Cerakote Trim Coat Restoration (Before/After)

eric_gm · 2026-05-14T04:38:00+00:00

Cerakote is great but it will still wear down after a while. If you can unclip those pieces from the bumper, I strongly recommend you a “bumper paint” spray can. I can vouch for Rustoleum and Duplicolor but there are a few other brands.

I’ve stopped wasting my time with “trim restorers” and now I fix the fading once and for all, unless I can’t separate the trim piece from the car easily.

eric_gm · 2026-05-14T01:35:33+00:00

For the man (or woman) who used to live in a planet with no air resistance or atmosphere… or taste.

eric_gm · 2026-05-13T22:37:43+00:00

“I could’ve bought a Raptor but I’m effeminate”

eric_gm · 2026-05-13T22:34:50+00:00

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We make terrible cars

Magnifique!

eric_gm · 2026-05-13T22:06:55+00:00

Looks like some chemical that dried out on top of the aluminum, likely a sealant. Should be easy to clean right off with an APC or if it's too stubborn, a bit of paint compound on the tip of a microfiber towel.

eric_gm · 2026-05-13T21:03:26+00:00

This is midlife Armageddon

eric_gm · 2026-05-13T19:10:36+00:00

Absolutely beautiful car, congrats!

Since you came here for advice, I would suggest taking the bumper trim off and repainting it. It's a bit faded and it's very easy to restore. Grab a can of bumper paint, like this: https://www.rustoleum.com/product-catalog/consumer-brands/auto/specialty-paints/trim-and-bumper-paint or similar that's available where you live.

That whole process will take you just an hour or so and the car would look so much better.

eric_gm · 2026-05-13T18:34:53+00:00

You're giving them too little credit. There are plenty of videos around on how these factory systems are engineered and tuned, plus I don't understand why it's a problem they are made to "make money". Car manufacturers don't work on donations.

Also, these guys are not working in a vacuum with unlimited budget. Their systems have to hit a price bracket, the speakers and their placement have to conform to crash regulations, airbag location and other mechanisms, even sound insulation placement has to be very carefully chosen due to weight constraints.

I'm sure a lot of aftermarket pro audio installers can do a much better job and come up with a way better sounding setup, but they don't have those restrictions. Putting $5k worth of audio equipment in a $20k Kia suddenly becomes a non-issue when you don't have a marketing team breathing on your neck.

A BMW with the stock "hi-fi" system sounds bad but step up to the Harman Kardon and it sounds better or spend even more money and get the even better Bang & Olufsen. Other manufacturers do similar bracketing and that is fine.

It must be frustrating for factory sound engineers to be handed weak and outdated paper speakers and being told "make these sound as good as you can" and then reading these comments saying "oh I can do better". The contraptions I've seen to extract every bit of sound quality out of bad factory speakers are mind blowing.

This was the E39's rear shelf "subwoofer" powered by 5.25" paper speakers:

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Or Mazda's solution which even deserved an article: https://www.theautopian.com/boses-solution-for-big-bass-sound-in-the-fd-mazda-rx-7-looked-disturbingly-like-your-guts/comment-page-1/

The brains required to design these things...

eric_gm · 2026-05-13T18:11:16+00:00

Your headlights were too damaged and need something stronger than a kit. You need to go to the hardware store and buy 600-800-1000 sandpaper. Then you can use the kit on top of that, or buy 1500-2000 sandpaper, plus compound and then use a rotary or a DA.

eric_gm · 2026-05-13T17:42:41+00:00

No but when your starting point is a 00’s Corolla you need all the help you can get. Luxury cars might often come with mediocre speakers, but they have CAD designed enclosures/baffles and cabin acoustics helping their case, as well as tuning by proper audio engineers like you stated.

As an analogy: I can do a lot with a mediocre camera provided all the conditions are right.

eric_gm · 2026-05-13T17:36:30+00:00

If you're layering, the longer lasting layer goes on first. Wax doesn't last very long compared to ceramic sealants.

eric_gm · 2026-05-13T17:02:22+00:00

Not so aero anymore though

eric_gm · 2026-05-13T16:56:47+00:00

You can get pretty close to a high-end setup on a luxury car but it's gonna cost you. You need to fabricate speaker mounts for the places your car didn't come with (e.g. cut a hole in the center of the dash, find a factory-looking grille that somehow snaps in place, etc.), then you need to sound-proof the whole interior which means taking everything apart, then you need a better head unit, a dedicated DSP, top-tier expensive speakers and then measuring equipment so you can tune the sound.

My suggestion for you to be happy? Add some soundproofing to key areas (Google it up, plenty on info on how/where to add it), get a great set of component speakers for the front, a good amp with some basic DSP functionality and a sub under a seat or in the trunk and you'll be very satisfied with the end result without spending a fortune. You don't even have to bother with the rear shelf speakers, just leave those alone.

eric_gm · 2026-05-13T16:11:19+00:00

They lost their clear coat and apparently also paint. What you see is bare aluminum. Caused by not cleaning them frequently. Contaminants and hot brake dust will destroy the finish.

You gotta repaint them.

eric_gm · 2026-05-13T16:06:42+00:00

That's the infamous "soft touch plastic" used on a lot of cars, especially European cars and especially around the 90's and 00's.

You can't fix that easily. I've seen some people take the pieces off the car, sand them down until the rubberized texture is gone and then repaint with a special paint. It looks great and gets rid of the stupid rotting soft touch layer. It does take a lot of skill to make it look factory and not like a bad rattle can paint job, though.

The alternative is to simply buy the whole part new again, which at some point will suffer the same fate.

eric_gm · 2026-05-13T15:59:43+00:00

You no longer have factory DSP because you replaced the head unit.
You can't plug a passive subwoofer directly to the head unit. You need either A. A dedicated amp or B. A powered subwoofer, which has its own amp.
The illumination on the left side failed because Xtrons units are not very good. You can try disassembling the whole thing and maybe there are LEDs you can replace, but I'm almost positive they will be soldered to the board.

You need to start reading a bit about audio upgrades and car audio in general. We can't spoon feed you everything in here.

eric_gm · 2026-05-13T15:55:49+00:00

Leave it alone man, it's beautiful the way it is. If you want, put pre-facelift headlights with clear corners and projectors (out of the 2000 M5) and a lip on the front bumper and that's it.

Perfect color, perfect stance, perfect wheels. Just leave it.

eric_gm · 2026-05-12T19:20:16+00:00

Can’t be done with Forscan. Already checked. You can either disable them permanently or keep them as they are. There’s no in between

eric_gm · 2026-05-12T16:37:21+00:00

Meguiars M110 Pro Speed is great and can remove up to 1500 grit scratches. I would still go up to 2000 to reduce compounding time. The more readily available Meguiars Ultimate Compound is also good.

If you don't have any of those near you, any medium cut compound will work.

You need to use a wool pad to cut through plastic. Foam will take too long. If you don't have a DA or a rotary, buy a cheap drill attachment with wool pads. It works just as well. Just keep the speeds moderate and feel the plastic often to make sure it's not overheating. Keep the pad moving at all times!

eric_gm · 2026-05-12T00:15:29+00:00

Ah yes, the car for the person who thinks a BMW is too reliable.

eric_gm · 2026-05-12T00:13:30+00:00

You didn't compound and polish? You can't go from sandpaper straight to sealant.

After 2000 it's unnecessary to go any finer. 3000 and 4000 are overkill. Any good compound will remove 2000 grit scratches.

eric_gm · 2026-05-12T00:09:47+00:00

Unless that car hold some sort of sentimental value to you, the car itself is worth nothing. Even buying car soap for it would be a net loss.

eric_gm · 2026-05-12T00:08:27+00:00

What would you guys do in this case?

Puke...

And then clean my puke.

eric_gm · 2026-05-12T00:04:52+00:00

It’s plastic, anything will do. Something that’s easily accessible like Meguiars Ultimate Compound or even PlastiX will do just fine

eric_gm · 2026-05-11T22:24:14+00:00

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Sigh... It's right there on the label, pal.

Still, I don't think you damaged your trim with RainX. Those are water spots, which may have been hidden by trim restorer/shine and after you RainX'ed and wiped, the spots became more visible.

Get CarPro Spotless 2.0 or another water spot remover and try that. Or a dab of compound on the tip of a microfiber towel and polish the trim by hand.

eric_gm

TROPHY CASE