What's it gonna take?

[DrMilhouse]

My car has been pretty much left alone, sometimes outside, sometimes in the shop, but for the past 4 years, it hasn't been really washed or waxed or anything. It has a couple of major scratches that I'm gonna have to have repaired (scratched to the primer), but for the most part, the paint is in tact. It just looks and feels like hell. It's black so that's a terrible place to start, but it's got what feels like pits or bumps (not orange peel type bumps) and little gloss. I washed it again today - second time in as many days. I bought some maguire's tech wax (I'm sure there's better, I'm sure there's worse) and put that on the rear quarter panel to see if it made a worth while difference. It's barely any difference at all. I can't afford to have the whole thing repainted (as much as I'd like to).

What can I do to make it look and feel like a car I'd like to own like it used to?

Thanks in advance!
Mike

[Beast]

From the sound of it, as long as there is no oxidation beyond the clear coat, it'll need a good scrub down with a scrubby pad (not like what you use in the kitchen sink, but similar... get it from your auto body shop) to get the rough stuff off of the car which is probably tree sap, road tar etc. At that point all of the gloss should be gone from the car, but at least it should feel smooth all over (no bumps). Be careful doing that though! If you rub through the clear coat you're f*cked. Then once it's all smooth, it needs to be wet sanded and buffed. It would help if you could post some close up pictures.

I would take it to an auto-body shop and have it done professionally.

[98 Purple TA]

SCUBBY PAD???!!!!. NO - just claybar the car. It will take all the contamintes off the car and right down to the clear coat. Then polish the car.