Does waxing improve the appearance of peeling clearcoat & paint?

[sh0rtlife]

it really depends on the finish and HOW its pealing/lifting, idealy youd do a light wetsand around the edges with something in the 800grit range to feather the edge, at that point YES you can rub n buff and make it neerly invisable, but..its still a bandaid to the fact you need to re-shoot the clear

as far as how long a solid rub n buff will last is entirely dependent on where you live..here in the north wet it could easily last a few years, but if your say..in nevada it may last a few weeks to a few months

again its enterly dependent on a few factors, how rough the clear is, how much effort you put into it prior to rub n buff, the products you use(id only use meguires), and the environment you live in

for my wifes yaris, i can make the small spot on the hood vanish for a year or more, but the roof is basicly untouchable as its got more a sandblasted pothole effect going on..its tons of tiny spots from where her surf boards would drip onto it..which took its toll..."could" i save it with enough effort sure, but were talking basicly needing to wetsand a large section of the roof...at which point id much rather just re-shoot the clear up there and be done with it for another 20 years

toss up shots of what your working with and ill see what i can do to help you out..i can still get a finish out of my VERY flat n faded 67 barracuda, it just takes 2 days of work to bring the shine up and it has to be mantained every 6 months...so if your willing to WORK for a shine and the paint UNDER the exposed clear is good then you should be able to make it look good even fairly up close for a reasonable period

[RMcG]

Originally Posted by sh0rtlife

toss up shots of what your working with and ill see what i can do to help you out..i can still get a finish out of my VERY flat n faded 67 barracuda, it just takes 2 days of work to bring the shine up and it has to be mantained every 6 months...so if your willing to WORK for a shine and the paint UNDER the exposed clear is good then you should be able to make it look good even fairly up close for a reasonable period

Thanks Sh0rtlife,
Attached are some pictures. The part of the car I want to work on the most is the roof. I would like to get it so the car does not look like junk from a distance of say 20-40 feet or more; for example for a person looking down on the car standing on their porch or steps. I live in the Pacific NW, but plan to travel back to Montana for work for a couple of weeks at a time. I would like to improve the car's appearance for the time being using the cleaning & waxing technique(s) described in the videos at the links in my first post.

As you can see, the rear, front and sides of the car do not look too bad, but the roof and adjacent areas look the worst. There are pictures at the end showing the car from a distance. From maybe 25-30 feet, you can still see that there is kind of a "strip" down the center of the roof.

Eventually I would like to do a more permanent solution using paint & clearcoat in spray cans. But I live in an apartment and would have to persuade a relative to use their garage.

Or perhaps I could kind of cobble together a temporary "tent" made from plastic sheeting supported by bamboo taped to the car. But I think this approach to the problem is suboptimal. I think that even on a day with calm winds and even with some kind of temporary "tent" I think wind would be a problem.

Any comments from you or others will be appreciated particularly with respect to the products to use. For example, is Lukat Fixit really necessary or is another product just as good or better?

Thanks,

R.

IMG_20220618_155137.jpg

IMG_20220618_155142.jpg

IMG_20220618_155147.jpg

IMG_20220618_155242.jpg

IMG_20220618_155235.jpg

IMG_20220618_155225.jpg

IMG_20220618_155155.jpg

IMG_20220618_155218.jpg

IMG_20220618_155211.jpg

IMG_20220618_181300.jpg

IMG_20220618_181249.jpg

IMG_20220618_181236.jpg