Faded red paint, Check. Magic Eraser, Check.

[MrMazda92]

Now I know people will start out immediately with the argument that my clear coat will be ruined, but read my entire post before you go there please.

Firstly, I am doing this ONLY TO MY HOOD.

Secondly, there isn't a millimeter of clear coat remaining on my hood!!! Otherwise, I would not attempt this...

I stumbled on it by accident, intending initially to clay-bar the entire car. I couldn't find any soft, workable clay at my house... so I drove to Bi-Mart, Knechts, and another auto place nearby. Bi-mart had no clay(shocking, truly...)

The auto places had "Clay bar Kits" That were in the $25-35 price range... I'd leave it faded and dull for another year than pay that for clay and cheapo cleaner.

So... I called up my mother and asked her if she might have some soft clay laying around. She asked what it was for, and I told her. Her suggestion was to try a magic eraser, and it got me thinking... So I read online about it briefly; I found page after page of "OMG Don't do it you'll kill your clearcoat!!!", and decided it was worth a try.

Sure enough... It took very little time to yield surprisingly good results. I applied VERY light pressure with the magic eraser(keeping it damp) on the right hand side of my hood, using a repetitive parallel motion going up and down in a 6-8" section. I wiped the surface afterwards(Magic Erasers break down quickly), and was surprised at the immediate smoothness of the paint.

I repeated the process a few times, and it even brought a little color up. Naturally this means paint was removed in the process, but doing it very slowly and carefully in small sections should yield positive results. It's not something that I would recommend doing often, maybe not even a second time... but the results I got were very satisfying, I'll finish the hood tomorrow and post before/after pictures.

Obviously if you intend to attempt this, clean the car well before doing so.
I will be finishing up with a quality sealant, and topping that off with wax.


***DOING THIS WILL DAMAGE YOUR CLEAR COAT***

Do this at your own risk, I am in no way responsible for what you to do your own car.

[Sleeper6]

I do believe thats why clay bar kits are 25-30 price range, they dont hurt your clear coat and theres enough in those kits to last you a season or two. Not only that but Im probably wrong but I would guess thats not just your ordinary clay from the beach

[Inodoro Pereyra]

Hey MM92...Don't do it! That'll kill your clearcoat!!!

Just for the record, I wouldn't spend a penny on a clay bar. 1500 grit sandpaper, polishing compound and wax. I won't damage your CC ("IF" you know what you're doing), will bring up the shine, and will get rid of the orange peel in the process...

BTW: we're still waiting on the pictures...

[mitmaks]

Guys, you have a misunderstanding here. Clay bar is not for polishing/bringing gloss back. It's should only be used for cleaning paint job ie water staining, acid rain, etc.
If you want to bring gloss back to your paint job you need to use rubbing compound. After you've compounded whole car you need to use good wax to protect it from further oxidation.

[MrMazda92]

I do believe thats why clay bar kits are 25-30 price range, they dont hurt your clear coat and theres enough in those kits to last you a season or two. Not only that but Im probably wrong but I would guess thats not just your ordinary clay from the beach

I know it's not beach clay haha, It's soft creamy clay that's about the same consistency as pottery clay. It's almost identical, so far as I've been able to tell.

Inodoro,

I won't sandpaper it when I found this beautifully simple method haha. The hood is the only part of the car I'm doing this to, and it's a specific goal I'm after. I did it to remove the stuck on crap and smooth out the finish, I'll be lightly buffing, applying polish, sealer, and then finishing it off with a good wax job. I'll have pictures up tomorrow, I got the hood about 1/3 of the way done before it became too dark to continue. It's my all day project tomorrow, unless it happens to rain... Then I'll have no excuse but to pull my pistons

[MrMazda92]

Guys, you have a misunderstanding here. Clay bar is not for polishing/bringing gloss back. It's should only be used for cleaning paint job ie water staining, acid rain, etc.
If you want to bring gloss back to your paint job you need to use rubbing compound. After you've compounded whole car you need to use good wax to protect it from further oxidation.

I understood that, sorry for the vague post I'm doing it to the hood because the surface felt like sandpaper; The texture was so abrasive, that my hand wouldn't slide on the metal. The area I've treated is unbelievably smooth. It feels wonderful... Is there any chance a Magic Eraser(or similar product) would ever be used in auto painting? Before clear coat obviously, I mean moreso to smooth out imperfections. It'd be like wetsanding, but with an extremely high grit sandpaper... That doesn't wear quite as quickly

[mitmaks]

You don't sand paint before clear coat, unless there are imperfections, runs in base coat (paint). Especially if base coat (paint) is metallic as it will damage metallic as it will disturb the way metallic lays on the surface.
In cases where you do need to sand base coat before clear coat you will usually have to give it another coat or two before clear coat.

[MrMazda92]

I forgot to update here, I believe I did it in another thread. I'll post pictures soon, I can do that from my iPhone. It turned out beautifully though... Nice enough that the rest of the car looks bad in comparison :/