Restoring portion of hood after LeBra removal

[fjcruiserpd]

I recently purchased a 1993 Toyota 4Runner in excellent condition. Inside and out is virtually perfect considering the age of the car.

My only gripe however was the fact that there was a LeBra on the hood. And as I assumed, the part that was covered up needs some work to bring it back to proper form.

Now I'm not a detailing expert by any stretch so I need some advice on how to do this job. As you will see in the photos, there are some black marks in various areas. They are smooth to the touch so I can't exactly rub them out with my finger. Will this require some sort of polishing or just intense elbow grease? What products would I need? Tools?

There doesn't seem to be any color shifting in the paint or fading of any kind. Just the black smudges where the bra used to be.

Any help would be appreciated.
And by the way, the LeBra is now in LeTrash. Seriously, that thing was ugly!

 

[TheeMikeB]

It's difficult to tell from the pics how deep those gouges are in the paint. Is your goal to just get rid of the black stuff or do you want to try and bring it back as best as possible?

If you want to try and bring it back you aren't going to be able to do it by hand, you are going to need a real polisher such as a Porter Cable DA. The DA Dual Action are the most novice friendly polishers you can use without risk of burning through the paint.

You are looking at a few hundred bucks all in to get the right tools/materials to do this properly. For that price you might as well get a professional detailer to do it unless you want to get into the hobby of waxing/polishing your car yourself.

At a minimum you can get some off the shelf "cleaner wax" and try using good elbow grease to get the black stuff off and it will help with some scratches. However your best results will come from using a real polisher.

Here is what I would use if it were mine:

Tools and Materials Required:

Porter Cable DA Polisher
Lake County Polishing Pads (Orange/White/Black)
Clay Bar
Chemical Guys V36 and V38 compounds/swirl removers
Standard Carnuba Wax of your choice to finish/seal.
Pack of good quality Microfiber towels.

Watch this video here to explain how the different pads/compounds are used: I did this and my cars came out amazing. I was going to explain what to do but this is exactly what I would do.

How To Remove Swirls, Scratches & Polish Paint with the Porter Cable 7424XP - Chemical Guys - YouTube

Also this site is great for information:
We Are Car Care -- Car Wax, Car Polish, Auto Detailing Supplies, Car Buffers & Car Accessories Store

Where in CA are you? I have all this stuff and could help you out if you are close.

 

[Kean]

If you are going to try this by hand, I would suggest a dedicated polish rather than a cleaner-wax. Meguiars Ultimate Compound is readily available at many retailers and more aggressive than most of their other consumer polishes without being overly so. .....which will make it more effective in this scenario. IME, UC does leave some micro-marring when used by hand (finishes better via DA), but you can always follow up with a product like Meguiars Ultimate Polish or their Swirl-X (both are finishing polishes).

The previous owner obviously left that bra on for extended periods of time. .....perhaps never even removed it. This is all too common and why bras get a bad rep. They are great for protection on road trips, etc. but they need to be removed often and maintained to help mitigate the chances of damage to the finish.

Those black stains concern me a bit since there may have been some sort of staining of the paint that took place in those areas. ....perhaps more so if this is single stage. In either case, if these blemishes are correctable, use of UC should begin to show some level of improvement after some vigorous application. Just be prepared that some of those abrasions across the hood may not completely disappear. Given the relatively small affected area(s), I don't think it's a stretch to do something like this by hand. Even if it proves too much, you're only out the $10 or so for the product (which you can still use later).

btw, I own a v1 PC 7424 DA and a Flex 3401 VRG DA yet still prefer to do some small, localized repairs by hand. Paint transfer, minor scuffs/scratches, etc. A DA would definitely be more effective on those abrasions across the hood but you may end up being satisfied with the result you get after doing it by hand. .....worth a try IMO.