Like most cars owned by older people (or most of the cars I have owned) it looks like it was used as a grocery getter, A to B car, kid hauler, part time truck and a battering ram. It would also appear that someone had decided to try to park against something that left scratches and would not move easily, making creases in the body panels and in the ton of plastic that sits below the metal panels.
This is the Buick Rendezvous...
So since my job is making the vehicles in the fleet all work well (and look better than they should for being used as weapons in parking wars at the local mall) I am asked almost on a daily basis about this car. The one item I do not have pictures of is the scratch/crease going down the passenger side. Long story short, I ended up painting over the scratch and buffing the living shit out of it until said scratch was presentable. Not gone, but presentable. So, here we go on another whirlwind adventure of fixing someone's car other than my own.
Job one: Check out the ABS sensors.
An illuminated ABS or ANTI-LOCK lamp is not going to fail your car for state inspection (and if you read this blog you would know this) but it is something that can be a little unsettling. Just so there is no confusion, if the ABS light is lit up in your car, this does not mean your brakes do not work. What it means is that the anti-lock braking system has an issue that may prevent it from working correctly. My little code reader does not do ABS, but I do know that the sensors can pick up metal shit off of the brake rotors and that shit can muffle or block the signal from reaching the computer, so I remove the tires in the back of the car to check them out...
That is one damn ugly wheel...
...and one damn rusty rotor hat.
So I had to take the caliper and rotor off of both sides to check them out. Now, there is a directive here, and that directive is to make this thing look less like a turd. See the rust there above the rotor? That needed to go so I taped off the surrounding cladding. That alone not making a difference I got out some flat black spray paint the boss had in his shop to improve things a bit.
There...a little better...
I ended up doing this to all four wheel wells. I also painted the front coil springs and visible frame/engine cradle. Here's a hint: What you do to one side, do to the other, or it messes up the entire job. If this was my vehicle, those rotor hats would have been cleaned up and painted too, but I have machines to fix that make the company money, and I have been screwing around with this damn thing too long as it is.
Job two: refinish the wheels.
So while the wheel wells were drying those wheels are sitting there looking like absolute crap. Here is another hint: if nothing else hose your wheels off at least once a week to remove brake pad dust. That dust is surprisingly corrosive. First I get out a scotchbrite pad and soapy water, then I clean as much brake dust as I can off of the wheels. Then after the soap and water cleaning I take some 150 grit sandpaper and sand down any rough spots where the brake dust just sat there for most of the life of the car.
Ugh...dirty rims
Repeating this exercise four times left me with wheels that were virtually dust free but pretty beat up looking. This of course means it is time once again to raid the boss's paint cabinet in search of more paint appropriate for a wheel. After masking off the tire valve stems I am left with what to use to mask off the tire, as I really don't want to paint anything rubber.
There is an interesting method that I have seen out there for masking off the tire portion of a wheel. You get yourself some dollar store index cards and place them between the rubber and the rim, as shown in this picture...
So now, if you take your time, you too can refinish your wheels. Just make sure that you take your time, and by that I mean apply two or three light coats, instead of one heavy coat that will run and drip and look like shit. These need to dry, or "cure" for at least 24 hours before reinstallation, which gives me time to look over more of the car and decide to tackle another issue...
Job Three: Refinish the stupid hubcap things.
A word about this style of hubcap...they suck. They are made out of plastic, like half of the rest of the heap, they damage easily, and you have to use special paint to refinish them. In my case I used dupli-color silver wheel coating and the clear coat that works with it to achieve the best possible finish, since again I am not spending a ton of time on this task.
I started by scrubbing off as much brake dust as I possibly could, and then I found that the hubcaps were all jacked up by the brake dust to the point that if there were any question about whether or not they were plastic, there is no question now, as many parts were devoid of any sort of paint.
Any loose paint chips were removed by the scotchbrite pad and elbow grease. After drying the hubcaps off (compressed air helps tremendously with this particular task) two or three light coats of the silver, followed by the clear coat, make the caps look more presentable.
You can see that I have the cap over a trash can, and that no masking is really needed.
I found some wire hooks that work great to hang these up while they cure for the next week.
Don't forget to paint your nuts while you are at it...and have at it with the nut comments...
For the plastic (or real) lug nuts you want to do the two or three light coat routine but make sure you come in from four directions for even coverage. You don't want your nuts to be two tone, do you?
So while I am waiting for the next week to pass there is yet another item that needs some attention. In this modern age of plastic cars, you have plastic headlamps. These have a tendency to turn yellow over time and look horrible, not to mention this yellow condition will reduce the intensity of the lights and not allow everything to be seen at night.
Job Four: restore the headlamps to a more white condition, because it's another item on the list.
No self respecting person who has access to a family mechanic is going to want to drive around with yellow headlamps. So I called napa and they sent over some so called headlamp restoring pads that are used with a cordless drill. Save your money on that. If you want to do it right, get some 2000 grit sandpaper, a buffer, some plastic polish (high quality name brand stuff, not off brand shit made with toothpaste and rat turds) and a spray bottle.
Wet down the headlamp and start sanding that yellow funk off. Be forewarned that this will take some time. Once the lamps are clear, use the buffer and the plastic polish to shine up the lenses.
Here is the finished result...it is still a buick...
Job Five: Wash and wax.
Since I am going to do a post later on down the line on waxing a car I am not going to bore you with the details here. What I will say is that with the headlight polishing, bird droppings and stuff used to make other parts look good, I kind of felt bad not washing it...and waxing it...and making this 12 year old car look as good as possible.
