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You know... my car has been sitting for quite some time. the exterior of it has been neglected and im trying to restore it, the RIGHT way.
i pulled off the upper nose peice, front bumper, turn signals, side trim, fender liners, mud flaps, 3-piece wing, tail lights, center panel and will probably pull the mirrors and window trim off too.
im trying to buff out the factory paint, Super Red II. i need to get it cleaned up and shined up so that its ready to sell. i got the nose piece, bumper and wing all buffed out and waxed up. they are looking pretty good.
i wantd to actually repaint my side molding w/ the same color, but i noticed something. i dismanteled my liscense plate frame/holder. i pulled off the 2 metal trim strips and the red lens. the side molding itself is integrated into the body of the liscense plate holder. i decided to try waxing it to see if i could restore the color. it improved the appearance, but the color is still off. its actually DARKER than the shade of the rest of the body. i figured maybe its just sun... darkened? i held up the newly polished trim strips and they are much brighter/brilliant than the molding itself.
however, what threw me off is, the smaller urethane insert in the molding is the SAME off-colored shade of the molding itself. the transparent, red-tinted urethane strip is the same shade that the side molding turned out to be after a good rub down. this obviously means that the red tint of the urethane strip must have ALWAYS been this darker shade of red... which leads me to ask; is the main body of the side moldings supposed to be the darker shade of red? was toyota trying to give some contrast to the apperance of the car?
i like how the urethane strips are transparent and tinted rather than solidly colored. you can see the 3 grooves that are embedded on the underside. when i paint the trim, i wantd to mask off the urethane strips to preserve this novelty that toyota engineered. but if i repaint the side molding and leave the strip as-is, there will be 2 different shades of red on the trim... wtf? i really would rather not paint the urethane strip. i like the transparency of it and dont want to make it opaque.
anyone know what the f im talkin about?
i pulled off the upper nose peice, front bumper, turn signals, side trim, fender liners, mud flaps, 3-piece wing, tail lights, center panel and will probably pull the mirrors and window trim off too.
im trying to buff out the factory paint, Super Red II. i need to get it cleaned up and shined up so that its ready to sell. i got the nose piece, bumper and wing all buffed out and waxed up. they are looking pretty good.
i wantd to actually repaint my side molding w/ the same color, but i noticed something. i dismanteled my liscense plate frame/holder. i pulled off the 2 metal trim strips and the red lens. the side molding itself is integrated into the body of the liscense plate holder. i decided to try waxing it to see if i could restore the color. it improved the appearance, but the color is still off. its actually DARKER than the shade of the rest of the body. i figured maybe its just sun... darkened? i held up the newly polished trim strips and they are much brighter/brilliant than the molding itself.
however, what threw me off is, the smaller urethane insert in the molding is the SAME off-colored shade of the molding itself. the transparent, red-tinted urethane strip is the same shade that the side molding turned out to be after a good rub down. this obviously means that the red tint of the urethane strip must have ALWAYS been this darker shade of red... which leads me to ask; is the main body of the side moldings supposed to be the darker shade of red? was toyota trying to give some contrast to the apperance of the car?
i like how the urethane strips are transparent and tinted rather than solidly colored. you can see the 3 grooves that are embedded on the underside. when i paint the trim, i wantd to mask off the urethane strips to preserve this novelty that toyota engineered. but if i repaint the side molding and leave the strip as-is, there will be 2 different shades of red on the trim... wtf? i really would rather not paint the urethane strip. i like the transparency of it and dont want to make it opaque.
anyone know what the f im talkin about?