Camaro Strips

[Chrdun]

So it is the weekend and tomorrow I am going to get my 2011 Camaro ready for winter. I have only been using Adams for a few months now and only detailing my own cars for a month. I have not gotten it out of the garage and did a real detail to it. 

 

The strips on it are vinyal and are looking faded. They should be a deep dark matte black. What should I use. how should I proceed to restore them?

 

Thanks, 

[Dan@Adams]

Hi Chris, to restore them, I would first recommend washing them with either our Car Shampoo or Waterless Wash. Next, to bring the deep black look back to them, you could try a diluted version of our Super VRT - half of a bottle of SVRT with the other half distilled water - however, I must caution that this might add a little bit of shine to them rather than a completely matte look. Once you have applied the diluted SVRT, you could then wipe them down with a premium microfiber towel like one of our Single Soft, Double Soft, or Borderless Gray Towels, to knock down some of the shine that may appear with the SVRT.

 

Edit: An alternative method would be to try our H2O Guard & Gloss. After speaking with Dave (BRZN) last week, he uses HGG on the matte black stripes on his daughter's Camaro, and it did not add any noticeable amount of shine to the stripes.

[NG13]

Check out this Post that Dylan put out a while ago. He demos the different products that you can use to get different results, it is a very good read and the video shows the processes very well.

[Chrdun]

Hi Chris, to restore them, I would first recommend washing them with either our Car Shampoo or Waterless Wash. Next, to bring the deep black look back to them, you could try a diluted version of our Super VRT - half of a bottle of SVRT with the other half distilled water - however, I must caution that this might add a little bit of shine to them rather than a completely matte look. Once you have applied the diluted SVRT, you could then wipe them down with a premium microfiber towel like one of our Single Soft, Double Soft, or Borderless Gray Towels, to knock down some of the shine that may appear with the SVRT.

 

Edit: An alternative method would be to try our H2O Guard & Gloss. After speaking with Dave (BRZN) last week, he uses HGG on the matte black stripes on his daughter's Camaro, and it did not add any noticeable amount of shine to the stripes.

Thanks for the info. I just got a couple bottles of the H2O Guard & Gloss in the last order of Mystery Boxes. I been wanting to try it. 

[Chrdun]

Check out this Post that Dylan put out a while ago. He demos the different products that you can use to get different results, it is a very good read and the video shows the processes very well.

Thanks, 

[Chrdun]

Check out this Post that Dylan put out a while ago. He demos the different products that you can use to get different results, it is a very good read and the video shows the processes very well.

So I just checked out the info. That is the exact car that I am working on. Yellow with black strips. 

 

Thanks again for the info. 

[Beemer]

I clicked on this thread hoping to see a naked Camaro.

[BRZN]

Hi Chris, As Dan mentioned, I'd worked on my daughter's 2012 Camaro's stripes when we brought it home from the dealer last spring. I appears an industrial fallout remover was used on the car, as many dealers will do when they bring a used car in. The salesman had no idea what I was talking about, and I really doubt he mentioned it to any of the vehicle prep team, it should never have been used on these stripes. When I clayed the car, prior to polishing, I noticed the paint was very clean, leading me to believe, even more, that a strong alkaline and acid were used to prep this vehicle for sale.

I figured I couldn't make the stripes much worse, they really need replaced, so this was going to be a test for what I could accomplish with Adam's line of products.

I took just a few pictures, some with my camera, some with my phone. I wasn't really planning on doing any kind of write up but I think you can see what I was able to accomplish.

After a washing:

This is the hood stripe, passenger side about 1/4 way up the hood towards the windshield, if I recall.

Clay did nothing to the appearance, a bit of black came off into the clay, but not much. I used Revive Hand Polish a Grey Pad and my PC. It took several passes, but this is where I ended up:

I should have spent a bit more time at the outside edge on the contour part, but didn't realize this area needed more until I'd decided to stop, oh well, next spring I'll go at it again, we didn't need to replace the stripes, yet. The above picture also has H2O Guard & Gloss applied with the "Dry Method" of application. The bit of streaking that's visible are streaks remaining from the Guard & Gloss, they disappeared after a wash or two.

 

Here's the stripes on the rear deck lid:

Before

 

After

The deck lid was much worse, and didn't come back as well as the hood, my guess? The cleaner sat here too long, and may have even dried prior to being rinsed off. The rear deck lid had Adam's, now discontinued, Quick Sealant applied after being polished. The H2O Guard & Gloss on the hood stripes actually looked better (less shine) and lasted longer.

 

If your stripes are just slightly faded I suggest Revive Hand polish to bring them back. Application by hand should work just fine, I believe. Good luck and show pics!

A bit more shine to the stripes than before what I'd attempted, but not by much. No where near the level of shine the paint has making them still appear matte in contrast.

Edited November 21, 2015 by BRZN