Improving sun-burnt paint?

[thirdman]

My Stinktiva has a lot of sunburn, and I really don't want to invest the time or money into fixing the paint RIGHT.

I would like it to be shiny, though. Unfortunately, the sundamaged paint is rough, and clogs with wax, and looks pretty crappy.

What would happen if I coated my sunburn with rattle-can clearcoat? Would that smooth out the rough spots enough? Or is it just going to peel right off and make a bigger mess?

If that won't work, what are some other CHEAP and EASY ways of making my paint a bit less disg usting? (Yes, I searched.)

Rattle-can clearcoat is $3 a can. I want to keep this LOW BUDGET.

[festivaWES]

Most of the paint on festivas is going to be single stage...meaning there is not clearcoat topcoat. The properties of gloss is in the singlestage paint. Clearing it may help, but won't last long. I have a blue/green festiva with the clear peeling off of it.. It's basically a lose/lose situation. Repaint the car. If you have a 110 air crompressor, a roll of 320 sand paper, a gallon of nason paint....sixy bucks if you shop right. You could have a brand spankin' new paint job.

[thirdman]

Dang, I was afraid of that.

I have all of the equipment to paint for real, but zero ambition. I was looking for a quick-n-cheesey way out.

Maybe if I just do one body panel at a time....

[festivaWES]

You could...I've done it before.

[Pocket_Rocket]

Try a polishing compound first, see if it helps, then some glaze and finish with wax.

[deathegg]

You may want to try (sorry, it's lots of work) color-sanding the car, then polishing it out.
This is similar to how high-end paint jobs are finished. I did it to my '69 VW Fastback (picture below) and it was remarkable how the shine can return. It was faded to the point of being rough in texture, and see how nice it is after.


BUT you have to be careful on the edges of panels, AND you have to know how to properly use a high-speed buffer.. Like I said it's not easy but may be worth it to hold off on that re-paint for a while.

[getnpsi]

I saw a neighbor using SOFT SCRUB on his 80s red bmw. It had a for sale sign on it. When I drove by 2 weeks later it looked like he repainted it. Nope. He put some nice wheels on and kept it. I had to ask, and he did color sand some areas but wow soft scrub is cheap compared to real compounds. you might even have some under the sink.

You just have to decide that it cant get any worse and try. If you screw up festivawes just mentioned an affordable option.

[CityConnection]

I saw a neighbor using SOFT SCRUB on his 80s red bmw

I've actually heard this on a few car forums. There is one thing I would add to this statement... make sure you use the Soft Scrub without bleach. My local grocery only sells the bleach version so read the label.