Brasso

[Stewart]

Hi,

My 90 has had a spray job at some time in its life, which has now gone as flat as a pancake. The security guard where I work keeps on banging on about Brasso being a brilliant car polish. Has any one tried this or has he just gone mad?

When say brasso I do me the metal polish stuff.

Thanks Stewart

[Les Henson]

Using Brasso would be a very long and tedious job to restore paintwork. If the paint was that bad I would use T-cut, or even start with 1000 or 1200 grit wet/dry used with soapy water, then T-cut and polish. Restoring old paintwork is time consuming, but not that difficult.

Les.

[Stewart]

Using Brasso would be a very long and tedious job to restore paintwork. If the paint was that bad I would use T-cut, or even start with 1000 or 1200 grit wet/dry used with soapy water, then T-cut and polish. Restoring old paintwork is time consuming, but not that difficult.

Les.

If it was that good every one would be using it. I've got some colour T cut stuff from halfords so will give that a go. Ive just pm you.

Thanks Stewart

[Mo Murphy]

Polish the dullness out with T-Cut and then put a good coat of wax on to prevent further oxidation.

Mo

[mmgemini]

Brasso is much better than T Cut.

However T Cut is a lot coarser than Brasso.

I know of body shops that used to but Brasso in gallon cans........

mike

YES !! England is a free country. As long as you do as you are told.

[Les Henson]

However T Cut is a lot coarser than Brasso.

I can't see how that is, Brasso is designed to polish brass, copper, stainless etc, whereas T-cut is for paint, which is pretty-much hard plastic. I've never heard of someone using T-cut to polish metal, which it seems from what you say Mike, would be better.

Les.

[jericho]

Brasso does a resonable job of polishing fine scratches out of perspex,a little to coarse for perfect results,so I can see it might work on paint,but haven't tried it.I must try t-cut on perspex.

On a slight tangent,whenever I have t-cutted and polished cars in the past,I have had good results,but the paint then seems to oxidise and fade faster than ever - am I doing something wrong?

[Happyoldgit]

You will probably find Farecla G3 better, it's what many bodyshops use. Brasso (and T-Cut come to that) will leave a haze if not removed completely.

[q-rover]

Claybar

Then apply a series of polishing compounds (I use Autoglym) and finish off

with a sealing layer.

Then whenever you wash your car ( ) use a compatible car shampoo.

This will not only wash the car but also restore the wax layers.

That way you should only have to polish 2-4 times a year.

[paintman]

Brasso (in 5 litre cans) used to be very popular with the better specialist bodyshops when I was working in a Motor Factors in the mid 70's back in the days of cellulose and enamel paints.

For rapid removal use Farecla G3, 3M 'Perfect-it', T-cut. Don't go mad. Especially if you use a machine polisher!

If you do use a machine polisher the white foam pads remove paint VERY QUICKLY & you would be safer with the soft black ones.

For slower removal - I use a lot of this when finishing paint work after respraying - 3M 'Finesse-it' or an alternative is Farecla G10.

If your paint appears to be faded it is highly likely that the car is a solid red, blue or green. They are well known for it on older vehicles. Once you have cut back the surface using one of the above products you MUST apply a good quality polish or the shiny paint surface that you have just exposed to the atmosphere will rapidly oxidise & go back to the dull faded appearance.

For fresh paint I use 3M 'Imperial Hand Glaze' and for older fully cured surfaces 'Trade Wax'. You will need to get these from a Motor factor as they are trade products & not generally stocked by 'Motorists shops'

On one of our own cars ( dark blue Metro) I generally had to redo it at 5 to 6 month intervals (using 'Trade Wax' on a polishing machine with soft black mop)apart from one panel which I 2K lacquered & as the paint was then sealed from the atmosphere it stayed shiny!

The Farecla link posted by Steve is well worth a look. Details their products and includes how to use them.

I am not a fan of the 'colour polishes'. When they first appeared I was given a bottle by the rep in the correct colour for my RRC. I did 2 panels & chucked it in the bin. Left lots of powdery residue in chips & scratches & I haven't tried it since

Be especially careful if you use any of the compounds on metallics and/or pearls with a power polisher. I see a lot of bonnet damage by DIYers & the usual explanation is that they were polishing away & noticed a little tiny dull spot (usually on a bonnet swage line), so they polished it a bit more and the dull spot got bigger.....

What they have done is polished through the lacquer. The colour coat is matt & is now damaged. The ONLY way to sort this out on a bonnet is to have the whole bonnet resprayed as bonnets cannot normally be invisibly spot repaired. You have been warned

Don't forget that each time you use an abrasive you are removing a layer of paint!

[Turbocharger]

What's washing?

[gruntus]

Ashamed to say I have used T-Cut to remove scratches on CD's that wouldn't play

In my defence they were knackered and due for the bin up to that point anyway, and it did work !!

G

[BigSi110]

Meguiar's Stage 1, 2 and 3 paint renovation cleaners are pretty good.

I use them for faded / oxidised paint and they do work very well. Stage 1 removes oxidisation. 2 is the polish and 3 is the wax.

My 110's bonnet (Arles blue) is prone to fading. I just keep it polished regularly with Autoglym every month.

I'd agree with Paintman about the colour polishes. They do leave powdery residue. I've got black (left over from our dear departed Saab) which I now use on the 110's bumpers and headlight surrounds, and white (left over from many of our past cars) which is great on the 110's roof. The powdery residue isn't noticed with the white stuff.

Just use a good, absorbent lint-free polishing cloth to remove the powder. Old terry nappies are excellent!

If nothing else, polishing is a good aerobic workout.