Long story coming... My dad is 81 years old, a retired mechanic who knows how to work with his hands. He taught me almost everything I know about fixing things. He used to impart such wise words as "Pain hurts and fire burns" and "Don't force it, use a bigger hammer." He helped me refinish the hardwood floors in my first house and they looked really great. He knows how to make things work and make them shine.... Usually.
He came for a visit a couple weeks ago and told me about his old Plymouth Rampage. He has had this car for many years, even took an auto painting class at the community College and repainted it corvette yellow himself.
It doesn't fit in the garage (my mom's car goes there) so he has it outside with a cover on it. Well this summer he uncovered it and found mold in the paint. So he proceeded to tell me how he tried to remove it. I nodded as he mentioned trying some cleaner, then using Megs ultimate compound using a drill attachment, but he said that didn't work.
You may want to stop reading now.... Because then he told me how he got out the "Scrubbing pads with a sponge in one end" and that didn't work either so he got out the tough ones. I cringed as I asked "You mean the Scotch-Brite pads?" and yes, that was what he meant.
Hold onto your hats, it gets worse. That still didn't work, so he got out some 400 grit sandpaper. And when that STILL didn't work, he used 180 grit and it finally came out. My heart sank.
So yesterday he asked if he could come by and we could use some of my stuff to try to fix it up. Of course (anything to keep him from using more sandpaper!) So there was still evidence of some mold and a lot of discoloration where the mold had eaten the paint. This is where I made my first mistake. I assumed that because he had to get so aggressive that the paint was pretty hard. So I got out the 5 inch microfiber pad and some ultimate compound and hit a test spot. You can see from the picture of the pad (one unused, one used) how big that mistake was. Thankfully he had laid this paint on pretty thick, so we were able to switch to a light cutting pad and get things looking like the third picture, from the first. I showed him how, and gave him all my stuff to take home with him (he doesn't like to stay too long, still very worried about the virus) so he can continue to work. Attached are the before and after pictures of the test area.
So my question is how should you remove mold like this? Did we do it right?
View attachment 70996
View attachment 70997
Postscript: it won't let me attach the picture of the microfiber pad. It was VERY yellow.
He came for a visit a couple weeks ago and told me about his old Plymouth Rampage. He has had this car for many years, even took an auto painting class at the community College and repainted it corvette yellow himself.
It doesn't fit in the garage (my mom's car goes there) so he has it outside with a cover on it. Well this summer he uncovered it and found mold in the paint. So he proceeded to tell me how he tried to remove it. I nodded as he mentioned trying some cleaner, then using Megs ultimate compound using a drill attachment, but he said that didn't work.
You may want to stop reading now.... Because then he told me how he got out the "Scrubbing pads with a sponge in one end" and that didn't work either so he got out the tough ones. I cringed as I asked "You mean the Scotch-Brite pads?" and yes, that was what he meant.
Hold onto your hats, it gets worse. That still didn't work, so he got out some 400 grit sandpaper. And when that STILL didn't work, he used 180 grit and it finally came out. My heart sank.
So yesterday he asked if he could come by and we could use some of my stuff to try to fix it up. Of course (anything to keep him from using more sandpaper!) So there was still evidence of some mold and a lot of discoloration where the mold had eaten the paint. This is where I made my first mistake. I assumed that because he had to get so aggressive that the paint was pretty hard. So I got out the 5 inch microfiber pad and some ultimate compound and hit a test spot. You can see from the picture of the pad (one unused, one used) how big that mistake was. Thankfully he had laid this paint on pretty thick, so we were able to switch to a light cutting pad and get things looking like the third picture, from the first. I showed him how, and gave him all my stuff to take home with him (he doesn't like to stay too long, still very worried about the virus) so he can continue to work. Attached are the before and after pictures of the test area.
So my question is how should you remove mold like this? Did we do it right?
View attachment 70996
View attachment 70997
Postscript: it won't let me attach the picture of the microfiber pad. It was VERY yellow.
