Okay, so this car has had it's fair share of tasteless cosmetic downgrades, so I figured it was good time to start removing the garbage VHT Niteshades the PO sprayed over the taillights.
This was done with a rag heavily soaked in acetone and some quick rubbing. Make sure you either remove the taillight, or mask very well. You don't want the acetone sitting in one spot, you want to rub quickly and avoid rubbing the bare plastic. The acetone WILL leave a dull finish on the plastic, that's fine.
This was done with a rag heavily soaked in acetone and some quick rubbing. Make sure you either remove the taillight, or mask very well. You don't want the acetone sitting in one spot, you want to rub quickly and avoid rubbing the bare plastic. The acetone WILL leave a dull finish on the plastic, that's fine.
Next step is to take some rubbing compound and buff the lights. They'll return to their original clear luster. You can probably see my little buffing wheel on the drill in the trunk here. I use commercial 3M rubbing compound.
Short of that, we can see how damaged the paint is throughout the car. This thing has seen far too many car washes in it's day. The upper left corner of the hood is where I started - you can see the drastic difference between what I corrected and the rest of the hood.
Same deal with the roof!
Little better view here.
Overall, I'm not expecting a perfect car - all things considered this thing is going to be pretty enough to be a nice cruiser and that's about it. It'll never be perfect, nor do I want it to be.
Because I stock ball joints for W211's (I do them often), I'll be doing the uppers and lowers on this car in the next day or so. Doesn't take me long and with the lack of service record I have for this, I believe it deserves it. I'm hoping those won't be famous last words.
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