ok, so a while back I bought a Canam outlander second hand, amazing quality mechanically however the previous owner was a tit at keeping it clean, rather than wash it after every outing I swear he'd let the mud dry and then scrape it off with an ice scraper resulting in some pretty nasty looking bodywork, there are some deep scratches along the side of the wheel arches from off road use which is to be expected but the rest of it seems mostly surface work, I'm not expecting miracles but the whole thing looks dull, tired and beaten. the rear fenders look just as bad and it looks like he tried to wet dry part of it but then gave up. Researching I've found a ton of "scratch removal kits" from companies like 3M but those were designed for painted car bodies where as this thing is heavy duty ABS plastic, researching for ATV cleaning/detailing ive come across all kinds of voodoo from toothpaste to boiled linseed oil, one guy suggested attacking it with a hot air gun. replacing the bodywork is too pricey and I don't have the kind of coin needed to replace it should I **** it up. halp
Get it wrapped, there aren't that many body panels so it shouldn't cost too much I would have thought.
I used to wrap cars so I had thought of wrapping but the bodywork would be too difficult to do it cleanly.
as well as being one actually can am do sell a murica edition outlander with realtree pattern and gunrack as standard
My mate is the Master Detailer for these guys: http://www.ultimateshineautos.com/ They're pretty happy to talk and give advice about detailing so maybe give them a call?
I do, I just want to bring it back to a factory shine when I'm done plus its easier to maintain when its not caked in Welsh mud.
spoke to a bike detailer not too far from me, he recommended I try some Meguiars PlastX, just ordered some along with some 3" dimpled foam pads, should arrive early next week.
did some shopping and I've fallen in love with Autoglym trim and bumper gel, this stuff is the tits and has done wonders for the footwell/IP and hand guards. i decided to test some on the racking as well as despite being powder coated metal its quite textured the same as the ip, i left it for a day to dry and decided to coat the rest of the racking with it. ive also used it on the back box and holy **** it looks brand new. the body is putting up more of a fight and after experimenting on a small piece at the back i discovered that 1500 grit wet dry isnt fine enough to bring up a piano black shine. got some sheets of 3000 grit coming so weather permitting i should be able to set at it properly over the weekend.
Bumper and trim gel is the tits. I use it on all exposed plastics. It only survives about two months though.
I have that stuff here. It's designed to polish headlights, so you may need something a tiny bit coarser first. It's fantastic for small scratches and dulling though I use it on my cases if they are gloss. I've also polished marks out of acrylic with it.
yeah I'm wet drying the surface first before buffing it out with the stuff, the finest papers ive got are 1500 grit which isnt enough, got varied selection of grits from 400-3000 arriving thursday as well as some smaller brushes for getting around the engine.
Yeah sorry man, very slow internet tonight. I didn't see the post where you talked about that It used to work a treat on my old headlights. I used to have plastic ones, and they hazed over every couple of months. Amazing the difference it made ! I also polished a pretty scratched bay res with it too
ok so ive been fiddling about with this and i feel like im getting no where, i thnk my buffing/polishing technique is all wrong as im not seeing results, it might be that im not doing it for long enough I dont know, anyone have an advice? im going nuts here.
