New Member - Craig from Caloundra

[Lancer1993]

Okay ust wash my VRX for the first time.


Looks good in the photo but up close there are many scratches I swear weren't there when I picked up the car only a few weeks ago. Yes I know supermarkets car parks and stuff but do dealers have a special was or tricks to hide scratches. I know when I picked up the car it was parked in the shade, so on the black paint its harder to see them.

Should I get a good cut n polish to bring the paint back to life or speak to a detailing expert?

[r00tc4u53]

Typical for a black car that's over 5 years old, could be brought back with the right work, DON'T do it yourself or get some "cheap" backyarder to do it. Needs paint correction and to be done right by a professional. Mine was brand new and needed 2 days work for 2 stage paint correction after the cricks so called "detailer" completely stuffed my paint. First 2 shots are the "raw" paint with all the cherry glaze wax that they use and other crap had been taken off, the others are after shots. this is by no means "cheap" but it is done correctly and as the saying goes, you get what you pay for, my car now has NO swirls\scratches or holograms in it and has been coated with opti coat ceramic protection. Can give you the details of the guy that did mine, but keep in mind again, you get what you pay for.
BEFORE:

AFTER:

[Lancer1993]

My coupe is a dark blue and after 21 years I swear the paint is in better condition than my 5yo CJ, yes I know black is darker but it is actual scratches in the paint work, most I did not notice before and you probably wouldn't until you actually get down and wash the car.

Really wish I had taken the Cricks '24 hour' test drive deal which I've seen in ads but they never offered and at the time I didn't think it was needed.

Maybe I should just save up and paint the whole thing yellow in a couple of years... yes I want a yellow CJ, why was that never a color option in this country?

Get an EVO bonnet and rear bumper with twin outlet exhaust and do the job properly... need to start saving now.

I'm thinking Lamborghini Aventador Yellow!

[r00tc4u53]

How do you know it's in the paint? ie has it gone through the clear and hit the paint and taken it off so that you can see undercoat or metal underneath? if not, most likely in the clear coat as the majority of surface scratches are. Proper paint correction could fix it as the clear coat is basically heated up and levelled out to fill in the scratches and other defects.

Mitsubishi, as with every other manufacturer in recent years have very poor paint, not that it's bad quality, just not much of it or very thick, the paint on my bonnet was only 80 microns thick when measured for the detail. Seems to save costs they put the bare minimum of paint on so that it doesn't appear transparent. Look in "hidden" areas like the in the fuel filler area\back of flap, in boot area under carpets, almost like overspray and not painted as such, cost cutting is the cause.

[Lancer1993]

I'll get someone else to look at it. I'd say it's a mix some scratches look deeper than others and I know I didn't cause them.

But like I said without a long test drive including a close look at every panel like when washing the car and you don't have a sales person breathing down your neck you're not likely to see most of them.

As for Mitsubishi skimping on the paint inside the boot is pretty bad. That 'bar' under the rear window it just gray undercoat I think, might need a bit of DIY painting or something to make it look better.

[Lancer1993]

Okay I know I'm not the most observant but I just realized the 3 diamond logo is missing from my boot lid, checking the very first pic I took the day I took it for a test drive there wasn't one on there then.

I know things like that can be expensive, you don't want to know what the dealer wanted for new badging for the coupe after I had some rust repairs done.

Wonder if I should mention it to Cricks?

Took this yesterday after I washed her, trying to be artistic with the fence.


At least I have a Ralliart badge

[r00tc4u53]

Ugh! someone's put a stupid ebay ralliart badge on it, someone who owned it before had no idea... I laugh when I see people who do things like this to their cars, at least they could've taken the VRX badge off before putting that on...

EDIT: Just saw that you like it.... umm carry on then, not my cup of tea or whatever, least I know my ralliart badge belongs on the car

[Lancer1993]

Here is a close up, looks like the previous owner has replaced the Mitsy logo with something in the shame of a shield.



So how much do they normally go for if I want to get it back on the car?

[r00tc4u53]

LOL your car was a transformer... that's what that looks like, some (most likely) P plater put that on when they owned the car

[Lancer1993]

I'm planing on ditching the RA badge.

Love to get a replacement Mitsubishi badge but hate to think how much they cost.

[r00tc4u53]

ebay search is a wonderful thing...

non genuine: 8.8900cm vs. 9.5250cm for genuine

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/MITSUBISHI-9 ... 259b86bc87

Genuine:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Emblem-Badge ... 58a3fc04b3

Similar:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Emblem-Badge ... 2a374c5609

[Lancer1993]

Thanks, you just never know if they are the real thing from some buyers.

FYI Mitsubishi wants something in the order of $500 for the badges on the back of my old CC coupe! That's for the Mitsubishi & small logo, Lancer and GLXi, seriously thats half the cost again of the rust repairs I had done.

But $12 sounds like a good price, that said this is yet another Cricks disappointment, given the car came from a Mitsubishi dealer you would think they would do their best to return a car to stock when selling it, especially when we're only talking a few dollars (for them) for a badge and removing the Ralliart one.

Just need to know the exact location it needs to go in to return it to stock look... then paint it black LOL

More important things to worry about first, like the noise under heavy braking. Maybe I should mention the badge and they could replace it free of charge for screwing me around with this other issue?

[D]

Why would they intend on returning it back to stock???
, the idea is the greatest band for buck, hence leave it how it is and save on labour and use custom badge work as an extra selling point
People are like hey cool an Ra badge
Try mention the badge when the X fell of my VRX they replaced it for free
I took all the badges off Minus the diamonds a week later but hey.

[Lancer1993]

I don't mean completely stock or I'd have new wheels, I mean to tidy it up for sale.

[D]

I know what you ment
Usually most will