devo]

Re: 1991 volvo 240 wagon

Got it thanks for clearing that up. No I dont have any problems with the time involved but I just want to get a decent finished product for the amount of effort. If colorX can do just as good a job on 20 year old paint as the 5 step process I would like to hear someone chime in. if the advantage is minimal for the amount of effort required for the 5 step process than it would almost seem like a waste of products and $$$. I wish I had some samples to try it on 2 test areas to see which would come out better.

Thanks I said that!