Stubborn Stains

[Soperman3]

I recently purchased a 2000 Mercury Cougar with 30,000 miles on it. The mechanical side of things have been addressed and it's time to start on the exterior. Given it's age, it's in remarkably good shape but I do have two issues I need help with:

The non-porous black molding is stained with what appears to be water marks but nothing I've tried will remove them.
The alloy wheels are also stained and I've tried rubbing compound, white vinegar and a product called CLR with no results.

I suppose I could take the car to a professional detailer but I bought it for a hobby and would prefer to do the work myself.

Any suggestions? I've attached pictures that do a pretty good job of reflecting the stains.

Thanks!

Soperman

[Mike Phillips]

The rubber molding can probably be improved but not fixed. You can try to clean it really well and apply a dressing which will restore a darker color or dye it using a product like Back to Black.

This is just the normal type of problem because car manufactures use cruddy rubber, vinyl and plastic on modern cars and overtime it deteriorates and there's no real good remedy.


The wheels look like they are clear coated, if that's true then you treat them like paint, that is you use paint care products like compounds, polishes and waxes.

Stains are either topical, that is right on the very surface or sub-surface. If they are sub-surface, that is the offending substance has penetrated "into" the clear layer of paint then you need to abrade the paint to remove a little paint and uncover what's left of the good or un-stained paint.

Because of the shape of the wheel, the small size and much less affect on the "Big Picture" (of how the car looks overall), most people would forget about. If you do want to try to fix it it's a heck of a lot easier to remove the wheel and place it on a table of some sort.


There's another possibility that the wheels are anodized, if this is the case there's NOTHING you can do to undo the damage except to


De-anodize the entire rim
Re-polish the aluminum to make it have an uniform appearance
Re-anodize the entire rim

The cost, labor and flat out hassle to do all of the above is another thing most people would simply forget about or buy new wheel.


Now... how does the paint look? Is it flawless or does it have swirls? That's something you can probably fix. That would be "Big Picture" detailing.


And....


Welcome to Autogeek Online!


:welcome:

[Perfections]

Soperman, welcome to AG. Mike of course is right on with both of his suggestions, but here as of late on that rubber trim I've had great success with carpro dlux. The darkening effect is great. I've only been testing it for about a month if different trim surfaces but so far the results have lasted.

[Soperman3]

Thank you Mike and "Perfections" for the great advice. As I ran right out to Auto Zone and bought the Back to Black, I'll try that first. If it doesn't do the job, I'll order the Carpro Dlux Perfection mentioned.

Thanks guys; it's nice to be part of such a helpful community!

Joe