Hey everyone. I don't know if I officially introduced myself or not, so hi! I'm Spinks. I live in Atlanta and I just got my first TL about a month ago. I usually go through cars pretty quickly but I think I'm going to settle down with this TL. I've done a little bit of everything with all types of cars, so the TL should move at a fair pace for someone who works and goes to school full time with a high maintenance gf lol.

So, onto the car. I was car-less for about a month because I didn't want to get into anything I would end up wanting to get rid of, so after a very long picky-choosy process, I bought the TL at a used car lot where they had purchased it at auction. A few owners, looked rough as hell and has a few quirks. Bought it with 148k miles on it. I obviously got a really good deal on it, otherwise I would have bought a pristine one.


Onto the pics.




As you can see it had these ridiculous looking guards on the fenders. I took a piece of string and wiggled it in between the guard and the fender to remove it. It only had these on the driver's side? Weird.


Was this OEM? Cause if it wasn't, the PO put 100% tint on the windows, which serves no purpose as far as I can tell. I couldn't check blind spots when this was still on.


Interior looking nice and terrible. I need seats for the front and a few nic nac pieces. A guy quoted me 350 a seat to re-upholster them and remove the perforated leather from the middle.


Need one of these.


Dash is cracked all over. Really need to find a fix for this.


Here's respray I was talking about.


From far away, the car looks great because white doesn't really show imperfections. Up close, the clearcoat is oxidized and looks like this all over. The whole car is getting wet sanded panel by panel.


Spent an hour on the trunk lid.


Got the tails while I was at it.


I got this fender as well


Had my tint guy come and put 5% everywhere and 35% on the windshield.


One problem I've had is the car starting. It will hesitate sometimes. It has never actually failed to start, but it will begin turning over as I've got the key in start position, and without me moving the key, it will just stop turning over. About one half to one full second later, without me having moved the key from the start position this whole time, it was start turning over again and start the engine. Also, I have had to replace the positive battery terminal twice. It corrodes very quickly and ruins the wires as well. I am keeping them lubed with WD-40 to hopefully slow down the corrosion.

More stuff to come. The interior needs the most attention but I'm taking things a step at a time. Let me know what you think.

 

nice job at detailing but seem whoever owned this car isn't care much about it.

 

Love threads where the car isn't immaculate, awesome to see the work you're putting into it! Mine needs a little attention as well, haha!

 

It's someone who bought the car and spent every last dime on it so they could look like a big timer, but couldn't afford the maintenance and whatnot. Works for me. Spend less money but invest a little time.

Thank you! I spent another hour wetsanding and completed only half of the roof today. It's coming along slowly but surely.

 

Welcome Spinks-keep up the good work.

 

Welcome to the forum Spinks!

Maybe the 100% tint serves the purpose of blocking out some UV rays without coloring the window?

As far as the cracked dash and seats, I think it might be a mixture of wear and tear over time and being in a lot of direct sunlight as opposed to assuming previous owners were negligent.
(I think you might be better off looking for better condition used seats than reupholstering the existing ones)

And have you tried clay baring the car as opposed to wet sanding the clear coat? Takes a bit longer but usually does the trick.

Congrats on the new ride! Hope it treats you well.

 

I thought cracked dashes were a common issue in earlier TLs. My 06 sits in the driveway all day, and its dash is perfectly fine.

I probably would have started with a clay bar too and then moved on to a polisher.

Do your dash lights flash or stay lit when your car is trying to start? One time, I had to clean my battery terminals and clamps to fix the problem I had. You should try these to prevent corrosion. They work wonders. You can get them at Walmart.

 

This will be a great thread. I am interested in seeing how it cleans up.

 

What happened to the seats?

As for the terminals just spray some anti rust on them and she'll be good.

 

Thanks!

Thanks for the tips! I was under that same assumption about the window "tint" as well. Seems like sunglasses would be a much cheaper and more reasonable fix for that issue though, lol. I'm looking for used seats but no luck so far. The PO was definitely negligent, though. The interior was absolutely disgusting.

Awesome! Thank you! I will definitely be looking into those. I have replaced the terminal completely twice now. Once on the lot, and once at my house 2 weeks later because it rusted all the way through in that short amount of time. Hopefully this will be a permanent fix.

It will clean up well, but it's going to take me a while. =)

The seats are all ripped because I am assuming that the PO and his wife were a bit heavy or something and they ripped the leather trying to get situated every time they got in the car. That, or the kids they definitely had may have ripped them. The lot I bought it from got it at auction, so I'm assuming they lost the car due to missing payments, and just didn't care for it once they knew they were going to lose it.

 

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