I am doing a light detail on this 2005 yellow VW Beetle convt. The entire car has orange dots all over. I clayed the entire car, standard blue clay barely removed the contamination, as the owner said the car was waxed maybe once since they bought it new in 2005; ended up using RED Claymagic bar. Now I am in the polishing phase. I have a Griots 6" DA and a Makita 9227. I tried the DA with M105 and a yellow Uber 5.5" foam pad and it's not cutting like I thought it would...I have never had this combo not work easily. Has anyone had any experience with these Beetles and the clear coat? I don't think I need to use my Rotary and a wool pad as the cars paint isn't oxidized or anything and the condition I am polishing is simple car wash scratches and the results of using the RED Claybar. One more question on these cars. There is chrome-like trim around the base of the windows and convt top. I don't know if this trim is clearcoated, chrome, or polished aluminum...it looks oxidized and I'd like to make it bright again...anyone do this?
Im pretty positive the trim is just gonna stay that way, I have a 08 audi a4 and they use the same material for the trim. its a common problem for it to look oxidized, the only fix I found for it is to re-clearcoat it. I used the plasti dip clear finish stuff from dipyourcar and that did the trick. Nothing else seems to work for me.
I'm not sure on the clearcoat, but I will say something about the trim. I have a 1972 Beetle, with aluminum trim. It was completely dull, with no shine left. After some research I found that aluminum trim on cars is anodized, to keep it shiny without needing polishing. But that anodization breaks down after a while, leaving that dull finish that can't be polished with anything. There is one thing that will work, but it's more of a last resort thing and probably isn't something that you'd do on a "normal" detail. REMOVE the trim, and then spray it with oven cleaner. Scrub it, and that'll remove the anodized coating, leaving the bare aluminum underneath. It worked great on my Beetle's 40-year-old trim. However I have no idea if it would work on a modern car, and it's probably not worth your time. I would say try some fine steel wool and something like P21S polishing soap...that seemed to help it some on my boyfriend's old BMW.
