mlm0

when I am sitting in car and look up i can see what appears to be spider cracks near the driver's side. Are those real cracks in plastic or is that what you are talking about that can be sanded out

thanks

Mike

HAD2HAV2

Great job Mikes1991. I book marked this thread. I only have crazing up around the front near the windshield. But I have a ton of bad water spots.

VikingTrad3r

i want to do mine on the 87 but the way it looks to me, the cracks are internal to the plastic. i am gathering from this thread that they are not....even though they appear this way to my eyes.

i do not feeeeeel any surface imperfections at all. which is what makes me think its internal. im talking about the crazing as per the photo set up the thread.

bucfan has started sanding and he still sees the cracks from the bottom up?

are they really on the surface? if he is sanding the top of his lid and he still sees the cracks are we all talking about the same things here?

im asking because i don't want to start sanding the top of my lid and then find out the cracks are not on the surface.


VikingTrad3r

playsdixie

first, I used carbon fiber vinyl...then when I painted the car...had the top painted black underneath and color on top..





hated the see through spidercracks anyway....

VikingTrad3r

Looks great. why did you change from the bright red?

playsdixie

because everybody has bright red......just wanted to be a little different....it's actually a ford color.....

BucfanTitan

Yeah I sanded the top. then I applied the medium cut and polishing compound. It looks amazing from the top. But when you hold the top from the bottom in the sun I can still see little cracks. 10 is like a new top it is more like a 7 or 8.

I am going to apply a coat of cleaner wax then a regular coat of wax. Hit it with the buffer and post more pics. I looked for the swirl remover and could not find it at the local stores. So I am skipping that step. I hope the cleaner will take the swirls out. We shall see.

Here are two pictures

this is the beginning of the medium cut. I did it two times and made a huge difference.



this is with the medium cut and polishing compound. The white spots/streaks on the bottom of the top are my camera it doesn't show up on the top.




both pics are what I am referring to when I say the top looking in. I will post the inside out photo later in the week.

BucfanTitan

I really like the carbon fiber. Where is that sold at? I think that might be next when the top goes bad again on the car.

The best part is the silver flakes are gone and it does look decent.

playsdixie

any shop that does car wraps has it....cheaper on e bay...just make sure you get exterior wrap...some of it is for interior use....not hard to apply...just watch a few vids...don't need a heat gun, a blow dryer works fine....

C4_vette

Any update on the inside out look? I have the zillion little cracks the run side to side as well, even after the clearcoat has been sanded off.

BucfanTitan

oh ok thank you.

I do like the dark red. really makes it pop out.

BucfanTitan

I attempted to take a picture of it in the sun. The camera doesn't capture what I am seeing when I sit in the car.

bley49

I have a large curvy key scratch on my smoked glass acrylic top very deep scratch is there anything I can do

C4_vette

Some observations from my project:

Damage level. If your lucky, its just the surface clear coat and you can polish that up and be back in business. In fact, I would say if its just the clear coat surface, you can get a really great product in the end, just go with the finer grit.

Spider cracks. They aren't going away. My guess is its just age and sun, poor manufacturing, etc. I stripped all the clear, and the cracks remain a permanent fixture.

If you need to pull all the clear coat, start with a lower grit, and be prepared to change paper often. I used a whole package of 400 grit, the paper gets clogged real quick with that old clear coat and your just wasting your time once that happens.

VikingTrad3r

i have the crazing inside, spider cracks i think you describe it as. you have saved me time by reporting back.

cheers.

danny99

does this work on c5 tops as well?? : )