I've got a red car that has developed an unusual dull bloom in the
paintwork on its roof and bonnet. I managed to cure the bonnet by
rubbing the hell out of it with Auto-Glym and then polishing it to
death - by hand. Auto-Glym was the only polishing compound that worked
properly. Other stuff like T-Cut appeared to work, but then whitish
streaks would appear after a day or so - no matter how hard I polished
it. Waxing didn't help.

I now want to tackle the roof, but I want to avoid as much of that
hard work as possible. Would it pay me to buy an electric car
polishing tool, such as http://tinyurl.com/pha83 ? Or will an
electric drill with a buffing wheel attached do just as well? If so,
does anyone know where I can buy the buffing wheel or polishing
attachments at a reasonable price?

Or would I be wiser to just let a local body shop do it for me? Anyone
know what would be a fair price to pay?

Thank you,

Drake

"Drake" wrote in message
...

I've got a red car that has developed an unusual dull bloom in the
paintwork on its roof and bonnet. I managed to cure the bonnet by
rubbing the hell out of it with Auto-Glym and then polishing it to
death - by hand. Auto-Glym was the only polishing compound that worked
properly. Other stuff like T-Cut appeared to work, but then whitish
streaks would appear after a day or so - no matter how hard I polished
it. Waxing didn't help.

I now want to tackle the roof, but I want to avoid as much of that
hard work as possible. Would it pay me to buy an electric car
polishing tool, such as http://tinyurl.com/pha83 ? Or will an
electric drill with a buffing wheel attached do just as well? If so,
does anyone know where I can buy the buffing wheel or polishing
attachments at a reasonable price?

Or would I be wiser to just let a local body shop do it for me? Anyone
know what would be a fair price to pay?

Thank you,

Drake

From the sounds of it your better off finding a local paint shop that will
do a mop for you. Then you can just polish and wax every few months to keep
the finish. Alternatively invest a few hundred in a porta cable polisher,
some bonnets and a basic 3 stage cut, polish, wax.

Drake wrote:
I've got a red car that has developed an unusual dull bloom in the
paintwork on its roof and bonnet. I managed to cure the bonnet by
rubbing the hell out of it with Auto-Glym and then polishing it to
death - by hand. Auto-Glym was the only polishing compound that worked
properly. Other stuff like T-Cut appeared to work, but then whitish
streaks would appear after a day or so - no matter how hard I polished
it. Waxing didn't help.

I now want to tackle the roof, but I want to avoid as much of that
hard work as possible. Would it pay me to buy an electric car
polishing tool, such as http://tinyurl.com/pha83 ? Or will an
electric drill with a buffing wheel attached do just as well? If so,
does anyone know where I can buy the buffing wheel or polishing
attachments at a reasonable price?


Only take a drill to it if you are thinking about scrapping it.

Or would I be wiser to just let a local body shop do it for me? Anyone
know what would be a fair price to pay?

Thank you,

Drake

There is a polish out there called 'Mer', worth it's weight in gold and does
a lot of the work for you, just follow the instructions.

"Drake" wrote in message
...

I've got a red car that has developed an unusual dull bloom in the
paintwork on its roof and bonnet. I managed to cure the bonnet by
rubbing the hell out of it with Auto-Glym and then polishing it to
death - by hand. Auto-Glym was the only polishing compound that worked
properly. Other stuff like T-Cut appeared to work, but then whitish
streaks would appear after a day or so - no matter how hard I polished
it. Waxing didn't help.

I now want to tackle the roof, but I want to avoid as much of that
hard work as possible. Would it pay me to buy an electric car
polishing tool, such as http://tinyurl.com/pha83 ? Or will an
electric drill with a buffing wheel attached do just as well? If so,
does anyone know where I can buy the buffing wheel or polishing
attachments at a reasonable price?

Or would I be wiser to just let a local body shop do it for me? Anyone
know what would be a fair price to pay?

You can polish a car yourself, but you need something along the lines of the
right tools. Bare minimum is a proper polisher (looks like an angle grinder,
speed tops out at 3000rpm and is variable - the sort you linked to is
****e), and some Farecla G3. You can fit a proper foam polishing mop to a
drill, but it's not really at the right angle (or speed) to be easy to use
on car bodywork. Porter cable are reputed to be the best (AFAIK they have a
similar action to a DA sander to avoid swirl marks), but most body shops use
the bog standard basic type of polisher because a) that's what everyone else
uses and b) most people don't notice or care about the swirl marks left by
polishing. Hence Autoglym etc. selling well - if you polish a dark coloured
car with something like AG Super Resin, it will look like a sack of ****.

I've gone through how this stuff done before in the uk.rec.cars.* groups if
you want to have a google.

Doki wrote:

Porter cable are reputed to be the best (AFAIK they have a
similar action to a DA sander to avoid swirl marks),

There's not much point in random orbital action if you're using a mop.
They're only of value if you're either sanding, or you're using
something like Micromesh which is fairly stiff. If you've got a thick
layer of foam or a lambswool bonnet on it, it'll just swallow up the
movement of an orbital. For all practical purposes, just stick with a
rotating polisher.

A cheap lightweight power drill isn't a bad substitute, so long as it
has a side handle on it for control and you're careful not to dig the
edge of the pad in.

In article ,
Drake wrote:

I've got a red car that has developed an unusual dull bloom in the
paintwork on its roof and bonnet. I managed to cure the bonnet by
rubbing the hell out of it with Auto-Glym and then polishing it to
death - by hand. Auto-Glym was the only polishing compound that worked
properly. Other stuff like T-Cut appeared to work, but then whitish
streaks would appear after a day or so - no matter how hard I polished
it. Waxing didn't help.

It's likely to go dull again quite quickly - red paints just age and
there's not much you can do about it after the event. Keeping it polished
from new can delay the process.

I now want to tackle the roof, but I want to avoid as much of that
hard work as possible. Would it pay me to buy an electric car
polishing tool, such as http://tinyurl.com/pha83 ? Or will an
electric drill with a buffing wheel attached do just as well? If so,
does anyone know where I can buy the buffing wheel or polishing
attachments at a reasonable price?

These domestic units are a waste of time. Faster to do it by hand.

Or would I be wiser to just let a local body shop do it for me? Anyone
know what would be a fair price to pay?

Assuming it can be cut back properly I'd say about 100 quid. But you'll
have to do the polishing (with wax) yourself.

Thank you,

Drake

--
*If vegetable oil comes from vegetables, where does baby oil come from? *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In message , Drake
writes

I've got a red car that has developed an unusual dull bloom in the
paintwork on its roof and bonnet. I managed to cure the bonnet by
rubbing the hell out of it with Auto-Glym and then polishing it to
death - by hand. Auto-Glym was the only polishing compound that worked
properly. Other stuff like T-Cut appeared to work, but then whitish
streaks would appear after a day or so - no matter how hard I polished
it. Waxing didn't help.

I now want to tackle the roof, but I want to avoid as much of that
hard work as possible. Would it pay me to buy an electric car
polishing tool, such as http://tinyurl.com/pha83 ? Or will an
electric drill with a buffing wheel attached do just as well? If so,
does anyone know where I can buy the buffing wheel or polishing
attachments at a reasonable price?

I had that problem with a red car

All your efforts will only be temporary, the bloom will come back

get it resprayed


--
geoff

"Drake" wrote in message
...

I've got a red car that has developed an unusual dull bloom in the
paintwork on its roof and bonnet. I managed to cure the bonnet by
rubbing the hell out of it with Auto-Glym and then polishing it to
death - by hand. Auto-Glym was the only polishing compound that worked
properly. Other stuff like T-Cut appeared to work, but then whitish
streaks would appear after a day or so - no matter how hard I polished
it. Waxing didn't help.

I now want to tackle the roof, but I want to avoid as much of that
hard work as possible. Would it pay me to buy an electric car
polishing tool, such as http://tinyurl.com/pha83 ? Or will an
electric drill with a buffing wheel attached do just as well? If so,
does anyone know where I can buy the buffing wheel or polishing
attachments at a reasonable price?

Or would I be wiser to just let a local body shop do it for me? Anyone
know what would be a fair price to pay?

Don't know why it does it on certain red cars but it does. My mate had a
red Mitsubishi Colt that went 'pink'. I had a red Honda Civic same year
etc, that has stayed red. We live within 5 miles of each other so sun,
climate, etc are the same. He had his 't-cutted' at a local garage and sold
it on. He saw 'his' car a few weeks ago and it was going pink again. I
don't think there is a long term solution to the problem, if you keep
polishing you will soon get down to the undercoat.

HTH

John

Drake wrote:
I've got a red car that has developed an unusual dull bloom in the
paintwork on its roof and bonnet. I managed to cure the bonnet by
rubbing the hell out of it with Auto-Glym and then polishing it to
death - by hand. Auto-Glym was the only polishing compound that worked
properly. Other stuff like T-Cut appeared to work, but then whitish
streaks would appear after a day or so - no matter how hard I polished
it. Waxing didn't help.

I now want to tackle the roof, but I want to avoid as much of that
hard work as possible. Would it pay me to buy an electric car
polishing tool, such as http://tinyurl.com/pha83 ? Or will an
electric drill with a buffing wheel attached do just as well? If so,
does anyone know where I can buy the buffing wheel or polishing
attachments at a reasonable price?

Or would I be wiser to just let a local body shop do it for me? Anyone
know what would be a fair price to pay?

Thank you,

Drake
what's a bloom?

The message
from "John" contains these words:

Don't know why it does it on certain red cars but it does.

Red cars are more prone to the paint degrading in general. When you
think about it, it makes sense - paint works by absorbing the unwanted
wavelengths which in the case of red means absorbing all the high-energy
photons from the blue end of the scale. Blue paint only has to contend
with the much lower energy reddish end.

You can see this in old posters - they're usually blue tinged where the
reds have faded, likewise with litter in the bottoms of hedges - if it's
been there in the sun for a while it'll often only have the blue
printing left.

From this you might think that black paint would be worst of all, but it
cheats and uses completely different pigments.

--
Skipweasel
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

The message
from Rob Horton contains these words:

what's a bloom?

Sort of whitish dusty looking effect on the surface of paint. Same as
plums look like before you polish them.

--
Skipweasel
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

Doki wrote:
"Drake" wrote in message
...

I've got a red car that has developed an unusual dull bloom in the
paintwork on its roof and bonnet. I managed to cure the bonnet by
rubbing the hell out of it with Auto-Glym and then polishing it to
death - by hand. Auto-Glym was the only polishing compound that worked
properly. Other stuff like T-Cut appeared to work, but then whitish
streaks would appear after a day or so - no matter how hard I polished
it. Waxing didn't help.

I now want to tackle the roof, but I want to avoid as much of that
hard work as possible. Would it pay me to buy an electric car
polishing tool, such as http://tinyurl.com/pha83 ? Or will an
electric drill with a buffing wheel attached do just as well? If so,
does anyone know where I can buy the buffing wheel or polishing
attachments at a reasonable price?

Or would I be wiser to just let a local body shop do it for me? Anyone
know what would be a fair price to pay?

You can polish a car yourself, but you need something along the lines of the
right tools. Bare minimum is a proper polisher (looks like an angle grinder,
speed tops out at 3000rpm and is variable - the sort you linked to is
****e), and some Farecla G3. You can fit a proper foam polishing mop to a
drill, but it's not really at the right angle (or speed) to be easy to use
on car bodywork. Porter cable are reputed to be the best (AFAIK they have a
similar action to a DA sander to avoid swirl marks), but most body shops use
the bog standard basic type of polisher because a) that's what everyone else
uses and b) most people don't notice or care about the swirl marks left by
polishing. Hence Autoglym etc. selling well - if you polish a dark coloured
car with something like AG Super Resin, it will look like a sack of ****.

I've gone through how this stuff done before in the uk.rec.cars.* groups if
you want to have a google.


You need to look at sommat like this.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TEK-POL-Profes...QQcmdZViewItem

I got a similar one, a jar of G3, make sure the sponge is wet when you
apply or it will "burn" the paint. It's a messy job as the compund
spins off on startup so dont wear your best clothes!! once you have
done the mopping seal it with stage 2 and stage 3 Mcguiars (halfords do
em) and if you want a top protective shine do an ebay for diamondbrite
two pack, they are ridiculously cheap on ebay! its a trade polish
mostly used for preparing new cars, thats why they look well shiny (
not just the new paint!).
You will be pleasantly surprised with the results you will get from
doing it, and you'll have the kit should you require it again. Set
yourself a good 5-6 hours to do it right.

"Rob Horton" wrote in message
...
Drake wrote:
I've got a red car that has developed an unusual dull bloom in the
paintwork on its roof and bonnet. I managed to cure the bonnet by
rubbing the hell out of it with Auto-Glym and then polishing it to
death - by hand. Auto-Glym was the only polishing compound that worked
properly. Other stuff like T-Cut appeared to work, but then whitish
streaks would appear after a day or so - no matter how hard I polished
it. Waxing didn't help.

I now want to tackle the roof, but I want to avoid as much of that
hard work as possible. Would it pay me to buy an electric car
polishing tool, such as http://tinyurl.com/pha83 ? Or will an
electric drill with a buffing wheel attached do just as well? If so,
does anyone know where I can buy the buffing wheel or polishing
attachments at a reasonable price?

Or would I be wiser to just let a local body shop do it for me? Anyone
know what would be a fair price to pay?

Thank you,

Drake
what's a bloom?

Bloom is when paint takes a milky look. Can happen if you spray when it's
too cold. What the OP's actually referring to is fading.

John wrote:
"Drake" wrote in message
...

I've got a red car that has developed an unusual dull bloom in the
paintwork on its roof and bonnet. I managed to cure the bonnet by
rubbing the hell out of it with Auto-Glym and then polishing it to
death - by hand. Auto-Glym was the only polishing compound that worked
properly. Other stuff like T-Cut appeared to work, but then whitish
streaks would appear after a day or so - no matter how hard I polished
it. Waxing didn't help.

I now want to tackle the roof, but I want to avoid as much of that
hard work as possible. Would it pay me to buy an electric car
polishing tool, such as http://tinyurl.com/pha83 ? Or will an
electric drill with a buffing wheel attached do just as well? If so,
does anyone know where I can buy the buffing wheel or polishing
attachments at a reasonable price?

Or would I be wiser to just let a local body shop do it for me? Anyone
know what would be a fair price to pay?

Don't know why it does it on certain red cars but it does. My mate had a
red Mitsubishi Colt that went 'pink'. I had a red Honda Civic same year
etc, that has stayed red.

Some manufacturers use a lacquer coat on their fade prone solid
colours. That may have made a difference. And just washing more
regularly with a wax added shampoo will help.

Had a 12 year old red Peugeot 306 in the family which was sold
recently. The paintwork was as new with no special treatment.

Phil L wrote:
Drake wrote:
I've got a red car that has developed an unusual dull bloom in the
paintwork on its roof and bonnet. I managed to cure the bonnet by
rubbing the hell out of it with Auto-Glym and then polishing it to
death - by hand. Auto-Glym was the only polishing compound that worked
properly. Other stuff like T-Cut appeared to work, but then whitish
streaks would appear after a day or so - no matter how hard I polished
it. Waxing didn't help.

I now want to tackle the roof, but I want to avoid as much of that
hard work as possible. Would it pay me to buy an electric car
polishing tool, such as http://tinyurl.com/pha83 ? Or will an
electric drill with a buffing wheel attached do just as well? If so,
does anyone know where I can buy the buffing wheel or polishing
attachments at a reasonable price?


Only take a drill to it if you are thinking about scrapping it.

Or would I be wiser to just let a local body shop do it for me? Anyone
know what would be a fair price to pay?

Thank you,

Drake

There is a polish out there called 'Mer', worth it's weight in gold and does
a lot of the work for you, just follow the instructions.

I bought it many years ago but it's not much more than a wax. The guys
selling it at the exhibitions claim it will create miracles. ;-)

wrote in message
oups.com...

Phil L wrote:
Drake wrote:
I've got a red car that has developed an unusual dull bloom in the
paintwork on its roof and bonnet. I managed to cure the bonnet by
rubbing the hell out of it with Auto-Glym and then polishing it to
death - by hand. Auto-Glym was the only polishing compound that worked
properly. Other stuff like T-Cut appeared to work, but then whitish
streaks would appear after a day or so - no matter how hard I polished
it. Waxing didn't help.

I now want to tackle the roof, but I want to avoid as much of that
hard work as possible. Would it pay me to buy an electric car
polishing tool, such as http://tinyurl.com/pha83 ? Or will an
electric drill with a buffing wheel attached do just as well? If so,
does anyone know where I can buy the buffing wheel or polishing
attachments at a reasonable price?


Only take a drill to it if you are thinking about scrapping it.

Or would I be wiser to just let a local body shop do it for me? Anyone
know what would be a fair price to pay?

Thank you,

Drake

There is a polish out there called 'Mer', worth it's weight in gold and
does
a lot of the work for you, just follow the instructions.

I bought it many years ago but it's not much more than a wax. The guys
selling it at the exhibitions claim it will create miracles. ;-)

Seconded. Every time I've seen it used it seems no better than T-cut.

wrote in message
oups.com...

John wrote:
"Drake" wrote in message
...

I've got a red car that has developed an unusual dull bloom in the
paintwork on its roof and bonnet. I managed to cure the bonnet by
rubbing the hell out of it with Auto-Glym and then polishing it to
death - by hand. Auto-Glym was the only polishing compound that worked
properly. Other stuff like T-Cut appeared to work, but then whitish
streaks would appear after a day or so - no matter how hard I polished
it. Waxing didn't help.

I now want to tackle the roof, but I want to avoid as much of that
hard work as possible. Would it pay me to buy an electric car
polishing tool, such as http://tinyurl.com/pha83 ? Or will an
electric drill with a buffing wheel attached do just as well? If so,
does anyone know where I can buy the buffing wheel or polishing
attachments at a reasonable price?

Or would I be wiser to just let a local body shop do it for me? Anyone
know what would be a fair price to pay?

Don't know why it does it on certain red cars but it does. My mate had a
red Mitsubishi Colt that went 'pink'. I had a red Honda Civic same year
etc, that has stayed red.

Some manufacturers use a lacquer coat on their fade prone solid
colours. That may have made a difference. And just washing more
regularly with a wax added shampoo will help.

All cars are Base & Clear now.

Had a 12 year old red Peugeot 306 in the family which was sold
recently. The paintwork was as new with no special treatment.

I've got a Golf that I'm in the middle of painting (16 years old). The
paintwork's knackered because it was never washed.

In article ,
Doki wrote:
There is a polish out there called 'Mer', worth it's weight in gold
and does a lot of the work for you, just follow the instructions.

I bought it many years ago but it's not much more than a wax. The guys
selling it at the exhibitions claim it will create miracles. ;-)

Seconded. Every time I've seen it used it seems no better than T-cut.

*All* the expensive polishes are a con. Something like Turtle wax Extreme
is as good as any.

--
*A cubicle is just a padded cell without a door.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Fri, 6 Oct 2006 09:57:09 +0100, "Doki" wrote:

what's a bloom?

Bloom is when paint takes a milky look. Can happen if you spray when it's
too cold. What the OP's actually referring to is fading.

Well, the bloom does polish out - and then it doesn't look faded. I
pretty much cured the bonnet. I pilished the bloom out with autoglym
about 6 months ago, and finished with some kind of surface-sealing oil
- and it's still looking good. So if all else fails, I'll do the roof
the same way. (Hard work though, and time-consuming, by hand.)

Thanks for all the helpful and experienced replies on this one. £100
is more than I want to pay to get it polished professionally, so I
guess I'll have a go with whatever electric polisher I can get hold
of.

I should have mentioned that I just want to get it looking good to
sell it. I never bothered much about the bloom on the roof while I was
driving it, but now it's time to sell, I want to make it look nice and
shiny.

Drake

In article ,
Drake wrote:
so I guess I'll have a go with whatever electric polisher I can get
hold of.

Be my guest, but if you think it will save effort you'll be disappointed.

--
*The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Fri, 6 Oct 2006 09:36:47 +0100, Guy King wrote:

The message
from Rob Horton contains these words:

what's a bloom?

Sort of whitish dusty looking effect on the surface of paint. Same as
plums look like before you polish them.

You polish your plums?

The message
from nog contains these words:

Sort of whitish dusty looking effect on the surface of paint. Same as
plums look like before you polish them.

You polish your plums?

When the wife's not here, yes.

--
Skipweasel
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Doki wrote:
There is a polish out there called 'Mer', worth it's weight in gold
and does a lot of the work for you, just follow the instructions.

I bought it many years ago but it's not much more than a wax. The guys
selling it at the exhibitions claim it will create miracles. ;-)

Seconded. Every time I've seen it used it seems no better than T-cut.

*All* the expensive polishes are a con. Something like Turtle wax Extreme
is as good as any.

I dunno. If it's got a lot of an expensive ingredient (say, carnauba), then
it's supposedly better. Never had any to try out mind.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Drake wrote:
so I guess I'll have a go with whatever electric polisher I can get
hold of.

Be my guest, but if you think it will save effort you'll be disappointed.

It does, as long as you don't cock up...

"Drake" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 6 Oct 2006 09:57:09 +0100, "Doki" wrote:

what's a bloom?

Bloom is when paint takes a milky look. Can happen if you spray when it's
too cold. What the OP's actually referring to is fading.

Well, the bloom does polish out - and then it doesn't look faded. I
pretty much cured the bonnet. I pilished the bloom out with autoglym
about 6 months ago, and finished with some kind of surface-sealing oil
- and it's still looking good. So if all else fails, I'll do the roof
the same way. (Hard work though, and time-consuming, by hand.)

It's fading. Bloom is a spraying defect. Fading affects the top layer of the
paint - take the top layer off, and the layer below will be unfaded and
shiny.

Thanks for all the helpful and experienced replies on this one. £100
is more than I want to pay to get it polished professionally, so I
guess I'll have a go with whatever electric polisher I can get hold
of.

I got hold of a polisher for £20ish IIRC from one of the cheap supermarkets.
Then you need mops - about a tenner a time if you buy farecla ones, and some
G3, and that's not far off a tenner either. Then you've got to spend time
doing it, and if you're not careful, you can rub through to primer on edges
where the paint is thinner. You can fix it relatively invisibly if you're
handy with paint, but you'll need to buy some matching paint (won't be much
less than a tenner either, as it's no longer the colour it was from the
factory and you need it to match) and lacquer over it. Unless you plan on
doing a few cars, I'd do it buy hand or pay someone else. TBH by the time
you've got all the kit together, you could have done it by hand. I once did
a Ford Orion that had turned pink in an afternoon with AG paint renovator
and super resin polish, but any rubbing compound will do the job (although
some Holts stuff I've seen is ridiculously coarse). It's also well worth
cleaning the car well before you start - get some traffic film remover or
you'll inevitably end up rubbing dirt about.

I should have mentioned that I just want to get it looking good to
sell it. I never bothered much about the bloom on the roof while I was
driving it, but now it's time to sell, I want to make it look nice and
shiny.

In article ,
Doki wrote:
so I guess I'll have a go with whatever electric polisher I can get
hold of.

Be my guest, but if you think it will save effort you'll be
disappointed.

It does, as long as you don't cock up...

I've got a random orbit one which came out well in recent Practical
Classics testing. But don't bother with it as it simply doesn't save
either time or effort.

--
*Corduroy pillows are making headlines.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Sat, 07 Oct 2006 11:13:23 GMT, "Doki" wrote:

Bloom is when paint takes a milky look. Can happen if you spray when it's
too cold. What the OP's actually referring to is fading.

Well, the bloom does polish out - and then it doesn't look faded. I
pretty much cured the bonnet. I pilished the bloom out with autoglym
about 6 months ago, and finished with some kind of surface-sealing oil
- and it's still looking good. So if all else fails, I'll do the roof
the same way. (Hard work though, and time-consuming, by hand.)

It's fading. Bloom is a spraying defect. Fading affects the top layer of the
paint - take the top layer off, and the layer below will be unfaded and
shiny.

Yes - I can see what you mean, now.

Thanks for all the helpful and experienced replies on this one. £100
is more than I want to pay to get it polished professionally, so I
guess I'll have a go with whatever electric polisher I can get hold
of.

I got hold of a polisher for £20ish IIRC from one of the cheap supermarkets.
Then you need mops - about a tenner a time if you buy farecla ones, and some
G3, and that's not far off a tenner either. Then you've got to spend time
doing it, and if you're not careful, you can rub through to primer on edges
where the paint is thinner. You can fix it relatively invisibly if you're
handy with paint, but you'll need to buy some matching paint (won't be much
less than a tenner either, as it's no longer the colour it was from the
factory and you need it to match) and lacquer over it. Unless you plan on
doing a few cars, I'd do it buy hand or pay someone else. TBH by the time
you've got all the kit together, you could have done it by hand. I once did
a Ford Orion that had turned pink in an afternoon with AG paint renovator
and super resin polish, but any rubbing compound will do the job (although
some Holts stuff I've seen is ridiculously coarse). It's also well worth
cleaning the car well before you start - get some traffic film remover or
you'll inevitably end up rubbing dirt about.

Great suggestions - thank you. I'll have a go at doing it by hand this
wekend.

Drake

On Fri, 6 Oct 2006 09:57:09 +0100, "Doki" wrote:

what's a bloom?
Bloom is when paint takes a milky look. Can happen if you spray when it's
too cold. What the OP's actually referring to is fading.

Not always, in hard water areas it can be a build up of calcium. I saw a
Vauxhaul Velox in a dealers that was grey, when they cut back the bloom
it turned out to be two tone white and pink, all becasue the owner
washed it off everyday with a hose!