indeed you have picked up alot over the years. I'd love to know about bodywork, particularly on the platic panels of our S cars. I have 3 deep parallel grooves/lines about a foot long that I ether need to fill in and repaint or ....I dunno. The body has almost 250K on it, there are various other small chunks missing from close encounters with bridge supports to avoid semis, and a tear in the back bumper.

It wouldn't be that big a deal to touch up but it is the stock color called Black Gold Metallic, and therefore any color mismatch or lack of metallic particle distribution will look stupid, as will painting those areas straight black. Pro body work and paint will cost more than the car is worth, and you can still see your reflection crisply in the rest of the paint as I've waxed it twice a year for 18 years.

So what's a guy to do?

_______

By the way Dave-----I''m glad you got the new mirror on that easily. Hoping for no leaks.
Any chance you could call the former owner and inquire as to if he remembers what was used as the epoxy?

 

Probably not derf. My brother picked it up from a junk yard. He said one of the employees had started to fix it up for his own use, but my bro stole it from him. So I don't know if it was the junk yard that did it, or the owner before the junk yard. And since the yard is in a town in northern Illinois, it's just too much trouble.


If anything I can use the mirror piece I have as a test for these removal suggestions before I use it on the door panel.


Or I'll just live with it.

 

good idea w the test piece approach

 

Wow Derf, the possibilities are endless! There are sooooo many deep scratch repair kits available in this day and age, it boils down to time, money and / or user friendly. For scratch removal, I prefer Meguiar's Ultimate Compound. I have attached a link that explains the process, and the reason why to stay away from typical rubbing compounds. I think you will be impressed.
As far as the tear in the back bumper, I prefer using a plastic welder, but there again, is it worth the investment? There are several options, best in my opinion, besides welding, is of course epoxy, LOL. Now keep in mid, that the bumper covers are a different type of plastic than the body panels. Plastic welder for body and bumper, epoxy only for flexible bumper covers. I provided another video that shows step by step. There are tones of stuff out there concerning these issues, the problem is finding the best solution, for the most cost effective results.
For the chips, gloss black touch up paint. Let cure for two days, then Meguiar's Ultimate Compound with light buffing to blend in. It will look showroom new again! You can't go wrong...watch the videos, you'll be impressed by the results! I have used Meguiar's for years, and have never been disappointed.

 

thank you. I will watch the vids after some shuteye. But the parallel grooves are not scratches, they are deeeeeep grooves in the rear quarter panel, with a whole bunch of material missing. Volume is prob enough to butter 3-4 english muffins (a standard bodywork unit of measure). They need to be filled and painted.

The bumper tear is vertical. It is only the length of the vertical section of the bumper. I could see epoxy and gloss black on that; actually i might be able to epoxy it closed w minimal paint period.

Back to the large grooves -- there is no way I could get away with even a feathered swath of gloss black. Uncljohn has the same paint color. It looks black, gold, or both depending on how the light hits it, so any solid non metallic on it will stick out like a sore thumb. I'll post some pix (start a new thread since I accidentally threadjacked this one and move our posts over there).

 

I've been scanning this thread and probably missed something important. The grey goup on that pretty red paint? That stuff looks to me like Bondo. Or an equivalent brand, probably thinly mixed by some one who had more wishful thinking than talent. And is as far as I am concerned the kiss of death to the finish on the door.
Acetone will to some extent be helpful in removing the stuff, but Acetone will take the paint off of the door faster than you can clean up a spill. If you have ever dropped brake fluid on a paint? It makes brake fluid look slow.
My personal feeling, it is an ideal opportunity to learn to paint. The + and -'s. A good automotive paint store can package the proper color paint for the car in spray bombs if you ask for it. So if you go through the effort of getting that disastrous grey goop off the door, you can use Acetone to both finish the clean up and it will also remove what is left of the paint anyway..
It will also go after the plastic in the door skin, so being careful is the word's of the moment.
Once the plastic goop is gone, something like a 220 paper wet dry with a flexible sanding block to block sand things smooth along with a bucket of soapy water to keep things wet, some 400 paper wet/dry - wet to smooth out the 22o scratch marks and maybe a skim coat of bondo if needed to smooth things out before you start block sanding.
That same automotive paint store can supply one with a body filler primer sprayed on using GREEN masking tape for masking and old newspapers work despite what people say. Once done a spray can (packaged by the paint store if they will) of single stage Acrylic enamel (the shine is in the can) will go a long way towards making the car look nice short of repainting the whole car. Some work, dedication and a little luv applied towards fixing that Gawd awful mess will bring the car back nice.
My Saturn, with the "Black/Gold" paint looked nice after I painted it and then 3 ears later exhibited the symptoms of the screw up I did when I painted it now looks worse than it ever did.
Age has not been kind to the plastic. But I just came back from the Chrysler dealer today looking at new vans realizing I can't afford to replace my 8 year old one with 100,000+ miles on it and I don't have to, it ain't broke so no sense in fixing it. But looking at a show room full of four door sedans with nary a coupe in sight made me realize, I would rather have my 1994 Saturn SC2 Coupe repainted than a new 4 door sedan.
It has been reupholstered, it doesn't burn oil, the transmission and the A/C works and I can get a satellite radio adapter for the AM/FM/CD player in it.
And while it doesn't have all the new expensive safty gizmo's that some idiot and the cohort's there of decided I could not live with out, at 73 years old I already have lived with out them. So I'll spent 40 hours wet sanding it and then shoot another coat of black gold on it and good to go, Besides it's actually Valeries car not mine and it should look nice for her. She is going through all kinds of torment with this danged disease and she is talking about taking it together to various places. Why not, every time I drive it I wonder why they did not sell enough of them to be profitable.

 

What about black gold metallic? Can they do that in a can. I imagine you'd have to shake it up for 10 min to ensure the metallic flakes were evenly dispersed, paint quickly. I have a rear quarter on my 97 w three long deep grooves in it. Haven't decided what to do. It was my understanding that the base color is laid down, then the metallic, then clear coat.

I will never match the original coler so I'd like to replace those grooves with a little bodywork and some black gold metallic. Even if it's close , it won't be the whole panel that doesn't match, just the spot in the panel I repaint (plus the attempted feathering

Feelings?

 

Thanks uncljohn for your suggestion, but I think I'm just going to leave it. It sounds that any removal technique would be more trouble than its worth.