Body
Care, Paint, Waxes Etc.
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FAQ for 7xx/9xx/90 Cars
Version 5.0
Body
Care and Waxes. Hagman's or Sonax products, I prefer Hagman's. I machine-polished
my car for 6 months ago and waxed it with Hagman's wax and the water still
pearls. I've tested Turtle, Simoniz, Maquire and so on but Hagmans is still
the best. When I worked in a Recond-garage we used Sonax but that was before
Hagman's new products, here in Sweden Hagman's gets the highest test-score
in all car-mags.
PURE CARNAUBA WAX! Accept
no substitute. As for removing the fine scratches, try a product called
"Fill n' Glaze" from 3M. Available at most automotive paint supply stores.
Pricey, but good! Pink in color. WARNING: Always follow the Fill n'Glaze
treatment with the above mentioned Carnauba Wax. Your paint is left unprotected
without it!
Rain Dance is a decent wax, as is
Mother's. I have tried all the silicone polishes and only one has seemed
to perform as claimed. That's Finish 2001 by Turtle Wax.
Car Care Appearance Products.
[Tip] See http://www.carcareonline.com/index.html
Touch-Up
Paint Source. For the last 5 years I have been touching up vehicles
for auto dealerships. What I have done is put together a touch-up
system for your car using all the tools and supplies I used at the dealerships.
This is a basecoat/clearcoat system like the factory uses. I custom
mix the paint for your car using your paint code so it is a great match.
I can match any year vehicle. 1,000's sold----will ship anywhere.
For more info go to: http://www.ultimatetouchup.com
Paint
Chip Repair. [Query:] I have a paint chip in the front of the
hood. It appears to be down to the metal and about 1mm in size.
What’s the best way to repair this?
[Tip from Cavalier Forum at Yahoo]
When touching up the car and I don't have
a lot of paint chips to fix, I dig out one of my dissecting needles, dip
just the very tip into the paint, then touch the tip to the chip area.
That is also a very accurate way to do touch up and does not use a normally
hard-to-get hypo with fine needle tip. A dissecting needle
is basically a largish steel needle stuck into the end of a plastic rod
whose diameter is typically that of a pencil and length is about 5 inches.
You can find them in hobbycraft stores that sell model paints and tools
like pin drills. You can make your own substitute for a dissecting
needle painting tip by using a paperclip. Straighten the paperclip out.
Take a needlenose flat-faced pliers (or any pliers with a flat crushing
surface) and mush the end of the paperclip down. It now looks like the
end of a tiny bladed screwdriver (which is what I use for tightening screws
in my glasses when desperate). Use the pliers to chomp at it until you
have a reasonable tip on the end of the paperclip. That is your new recyclable
painting needle.
There, if you don't have a hypo, you can
substitute a dissecting needle. If you don't have one of those, you can
substitute a homemade paperclip painting tip (and feel proud that you are
related to MacGyver who invents things on the fly). If you have no paperclip,
you can always take a sliver of wood. I've taken wooden doweling and sharpened
it in my pencil sharpener (the small manual ones) to a tip before
and used those.
Really, the hypo method is better when
you have a TON of paint chips to do. If you only have ten or twenty chips,
you might as well use a metal tip....
The above methods are cheaper than using
an expensive artist brush (the sables can run $10 each) unless you use
one of those cheap wal-mart "artist" brushes and clip most of the hairs
off. [Response 2:] Airbrushing can make very good repairs.
Getting an airbrush and a small hobbyist compressor (like for painting
plastic models) works OK. A little practice and you can make extremely
good repairs. I do it all the time. The secret is getting the
build up in the chip even with the surrounding surface by several applications
of paint and wet sanding/polishing level.
Paint
Scratch Repair. [Tip from Steve Ringlee] It's getting cold out
here in subtropical Iowa, so I thought it opportune to do the last detailing
of the season and repair the paint scratches in my 944, the result of careless
nitwits in the supermarket parking lots. I had read somewhere about using
a hypodermic syringe to lay in a thin bead of paint right in the scratch.
After getting my flu shot I just asked the doc for the needle, explaining
that I needed it for my car. He was a little skeptical, but knowing me
to be the straight arrow I am he said "OK, you didn't get it from me" and
I was on my way.
The touchup paint from
Volvo is really for filling chips, so it has to be thinned with lacquer
thinner to work with this technique. I mixed a small quantity to a watery
consistency in a small bottle, then sucked it up into the needle. Make
sure you mix it well, else the metallic particles will settle out. Use
denatured alcohol to clean the paint of wax, silicones, etc. Then practice
on a hard surface to get the flow right: too much pressure on the syringe
and it comes out too quickly. Lay in a very small bead of paint right in
the crack with gentle pressure on the syringe.
My first attempt resulted
in too much paint in the crack, which I left on the car until it dried.
Then I used very fine auto wet sandpaper (more than 600 grit!) to sand
it flush with the surface, and oversprayed with a little clear coat. This
in turn required more sanding and polishing until it was smooth. Not the
best, but it was OK.
My second scratch filling
went better and I just filled the crack with enough paint to cover it without
requiring sanding or clearcoating. I then emptied the paint back
into the bottle and used a brush to fill in a larger ding. The thinned
paint works vastly better than the stock touchup paint and I will follow
this technique in the future. Clean the syringe with lacquer thinner and
keep it for your next scratch or maybe one rousing bash with the local
druggies. Some of our local high school crew would, I am sure, inject the
paint just to see what would happen.
Painted
Bumper Cover Repair. [Query:] My 1997 960 with the plastic body color
bumper has a dent in it. Short of replacing the bumper($700), is
ther any thing I can do to repair it ? Is there a filler or body putty
that would fill in the dent? [Response: Leon Tong] The
following procedure is described in the Volvo factory manual on paintwork
repairs:
A small ridge may appear in the bumper
cover following a low-speed collision. This can be repaired by heating
the cover and pressing the material
Heat bumper cover with a hot-air gun to
soften the damaged area. The bumper cover is sufficiently soft when
light pressure with a wooden spatula produces a small mark in the plastic.
A suitable distance between the hot air gun and bumper is 12 cm. The distance
can vary depending on the type of gun. Start with a greater distance and
reduce if required. It may be difficult to heat large areas. Divide the
work into sections. Note! paintwork will be damaged by excessive
temperature. Work carefully and be aware of changes in the paintwork caused
by excessive temperature.
Place a wet blanket over the heated area
and press out the damage with a wooden block. Keep pressure applied until
the bumper has cooled (about 2 min). Use compressed air to accelerate cooling.
Repeat procedure until the damage has
been completely repaired. Some areas of the bumper may require repeated
treatment."
Now, I haven't tried this myself, so I
can't vouch for it. And since you've got a dent, you'd be working from
the inside. But it seems like it's worth a shot if the alternative is patching
and re-spraying.
Front
Spoiler Repainting . [Query:] My (white) '89 740 still has excellent
paint but the front spoiler could use fixing. Has many nicks and scratches
and would look a lot better if repainted. Has anyone painted this
piece with any luck?
[Response: Nathaniel] The front
spoiler is a breeze to paint. But before I continue with the process let's
talk about the paint itself.
The paint is nothing special . . . use
the same paint that is used for the car. [Important Tip from JohnB]
You DO need to add a flexible additive to both the primer and the color/clear
coat paints. Also, get your viscosity right, fisheye additive in high humidity,
etc., etc. The reason the old stuff cracked off is cuz it wasn't
flexible enough to take the movement in the spoiler. Any automotive
paint supply shop should be able to sell you a can of the additive.
[Nathaniel's Comments Continued:] A good recommendation is to use
PPG. What your going to need to be armed with is the color code # for your
car. You'll find this code # on a little plate inside your engine compartment
(I'm going to avoid telling you where it's located because it varies from
year-to-year). Just look around at the various plates containing important
information about your car and you'll find it. Mine is located above the
passenger side headlight cluster. It's cleary notated "color code". Use
this # to ensure that the paint color matches
the rest of the car. If worst comes
to worst contact your local Volvo parts dealer and they will be able to
tell you the color code. It's on your car though and will be a 3 digit
#.
Once you have this # look in your yellow
pages for any shops that specialize in auto body paints and supplies. These
places are not AutoZone, NAPA, etc. The most that you're going to get from
those places is a spray can of white that resembles the car color and,
in the end, will look like s*$t. Because the spoiler is such a big part
of the front end of the 740 your probably going to want it to look just
as nice as the rest of the car. Given that, get yourself a pint of base
coat white and the necessary mixtures that will make up your clear coat.
This may sound daunting but it's not hard. [Tip from Brain Oliver]
Here in Ottawa I can get spray cans custom mixed to match the colour code
of the car. Very good paint and very easy to use, and no, it's not a big
automotive department store that does this, it's a car paint store. Try
"automobile body shop - equipment and supplies" in your yellow pages and
choose one with hours that suggest they welcome the retail do-it-yourself
customer. [Nathaniel Continued] Once you talk to the boys at
PPG you'll understand what I'm saying; they'll give you everything you
need and will be able to answer your questions. [Editors Note:
PPG is one brand, but you can find others including DuPont, Sikkens etc.]
No need for a fancy sprayer either. You
should be able to purchase, at the paint store, a sprayer that has a glass
bottle with measuring marks on it that also contains a canister of propellent.
Once together, this spray painter works just like a spray can. The only
difference is that you measure and mix the contents according to PPG's
standards and blow on the paint. Once done painting, clean out the bottle
and use the same glass bottle to mix the clear coat. BTW, buy a couple
canisters of propellent.
As far as prepping the spoiler . . . no
need to pull it off the bumper. Just mask off the the spoiler from the
rest of the bumper and car, clean the surfaces to be painted. Once clean
sand to rough the surface, clean again, sand with a finer grit paper to
smooth out any major imperfections, and clean again. Prime with a light
colored primer, atleast 2 coats, and allow to dry.
Blow on 2-3 coats of base paint then follow
up with 2-3 coats of clear coat. Allow to cure, about 24 hours, before
washing. Once the paint job is dry you will be able to drive the car. Total
cost? Should run you no more than $60. Time involved? No more than 5 hours.
Incidentally, you will not use all the paint you buy. Be sure to save what
is left over for future touch-ups on the spoiler, the paint is not cheap.
Best of luck, it's not a tough job. Done
correctly it'll add new life to the front end of your 740. But remember,
the spoiler is plastic and is therefore flexible. The next curb you come
against is likely to stress the paint job thereby creating cracks which
will lead to future touch-ups. So watch out!!
How
to Remove Pinstripes from Paint. [Query:] Can any one recommend the
safe way to remove pinstriping from the side of my 760 GLE? [Response:]
I've done this twice.
1. go to a detail shop (they'll
use some type of a "turpentine" substance to remove it.
2. go to an industrial paint supply
store and get a special pad that fits on the end of a drill. You can "blast
it off" safely--never tried this.
3. get your wife to use her long
fingernails.
4. or use your own and peel away
slowly (the cheapest but requires patience) use a blow drier to heat it
up and it'll peel off a lot easier.
5. use cleaner wax to get rid of
any excess residue.
Depending on the age of the paint and the
stripe, you might find a paint line where the tape was
100K
Badge Mounting. [Query:] I sent off and just received my 100,000
mile badge from Volvo. It's a very nice looking badge with sticky tape
for mounting it. My question is, where are these normally mounted, and
how well do they stay when you mount them? My first thought is to mount
it outside so that it's visible to drivers of lesser vehicles, but I don't
know how well it would stay. If you've mounted one before please let me
know where and how well it worked. [Response:] I've got a 100 and 200K
badge that I mounted to the grille of the car in the upper left hand corner
(looking at the front of the car). Clean the grill with Windex or rubbing
alcohol to remove any dirt/contaminants. Stick the badge squarely on the
grill...press on firmly. I've had mine for a number of years and they're
still solidly stuck, even through torrential southern thunderstorms and
heat to a Northwest winter.
Rubber
Trim Preservative. [Tip from Zee] For good rubber reconditioning
(not mere cosmetic gloss) check into:
"Trim Re-Nu" by Auto Tech 1-800-545-8624
Silicone-free. Requires sun to activate
it! Then it blocks UV damage. About $12-20 for a 8oz. bottle. Will treat
two cars, because you use it sparingly. Should do great for under-hood
rubber, too! Ask around at wholesale paint suppliers
to the autobody trade. [Editor:] Try also 303 Aerospace Preservative
at http://www.303-products.com
Volvo Maintenance
FAQ for 7xx/9xx/90 Cars
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