Suggestions for cheap and easy weekend projects

[kylehamilton79]

I have the weekend off and the weather is supposed to me nice so I'm looking at something I can do to my car that is fairly cheap and will yield good results. Recently I've replaced the front and rear suspension, shocks, intake, carb, heater core, painted the engine compartment.

I was thinking about washing the car and maybe trying to polish some of the trim and chrome pieces. Any suggestions on the most effective way to do this. I've tried before but haven't had much luck getting anything to actually shine up. My paint is 11 years old and is just a base coat only, so it's faded and nothing I tried helped to bring back the shine. My neighbor is a body/paint guy and he even gave me some things he uses to try with no luck.

I'm mainly just looking for help on polishing up some trim or anything else anyone has done that is fairly cheap to do and helps appearance. I'm itching to work on something, but the past couple of months have been expensive as far as buying parts goes. Thanks.

 

[jlangholzj]

I'm kind of a nut when it comes to neatness so I always am looking at re-wiring the engine bay, cleaning up connections, re-wiring accessories and tying stuff back, etc etc.


000 steel wool works AWESOME for restoring chrome. If there's speckle (bumps) on it too i've had good results from taking wet/dry 1500 to it first to smooth it out then buff the chrome out. With steel wool you don't need a buffing compound and it gets just as shiney

also, clay bar you car. I do mine once a year every spring. Clay it, get rid of all the impurities, then take a mid-high cut 3M buff to it, final cut 3M, then wizards scratch/swirl remover and lastly a wizards polish and wax. makes the car look nice a shiney this is all a day long project though, so be prepared!

 

[S-Car-Go]

For cars that had really oxidized paint and I couldn't make it worse... I've used comet/ajax powder cleaners as a rubbing compound. It strips off the top layer of paint and shines it up with mixed results. WARNING: You can go through the paint if you're not careful. Wax is needed right away or the shine doesn't stay.

Another cheap/easy thing to do is a dura-spark ignition upgrade from the pick-and-pull. Last time I did it (years ago) all the parts set me back ~$25.

 

[horseballz]

Best nice weather project I can think of is:
Drive It!!
Not necessarily cheap, with today's gas prices, but easy and quite gratifying!
My $.02,
Gene

 

[kylehamilton79]

I'm gonna try some steel wool on the chrome after I've got it all cleaned up then I'm for sure gonna cruise for a while. I drive the car every weekend with nice weather. My paint isn't super horrible overall, but the car was parked under a carport before I bought it so the trunk and part of the roof are faded from the sun and have a few water spots. What's good is I've already got 3/4 of a tank of gas so she will be ready to give me a few hours without costing anything tomorrow.

The only other thing I thought about possibly doing is replacing plug wires. Mine are a year old but they are yellow and don't look good under the hood with new blue and black paint. I don't know if I will get to that this weekend. I've already got a Pertonix ignition too, but I've heard about using the duraspark before.

 

[enferno]

I'm kind of a nut when it comes to neatness so I always am looking at re-wiring the engine bay, cleaning up connections, re-wiring accessories and tying stuff back, etc etc.


000 steel wool works AWESOME for restoring chrome. If there's speckle (bumps) on it too i've had good results from taking wet/dry 1500 to it first to smooth it out then buff the chrome out. With steel wool you don't need a buffing compound and it gets just as shiney

also, clay bar you car. I do mine once a year every spring. Clay it, get rid of all the impurities, then take a mid-high cut 3M buff to it, final cut 3M, then wizards scratch/swirl remover and lastly a wizards polish and wax. makes the car look nice a shiney this is all a day long project though, so be prepared!

careful with using #000 steel wool! i've had a couple different brands scratch chrome or glass when using it. just to be safe, i always use #0000.

 

[jlangholzj]

careful with using #000 steel wool! i've had a couple different brands scratch chrome or glass when using it. just to be safe, i always use #0000.

i guess mine was pretty oxidized i <3 steel wool for chrome and glass!


and to the op: a claybar should take out alot of the waterspots and oxidization, if not, a mid-cut polish would

 

[2+2GT]

Have you done this yet?

Arning/Shelby Suspension Drop

 

[kylehamilton79]

I did the drop a year ago when I re-did the front suspension. I didn't get to do any polishing today though. I found a valve cover leak on the driver side at the very back and it was dripping onto the plug wire and smoking. I replaced the valve cover gaskets a few weeks ago. I used rubber gaskets this time but I guess the head might have a low spot or something on it. I checked all the bolts and they were still snugged up, so I guess I'll have to take it off and try to get it to seal better.

 

[2+2GT]

I've never had good results with rubber VC gaskets. Quality cork ones work best. I glue them to the valve cover only. Typically I can R&R them half-a-dozen times before they need replacing.

 

[kylehamilton79]

Thanks. I will pick up a set and replace them this week. Seems like the rubber ones leak for a lot of people. I read on here once that a guy uses weatherstrip adhesive to glue them to the valve cover and doesn't ever have any leaks. I already have some of that so I might have to try it out.