I don't think I'm feeling well...

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 3:20 pm

So I did something extreme today and I'm not even sure what prompted it, but I'm pretty worried about it...

I clay barred, hand buffed, and waxed the RED car... I've washed it once since I got it, and most of the time I don't even like the car so I don't know what prompted this. But I'm thinking it has to do with the fact that I'm now driving it to work everyday (think construction sites...) When I'm sitting around waiting to test the density of compacted soil I have nothing to do other than get sunburn and stare at my car and try to find "potential" in it... I told myself I wouldn't get attached, I told myself I wouldn't mod the daily. So far I've been very good with not giving two shits about it

I don't really have too many pics of it before but think Steven's car; it was pink, faded and rough. I don't really care about taking pics of it so this is the extent of the before pics:

I took a pic of this door before I touched it

So you get the idea. It looked like total butthole.

After:

So it looks a LOT better now. Still has some scratches, chipped paint, rust etc, but there's not much I could do about that shit short of fixing it.

Since I have to drive this thing everyday I don't want to feel like I am going to kill myself everytime I drive. This meant cleaning up the bottle of spilled Sta-Bil Fuel Stabilizer that was in it... Guess the lid doesn't work very well. This shit stunk. I just figured it was musty from leaking water. So I cleaned that up, sprayed the whole inside with Febreze carpet cleaner and I sanded down the bland fake CF HVAC surround and painted it with the same Rusto red spray bomb I did the rust repair with a while back. It's a fairly close match. It's not perfect because the CF sticker overlay actually ripped up in one place. Also messed up the masking in the bottom left corner of the overlay and a little red got on the black overlay but fuck it. It looks much better. I need to do the shifter too but I was too lazy to go through the trouble of taking it out of the car.

Hear what REAL people had to say after hearing about what I was doing:

Dan from Ohio said,

Stop it now.

Adam from Indiana said,

Haha. How... worth it.

!

My ideal plans for this car are:

-02 front bumper with Honduh lip
-hammahead
-stones or fat fives

JeffM · Post by **JeffM** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 4:02 pm

It's amazing what some good ol' clay/polish/wax can do to old paint. Unfortunately, I'm too lazy to do the whole car like you did.

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 4:05 pm

Jeff, It really is amazing! And what's more amazing is I'm lazy as hell and it is SUPER humid today so I was out there with the guns out, no shirt, sweating like a mofo doin it. You should've seen the ladies linin' up.

LowNSlow · Post by **LowNSlow** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 4:05 pm

Unfortunately for me... it's been raining for like a week or so and won't stop!

JeffM · Post by **JeffM** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 4:15 pm

sidepipe87 wrote:so I was out there with the guns out, no shirt, sweating like a mofo doin it. You should've seen the ladies linin' up.

Oh, I'm quite sure.

smiley · Post by **smiley** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 4:17 pm

id probably be doing the same thing

WhiteSRT69 · Post by **WhiteSRT69** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 4:18 pm

came out good man

longest i ever spent cleaning my car from start to finish was 9 hours

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 4:25 pm

John - my offer still stands!

Jeff - You had to be here

Smiley - Nice!

White - Thanks man, Yeah I'm pleased. I probably spent 6 hours total working on it.

heydockyle · Post by **heydockyle** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 5:34 pm

Nice lol. I will feel the same when I take the time to wax Big Red.

Is your bumper a different color?

LowNSlow · Post by **LowNSlow** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 5:35 pm

sidepipe87 wrote:John - my offer still stands!

Jeff - You had to be here

Smiley - Nice!

White - Thanks man, Yeah I'm pleased. I probably spent 6 hours total working on it.

You got yourself a deal... if you can bring me the red car in the next 4 hours.. I'll give you the SRT-4 for it.

theColonel · Post by **theColonel** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 5:35 pm

It looks nice, great daily driver. My first Neon was a 2000 Plymouth, bought it new February 2000. It was a great car, we traded it in on a 2003 Dodge Stratus.

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 5:44 pm

Kyle - No, it does look like it in that pic though. And contrary to popular belief it's NOT molded red plastic like some. From what I can figure, they only did that on '00 Dodge Neons... I've never seen a plymouth with the red molded bumpers

John - *doing the math* Fuck, better get my time machine out of the closet!

Lane - Thanks, sir. It isn't a bad car for the cheap price I paid for it. It's got all the bells and whistles except rear disk brakes.

thump3r · Post by **thump3r** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 5:55 pm

looks awesome!!! i love the clay bar it does such a nice job!

bumpers are always a different color as most of the time from factory there painted at a different plant.

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 6:08 pm

thump3r wrote:looks awesome!!! i love the clay bar it does such a nice job!

bumpers are always a different color as most of the time from factory there painted at a different plant.

Thanks man!

And the mere fact that they're plastic makes them look different.

esfan · Post by **esfan** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 6:34 pm

^Yeah the flexible stuff make the color different though

Looks great! I really want my car to be shining like that!

DOSneons · Post by **DOSneons** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 9:02 pm

man i should do that to mine, but im lazy

LilSparkPlug · Post by **LilSparkPlug** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 9:31 pm

I've done it to Nee, twice now. And wax him on a regular basis. It's hard NOT to. Then again I modded mine....

FAC3L3SS · Post by **FAC3L3SS** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 10:51 pm

You do not have the express written consent to use my quotes openly. However, I did say that.

OB · Post by OB » Sat Jun 05, 2010 12:59 am

Looks good dude, much better than before! See, I've always taken really good care of my car, so when I clay'd it, the main difference was just the way it felt. I love how smooth it feels right after clay and wax. I slide off when I try to chill and lean on the fender lol. Doesn't last long though, within a couple weeks it feels rough and squeaky again.

LILBLUNEON · Post by **LILBLUNEON** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 1:18 am

looks good.

im thinkin some stones would look pretty good...but thats me.

Midnight_Rider · Post by **Midnight_Rider** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 1:39 am

Drive = love. Oh wait, that was for Chryslers, right?

lilnicko11 · Post by **lilnicko11** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 8:52 am

looks good buddy. you gonna debadge and rid of the side moldings as well or gonna leave it be??

Phasmatis · Post by **Phasmatis** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 9:24 am

Looks amazing. Crazy how reflective that gets huh!

dblsg · Post by **dblsg** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 9:29 am

very impressive man. what stuff did you use?

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 9:57 am

Thanks guys. Nick, nah I'm gonna leave all the badging and door strips as is. I took the pin stripe off and there is a very noticeable difference in the color underneath.

Sam - I just used a Mother's clay bar kit, turtle wax rubbing compound, and turtle wax high gloss liquid car wax

FAC3L3SS · Post by **FAC3L3SS** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 10:00 am

RIP silver Neon.

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 10:09 am

shhhhhhhhhh!

j-king · Post by **j-king** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 11:20 am

something i need to do to my car

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 12:10 pm

I think it's something we all need to do to our cars, it's just so time consuming.