jed1977K81 wrote:I have already started the clean up. Thing is looking fantastic! I also started on it with rubbing compound. I think it is gonna come back. The sections I did have a real nice shine now. Will not be 100% But I will only repaint the VERY bad areas. Wanna keep it as original as possible.
Its been years since I had a car with that much oxidation on it.
But, "years" ago (Over 20) my Dad bought a 1972 chrysler Newport. Big dark blue 4 door, that had sat under a tree for like 2 years. He got it for $200 with only 60,000 miles on it.
Can you say "tree sap"? Plus the paint had oxidized really bad. Dad bought it and drove it home, and parked it. Then he and my Mom left for florida that weekend for vacation.
I was bound and determined to have that thing as shiney as a new penny when he got home from Florida.
I am almost imbarassed
to say what I did, but I wanted my Dads eyes to pop out when he got home from vacation,
So.......I washed it like 3 times by hand with a large spong, with the car really wet and soapy, I would take (this is the bad part) some comet and sprinkly on the sponge and do a section at a time, making sure I kept the car wet, never actually allowing the comet cleaner to come in contact with dry metal.
After doing this, for about 3 hours, I scrubbed the vinyl top down really good and got it good and clean, then let it dry really good.
Thankfully when it dried, most if not all of the tree sap and oxidation were gone, and what was left was a car that need a little touch-up here and there, allowed that to dry for a couple of hours, then I used rubbing compound mostly on the tops of the car (hood and trunk), got that all buffed off, then I got some Westley's poliching compund and did a section at a time, by the time I finally got done (2 whole days) nothing but working on the exterior, the car glowed, I applied a conditioner to the vinyl top, had the white walls as white as new and had the tires looking shiney.
Thru-out the rest of the week after school, I cleaned the interior, dyed the carpets, armor-all'ed everything, got the glass sparkling, and by the time my folks pulled into the drive the following saturday, my Dad got out of their car, and I had the Newport parked under a shade tree, and he waked over to it, and was just rubbing the hood and sides, and smiling.
he said...you didn't have it painted did you???? hahaa...I was 16 years old.
He was so proud of that $200 car, that looked "almost" like new again, he drove it for 10 or 12 years, well over a 100,000 miles and when he sold it for $600, it still looked good, and drove well. In fact the guy that bought it took it and had it painted, and drove it for least another 4 years before he totalled it.
Anyways, throw some rubbing compound on it a section at a time, buff it off, then in the same area, apply some polishing compund, let dry, then buff it off. You will be amazed.
Good Luck and we expect some NEW pictures of all your hard work when your done!!!