recently acquired this hachiroku

tons of major dents and the finish feels rough as sand paper. the tail lights as you can see from the pic are all blurred up (unless they're supposed to be that way, but i wouldnt know, the car is older than me!)

anyway... do you guys think i can do anything to restore this car?

and another question on the side for the best forum moderator ever wanabe- where do i get microfiber cleaner for when i'm washing my towels....

and maybe just another question... why do ppl put in vinegar with their mf towels when washing??????

TIA everyone!
-Ryan

 

ryan- thx !

this is the mf cleaner that i use:
http://www.bettercarcare.com/son-550.html

vinegar is another choice... i dont use it, but guys i know who use it love it. guess it restores the chemical balance -

to restore the car the first thing that you need to know is whether its clear coated. can you find out? i can not tell how old it is-

if clear coated, then you would use the same process that you use on your fav car-
if not, then you need special products (polishes) for non clear coated paint.


btw, how do you get a free car???

 

I got a bottle of that Sonus MF cleaner as a free bonus item with one of my orders....seems to work fine, but to be honest I don't see much of a difference between it and woolite. I also use vinegar in during the rinse cycle. THAT does make a difference, and makes them feel much softer.

I would go through the car using the same process as any other...

- Wash
- Clay
- Heavy polish
- Light polish
- Wash to remove dust
- AIO to remove oils from polishing
- apply sealant / wax
- admire

Oh...and take lots of pics throughout the process.

BTW...You're making me feel old.....that car isn't THAT old!! Its mid 80's, IIRC they made that body style of Corolla from 1983-1987. Although the SR5 version was probably only available in the latter of those years.

 

wanabe- its a 20 yr old car-1985 corolla sr5
i dont know how to figure out if it has clear coat or not, but just from observing and feeling the texture, my guess is that if it did, most of it must have corroded away

thanks for the link for the mf cleaner, i'll order it along with my drying cloth to save $ on shipping >.<

i got it from one of my dad's friends. they were about to junk the car/donate it for tax deduction coz they couldnt figure out where this leak was coming from--- my dad and i offered to take it in so they wouldnt have to worry about anything anymore. it turns out that we just had to replace a leaky 20 yr. old fuel hose leading to the carbeurator (yes, thats how old it is, it has a carbeurator ) and recharge the battery. after getting all that done and adding a lil ATF into the tranny it was up and running again. we were very lucky that most of the stuff under the hood has been replaced (timing belt, fan belt, radiator, etc) well yea... you get the idea... and basically they just gave it to us

 

sorry Dcon67, i'm only 20 years old

i'll attempt polishing the paint up next week, i think it used to have a clearcoat....

i DID try to claybar it-- it became a lot smoother, i figured that i either took off alot of contaminants or i somewhat smoothed out the paint with the clay

and one last thing--- whats AIO? i feel like a noob with all these questions

 

I doubt it was a clearcoat finish. The clear wouldn't have worn off evenly in any case. If it had failed clear, you'd see cloudy areas in it, and/or places where it looked like it'd peeled. Most likely it's just heavily oxidized single stage paint, and it'll come back looking like new once you machine polish it.

 

interesting... so what kind of polish would i use then?

 

thats a HUGE "DUH"... why didnt i think of that sooner....

 

Buy a new one !!!

 

hahah! but buying a new one means its not free!!! >.<