Doesn’t look evil, does it?
When I bought the Stormtrooper, I noticed the little hood bra. Not bad, right? That’s what I told myself anyway. It wasn’t a full bra. Just the hood. And not that much dirt gets trapped on the hood right?
right?
The horror show.
Get behind me, Bra.
Yuck.
Seriously, can we all just agree globally to abolish car bras? They’re the devil.
BRAS ARE THE DEVIL! Just say no!!!
Who knows how long this thing has been on the hood. Years? 9 years? The rich black soil underneath makes me think it must have been from the original Florida owner.
Yuck.
Yuck.
This is after washing the dirt off. Yes. THIS IS THE CLEAN VERSION!
Sand, dirt, rocks, and other contaminants were embedded in the paint. Just totally in there. No amount of washing was going to get it cleaner than this.
Enter the detailing stuff.
Tools.
When I got Sharka painted, I learned a lot. Like. A LOT. So much. My knowledge of detailing and paint care increased exponentially.
I’m pretty good with a DA buffer now. I can even run a non-orbital polisher, though I prefer to leave that on the shelf unless really needed. But I can buff a whole car with decent skill. It’s all in the tools and being shown how to use them.
But this job required clay.
Better.
Clay is the opposite of buffing. Clay lifts contaminants from the paint. Buffing mows down and flattens paint. Clay cleans shit out of the paint.
Both were needed for Stormy’s poor hood, but clay needs to come before buffing.
Still damaged, but better.
Here it is after claying. Not perfect, but way way better.
A few words about clay. In my opinion, clay is clay. If you’ve got a fresh (non yucky) bar of clay, you’re good. No sense spending a lot on fancy clay. It all picks up contaminants the same. Spray on some quick detailer over clean paint (or even just soapy water) and clay the heck out of it.
Feel along on the surface with your empty hand while you clay with the other. You should feel clean, smooth paint.
After buffing.
Then I buffed. Sorry to have not taken a pic. I was fighting to stay ahead of the sunset.
I’ve got a Meguiar’s DA buffer and like Chemical Guys pads. I used a green one (sorta aggressive) on this at about 5000 rpm. I also used Meguiar’s Ultimate Compound. It’s not too aggressive and seemed like a good place to start.
I plan to give it a 2nd round of buffing when I have time to wash the whole car and then get some wax on the paint. But that’ll come a bit later. This was just an emergency fix of that horrible paint under the bra.
CAR BRAS ARE EVIL!!!
In the sunlight.
Not bad.
In the shade, you can see a bit of color difference between the bra-damaged paint and the rest. It’s a bit more of a cream color in the bra section. In direct sun you can’t see that at all.
Now to burn that awful piece of vinyl in a bonfire somewhere.
ugh.
bras.
I’m just going to share this post to all bra-lovers. Those are plain ugly, and now it seems they defeat their own function. That must have been a horrible surprise !
Yeah, pulling back the cover and seeing the horror below – yikes.
So I could just go at this thing with Play-Doh?
Haha! As long as there’s no dye you’d probably be ok. Bear in mind that Play-Doh is a bit different than other clays.
Why not go all out and use Silly Puddy! That pulls in off newspaper!
*Putty
I assumed for some reason they’d spell it funny, but they don’t.
LOL! That would be a fun blog of vid – clay vs silly putty!!!
And then share your results with the world!
(it’s probably too chunky)
That’s unbelievably disgusting! And the little hod bra seems so pointless. I mean, how many rock chips are really going to hit that little strip of hood when the NC has a large, protruding nose that takes the brunt of debris?
Also, loving the more frequent blog posts! Keep it up, it’s nice to see you writing on your site more often again!
I’m all for a clean front end and doing what you can to preserve it, but bras belong on women if they choose to wear one, not on cars… Our 02 SE had one when we got it, and was literally removed within the first day of it being in the garage.
Fortunately the paint is only a bit faded on ours, nothing like your mess here, yikes!
I could have planted a garden in that rich Florida soil…
Bras are useless when it comes to cars. They don’t even keep the headlights from sagging…
And this wasn’t even a full one. What kinda support was that hood cover giving??? lol
it is only good for rocks!
When you have a bra on you car you need to take it off everytime you wash the car! Best is every week! I have one i only use on spring time so i dont get rocks on my Miata na and remove it after they clean the road and it is not dirty because i removed it every time i clean the car and this is every week! My other car i have a plastic protection that i can removed and i can see the damage under even if there are a space. I guess i will have the same result as you this car is white! If the result is the same i will put back this thing but need to buy the plastic pins to reinstall!