Bought the trunk lid from Junkyard Crawl Dart Sport - how to clean it?

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MRGTX

MRGTX

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I’m about an hour south of Bernardston Auto Wrecking where Steve Magnate films his frequent Junkyard Crawl videos. If you haven’t checked out his YouTube channel., You’re missing out! Fascinating and educational stuff.



A little while back, he featured a 1975 Dodge dart sport in a very sorry state. I noticed that the trunk lid appeared to be in nice shape so I gave them a call and they quoted an incredibly reasonable price. I spent the afternoon wandering around, checking out some cars I recognized from Steve’s videos and generally being mesmerized by the endless sea of old hulks. There are definitely a few gems to be found here but I get the impression that this is a junkyard that has been picked over many times.

Anyway, the new trunk lid will serve nicely as my spare (to be drilled for the holes needed for the Direct Connection spoiler).

It just so happens that this lid has the same red paint as my 73. It seems plausible that with some cleaning it may be a reasonable match for the original factory paint on my car.

Unexpectedly, it appears that there is a clear coat which remains about 60% intact. Can anyone recommend a solvent or another method to remove the clearcoat without harming the lacquer beneath?

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Define clean it?

Soap and water?

Cut and buff?

Sand and repaint?


Rust removal?



It looks like it is has clear coat that is peeling, might be able to lightly sand and re clear?
 
...and it's likely not lacquer.
 
Wash your car and take it to a good automotive paint store in your area. They can scan your existing paint and mix you some paint that will be a perfect match. Then strip that decklid to bare metal and epoxy prime it. Then do your hole drilling and fix any dents....and paint it. The paint that is on it now is done.
 
Dana67Dart said:
Define clean it?

Soap and water?

Cut and buff?

Sand and repaint?


Rust removal?



It looks like it is has clear coat that is peeling, might be able to lightly sand and re clear?
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I have already hit it with car wash soap and water. I gave it a good scrub and it removed the bulk of the surface grime. There is some additional grime on the exposed paint that may be removed with some light compounding. ]

The clear coat itself is the big problem. Where it is coming of in flakes and where it has blisters, it is holding very visible captive crud that can't be removed without also removing the clear coat.

So I guess my goal would be just to completely (if possible) strip away the rest of the clear and attempt use a polishing compound to save the remaining paint.

My car isn't a show car. I take some pride in my factory paint complete with all of its scratches, chips and dings. If the trunk lid can be made to remotely match the condition of the rest of the car, I would be happy.
 
If it's clear coated it's NOT factory paint.
 
DA all the paint OFF, especially clear that is flaking!!!!! That lid has been painted a few times!! like just said.
There is NO easy way to do decent body/paint work.
If you had a $30 palm sander from HF and some 220 grit stick on pads. clean it good and hit it with that and try to get rid of the darn clear crap. might take a coarser grit that will scratch whats left below the clear!
 
Sometimes a single sided razor blade can remove peeling material. Takes some time and a lot of blades.
 
Single stage enamel.

Durable and relatively easy to work with.
 
Bodyperson said:
Sometimes a single sided razor blade can remove peeling material. Takes some time and a lot of blades.
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You may be onto something, sir. Heat gun, and a razor blade are doing the trick so far without doing significant damage to the paint beneath. Thank you!

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Dartswinger70 said:
Dis ya see Stevie Mags there...?
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Nah. He wasn’t there that day. I guess he comes by about once a week and films a bunch of segments.

The owner of the junkyard told a few quick stories about him and confirmed that he’s very bit as cool in real life as he seems in his videos.

We did find his sharpie notes written on a few of the vehicles which was cool to see.

This was on the Chrysler Laser I believe…

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Bodyperson said:
Never tried it with a heat gun. Good idea. Hope you get the result you are looking for.
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Thanks.

I'll just update this- The razor work is tricky. It's arduous work and requires a lot of concentration. At about three hours in, ended up scraping a 1cm square chip out of the paint in a pretty conspicuous spot so it looks like I'll be spraying this thing after all.

The clear has to come off anyway so it's still worth the effort but my dreams of compounding/polishing the factory paint back to a respetable hue are gone. It was worth a try!
 
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