First, I’d like to write and say great site!

Now, I’ve had my car stored throughout this long cold winter and would like to get it back on the road by the end of April or early May.

I have a 1995 Trans Am Convertible (LT1) that I purchased brand new and made some modifications to it a few years ago. However, I would like to get some new rims and preferably “chrome” style this time since I’ve had the original aluminum rims since day 1.

I wanted to go with some Chip Foose rims but the cost and shipping to Canada would be a bit too much for my budget. Therefore, I think I’m going with Roues Replika rims, which look real nice!

I will stick to Yokahoma tires since they’ve handled very well especially in the rain. Now I originally had 16” tires on my car since day one and decided to go with 17” this time around but one friend suggested I lower my car. I think it sits low enough and the guy selling the rims said not to lower it anymore since I may have handling issues.

Another question I had was getting my car buffed or any other method to bring out the original shine, so to speak. I cannot remember the suggestion another person told me about in order to restore the shine and I know it wasn’t a buffing job.

Can anyone else recommend any other tips or maintenance pointers once I take my car back on the road?

Thanks!

Hi and welcome to TFS.

The first thing I would do is get all the fluids changed.Motor,transmission,rear end. Fuel tends to gel after several months in small amounts,like what may have been left in the injectors. I would run some good injector cleaner thru them and maybe even have them cleaned by a shop if the car does not run right after you drive it some. As for the paint go get some Nu Finish polish and a random orbital buffer (around $20) and have fun. It wont take long either. Thats the best way I have found to make the paint shine and feel slick.

Welcome to the Source!

You can lower your car with the 17" rims and not have any issues. Most use the Eibach Pro Kit springs with a good set of Bilstein or Koni shocks. This is good for about 1 - 1.5" drop on a vert.

As for the shine, Like Tyler said the Nu Finish is good, but a lot of people are using Zainos products to restore shines. If you have a white top, make sure you clean it really well. If you have any mold or mildew, let me know. I know of something you may want to try.

Matt

hola
nu finish does work well, but you also may want to look into meguir's scratchX and other products from them. If you really want to get serious about making your paint look it's best, look into a porter cable polisher and menzerna polishes...good stuff.

to TFS! I hope you enjoy yourself here.

Like Tyler said the first thing I'd do is change out all the fluids and give it a thorough check over hose and interior wise since for some reason mice like to use our cars as their winter home.

As for getting it all nice and shiny again, before I'd do anything buffing it wise or polishing it, I'd give it a good cleaning with Dawn dishwashing liquid and water to remove all the old wax, then give it a good wash with a quality car wash to remove any trace of the Dawn, followed by a good rinse off. After that since all the old wax will be gone, I'd go in and fix any rock chips, minor scratches, etc that might be on the car. Only after that would I go in and give it a good wax/polish with a good quality wax/polish/glaze. Doing that will insure that your car is good and clean, any and all dust/dirt/etc is off the car and not embedded in the old wax/polish and that you'll have a good clean base to get your car all nice, shiny and pretty looking again.

Also can you do a few things: can you make a post in the New Members forum telling us a little about yourself and your car. After that can you fill in your Tech Tool Tray with the info about your car (auto or manual, any mods, etc). That way if you need to make any posts asking for help with your car we don't have to keep asking about those things. Thanks!

Hey, do not forget the clay bar after you clean the dawn off and before you wax.

Matt

Good catch Matt, I forgot about the clay bar.

3M makes some sort of universal wax that's safe on any surface that supposedly deoxidizes and brings back the original shine of anything that was painted or finished in some way. My friend was telling me about using it on his Jeep and the results were incredible. Better than any wax I've seen. I'll have to ask him again what it's called. I don't remember, but I'll let you know

I've been doing the following and I swear by it- I've never seen a nicer shine from anything else. I've also used professional detailing products (had a detailing business for like 13 years):

Begin with washing the car with Dawn, then follow with the clay bar (both mentioned above). Get a good quality cleaner wax (I use Mother's) and give it one to two coats, then one coat of a good polish (I use Meguire's) and follow it with a good coat of wax (I use Mother's California Gold).

I've done this for years and nothing touches it. You may need more steps if you have a lot of swirl marks like from an automatic car wash, but even guys who use Zaino ask what I did to get mine to shine.

Sorry for the delay, I've been extremely busy lately.

I would like to say thanks for all the great suggestions and I will certainly take all the advice that was given and use it wisely.

Although I have to say, I'm not your typical car buff (no pun intended) kinda guy and actually bought my Trans Am back in 1995 brand new right out of the showroom because I loved the way it looked and I knew it had power! I have a relative who is a mechanic and I wish I knew more about cars.

Having said that, I think I came to the right place for help and I look forward to all feedback.

I have posted in the New Members forum and information about my car and modifications.

Thanks.

AL

PS- My car had new spark plugs installed about 34 000 Kilometres ago ( aprox 21 126 miles) and I think it's time to replace them. Which spark plugs would you guys suggest? And I'm going to be putting some new tires on my car in about a week (I love the way Yokohama tires handle-my last set were great!) Which brings me to my next point. The Tire guy said I should go with 235/50/17 as I have always had P245/50 R16 since day one. But as I mentioned I would like to go to a 17" tire with some chrome rims. And thank you to SF for saying that I can lower my car and what I should use. My only problem this time is, I had AVID V4 by Yokohama but now they only come in the ADVAN Sport or ADVAN S4 in the 17" tire.

And thank you for the buffing and detail suggestions. If I did take it to a professional detail shop, should I get them to buff it out or should I just follow the suggestions with buying the wax myself and get an orbital buffer?

Again any suggestions would help.

personally i am in love with Zaino and i will NEVER in my life use anything else. I just got my first kit for Christmas and i haven't even used the full kit. Here are a few pics of my car after just a wash, the 2 coats of Z2. Not even anywhere close to the FULL Zaino job. I didn't even claybar it...once i get a spare weekend (now that it's finally warm) i'm going to do the entire process...but i can't believe how much my paint looked like new after just the first few steps.
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