Need some recommendations for good polish, and refinishing products

[BrooklynMW]

Hey all.

Been a few weeks since I been on the forum. I was away. Restoration work on Chewbacca is going very well. Slowly but surely, I'll have all the little things, medium things, and big things taken care of. Meantime, she starts fine, runs great, and gets me where I need to go.

I replaced the power steering pump, and told myself that the car would no longer be named Chewbacca after that, but the name just stuck anyway.

So I'm looking to do some polishing and cleaning this weekend, and I know how we are all against Armor All. But beyond that, my experience is limited, so I was wondering if y'all out there can recommend good brands for the following products:

1. Chrome Polish, for the exterior window trim

2. Black Polish, for all the black exterior trim, (rear view mirrors, door handles, wiper grills, etc. I tried some stuff called "Black Again" which looked great...until it rained. And it was pretty greasy too.)

3. Dash/Interior Polish and Cleaner

4. Leather polish and cleaner

5. Also, are there any good compounds or waxes out there that would help make my car look somewhat temporarily reasonable? Until I decide to give it the paintjob it deserves, I'm looking for a temporary solution.

Thanks!

[george graves]

subscribed.

[kenika65]

For you paint and chrome clay bar the entire exterior minus the rubber of course and then wax... you pick a brand.

[george graves]

^cleaner wax is not a polish. Well, you know what I mean.

[dreamer420]

i do detailing professionally...

1. nothing i have used has affected the exterior 'chrome' (aluminum) so good luck figuring that out...
2. just leave it... you can wax the mirrors.
3. polish isnt the right term. just get some all purpose cleaner, and maybe some vinyl conitioner.
4. again, polish is the wrong term. leather cleaner and leather conitioner, choose a brand.
5. this goes for all the stuff, there are tons of detail product companies out there, just choose one and most of the time itll work.
try Meguiars, or Griots, or Valugard, or whatever you can find...

also Meguiars website has a forum with a ton of great detailing walkthroughs.

[Spaz]

For wax i personally use PS21 that stuff is down right amazing, easiest wax to apply ever and it looks amazing. People claim it doesn't last a long time although i've had very good results with it!

Which maybe a result of my car being parked indoors.

-Cam

[unrlmth]

Sorry to link to another forum, but here is a great list of how to guides. http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show...ailing+library

Personally for the exterior I use a PC7424XP with Meguiars Ultimate Compound. That pretty aggressive and I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for single stage paint.

But as long as you don't have permanent clear coat damage, you might be surprised at how nice you can make old scratched up paint look.

[DJB]

The oxide layer on the bright aluminum isn't easy to polish away. You definitely need an aluminum polish, not a chrome polish.

The alternative is Plasti-Dip to coat them black. It's great stuff, sticks well without sanding first, and can be peeled off if you don't like the look.

Nothing will bring the black back to the black trim except trim paint. The "Back to Black" type product leave the surface wet-looking for a few days to a few weeks. I tried a few and never found them to be worth the time or money. Only "bumper paint" paint worked, and it made the wiper trim and bumper grills look like new for quite a few years.

Take off the bumper surrounds before painting -- it ends up being faster, and you'll get a much nicer job. If they are "crystallized", prep with a black flexible filler. 3M makes an excellent bumper repair epoxy that works perfectly for this. I didn't do this, and the paint eventually shrank to reveal the rough surface underneath.

Use a quality epoxy paint for the door handles the next time you have the door panel off for other work.

[BrooklynMW]

Thanks fellers. this is a damn good start

[BrooklynMW]

Yeah, the wax is not the biggest deal. I'm just looking for something to make the exterior look halfway decent until I get to wetsand and buff, or full respray. But as far as the high priced jobs go, the paint job is low on the priority list.

so wax it is!