Spent an hour or two in the garage putting my Indy back together. The nose one has sat on top of the rollcage for most of the work I have done on the car and now I have replaced and cleaned it its obvious it has suffered.

The surface is covered in small rust spots and black marks and its rough to the touch so has obviously picked up a lot of grinding dust and metal.

I have cleaned and decreased it with everything in the garage.

What's the best way to try and remove some if not all of the crap in the surface of the fibreglass.

Or have I ruined it?

Cheers,

Rich

You need a clay bar and lubricant, halfords do a meguiars kit. Spray the lube onto the surface then rub the clay over it. It will bring all the contaminants off leaving a nice smooth surface.

this will be plenty for what you need:

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductMobileDisplay?catalogId=10151&storeId=10001&productId=922503&categoryId=2552 33&langId=-1

Try vinegar or phosphoric acid (alloy wheel cleaner) first.

You need to dissolve and break down as much as possible, as BT says pickle in vinegar or use a proprietary bodywork cleaner like tardis in the first instance, then pull out what's left with a clay bar.

If you start with clay it will pull out the bits and scratch the surface

[Edited on 16/2/13 by mark chandler]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll give them a go.

Rich

Tardis will not touch anything metallic. If you need to treat it first then this is the stuff you need, just don't smell it as it honks, you just spray it on and it does its thing:

http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/engine-and-exterior/carpro-iron-x-500ml/prod_726.html

It really depends on the size of the contamination, if it's grinding dust then clay with plenty of lube will not scratch. Anything bigger then yes you need to treat it first.

As above, İron x followed by clay.

Autoglym sell oxalic acid for this job, it dissolves the minute metallic particles which are burned into the gelcoat. (Phosphoric acid will destroy the gel instantly)

Finish off with a 1500g all over and a machine polish with Farecla G3

Just to update this for anyone searching in future. I bought the T-Cut clay kit from Halfrauds and this lunchtime 20 minutes with the clay bar and spray removed all but the rust spots. So all the rough particles in the surface that would not wash off came away with a couple of goes with the clay.

A light polish then removed the rust spots as well so I now have at least one clean rear wing!

Thanks again for the advice.

Rich