[Guest]

I just purchased my first car this winter and now that spring has sprung here in Canada my thoughts are swaying to spiffing up my new '98 Rav. A couple questions to you all...

How do you protect that plastic cladding that covers the lower half of the vehicle. Wax?...armourall?

Any advice on removing the rust on my rims?

Thanks Marf.

 

[Guest]

i know i wanna get rid of rust on the rims

i just tried to sand them down today and noticed that the steel wheels are painted silver (i just assumed that they were molded in that colour)
so DON't use sandpaper

what i'm going to do is to sand them anyways lightly and PAINT them one wheel at a time over the summer
silver or even a chrome paint would be nice

 

[bmorton]

I wax the cladding on my 2000, but it's painted silver. I think on the 1998 and earlier models the cladding is a dark grey or black, unpainted, so you wouldn't wax it. Something like Lexol Vinylex would be my choice for that kind of thing.

My worst wheel is the RF with rust bubbling and paint flaking off in a few spots around the rim. The LF wheel isn't as bad, and the rear wheels are a lot better. One only has a little bit of rust and the other looks practically new. I suspect the previous owner didn't believe in tire rotation.

I'd love to get rid of the rust and repaint the wheels, but I'm not really equipped at home to do that kind of a job so I'll probably just have to live with it.

 

[4VAR]

I let a garage spray oil based undercoat on a chasis this winter. I wonder if I should wash the chasis now and apply oil half year later before next winter or just leave it untouched then spray oil on the top of old layer in autumn. Someone suggests to wash away old oil and apply new oil immediately every spring instead of fall.

 

[joel]

For your wheels, not really something to do, except sandblasting and re-painting, if they are steel wheels.
I assume yes if you talk about rust.

If you do the job, or give the job to a body shop, be sure to use a epoxy primer on bare metal.
It's expensive, but very lasting.