Is Meguiars Worth It?

[Warehouse_XIII]

I am wanting to bring some life back into the old paintwork of my KE55, at the moment it's red paint work is well weathered and lost pretty much all sheen.

Has anyone used the Meguiars Restoration kit to restore some life to old paint work. I will eventually get the entire body resprayed but for the moment I am just looking at getting her a little more presentable. The body does have 30yrs worth of stone chips and the odd rust spot but nothing really massive and would look so much better if the paint got a bit of TLC.

 

Worth the money on Meguiars, or does anyone have any other ideas? I have always just used kitten cut and polish and wax, but have seen/heard good things about the meguiars system and supercheap has it for around $50 so not a bank breaker, just don't want to waste my time if something will do better

[Twinky]

I can personally vouch for Meguiars. I've got a mate who has a blue 88 mazda 626 with epic roof fade. It was that bad that the paint on the roof was an off white.I thought that the

roof was too far gone to even bother with until I noticed that a bit of elbow grease got great results on one of the guards that had turned white as well. After about 10 mins of cutting

in on the worst part of the roof I got a gleaming blue finish almost like new paint.

 

​So yes this stuff is definitely worth it. Just get your technique right and have plenty of patience as it will seriously take you a full day to go over the entire car properly. If you only take 3 or 4 hours

then you have either gone too fast or you have access to a machine. This of course depends on the current condition of the paint, if it is ok then yes 4-5 hours should get it in showroom condition.

You also get a great workout and a bad case of RSI.

[altezzaclub]

just buy a $5 jar of "Gumption" at your local supermarket & mix it with a little liquid polish. (had to go and try it to make sure!)

 

It will be much better with a polishing machine, basically a 9" disc grinder that goes very slowly. DON'T polish any edges or sharp corners (body lines) however!

 

Hopefully you can rent one or talk a spray-painter into loaning you one for a tray of beers.

 

All the polish manufacturers put out a restoration product, its usually just polish with grinding paste in. You can buy the cutting compound by itself from a panelbeaters supplies shop.

 

The grit size varies between manufacturers, so while it depends on how bad your paint is (how much you want to cut off), get something that you can't feel as gritty in your fingers.

 

The more you cut off the thinner the paint, obviously, so look hard for any changes in colour and stop immediately you can see through it.

[rian]

Yes Meguiars products are very good. Having all the proper equipment and knowing how to use it will also make a humongous difference.

[Warehouse_XIII]

Thanks for the help and advice guys.

 

After much Googling and youtubing I decided to get the Meguiars Paint Restoration kit and in no uncertain terms i am MASSIVELY impressed.

 

So far I have only done the roof (damn work getting in the way of me playing with my toys), but it looks amazing. The paint work has that nice deep glossy shine to it again and feels amazingly smooth.

 

Granted I am still learning to use the products to their full potential so it is not perfect and bringing it back from it's current state is a lot tougher than keeping it in such condition. So I would think another 1-2 full cycles of the system and it is going to be even better. But it has stemed off me having to get a respray for a fair while longer.

 

I tried to get a pic but did not have much luck of the roof, I will be finishing the rest of the car tomorrow as i have the day off and will take the standard split pic of the before and after (maybe a quick video as well.

 

But anyone wanting a way to bring some life back into a weathered paint scheme, $60 from supercheap and a bit of elbow grease and you've got yourself a winner.