Hello all,

I don't actually have a clue about modding cars but now that I have a job I have better finances to be able to take care of my Stilo properly now.

It's completely standard at the moment, which I would like to enhance.

Ten years old so it's not exactly pristine, but is running fairly okay apart from a bit of an instrument cluster problem at the moment (soon to be fixed) and the break pads/discs need replacing.

Around 50k miles on the clock.

Today I'm half way through attempting to give the body work a good buff. Basically I bought a Meguiars paint restorer kit with a good line of products in. Cost me roughly £45 so wasn't cheap, but it's got everything in it that I need for the body work on my sort of technical level.

Here's some before pics to show some of the swirls and general other defects I've got going on.







Unfortunately I do have a bit of clear coat failure going on, which is only treatable by respraying, however there's no way this is worth it on the car, so I am just working around it and trying to make everywhere else look good.

Scratch before:


Scratch after using Ultimate Compound:



Not completely gone, but certainly an improvement.

It's obvious that parts of my car have been resprayed (and perhaps not most professionally) as you can tell by the different shades of red. It's not terribly noticable at first glance and there's nothing I can do about it without a respray.

The back bumper has come up really well, however. I am really impressed with the level of red/shinyness even before waxing/polishing. I have put a circle around the area that I used ultimate compound on, the rest of the back end of the car I haven't touched other than washing:

Just noticed, am I missing a dot on my 'i' in Stilo?!

More pics and updates to come, planning get some geniune Fiat wheel trims (can't afford alloys just yet) and I need to clean all the black trim.

I wouldn't mind painting the trims so it's body coloured but I don't know how possible this is with my skill level?

You're not missing a dot luckily, I thought that too!

It looks like your Stilo has never been polished, but it looks like you have the gear to get it looking shiny. There are some good detailing guides in the Guides section and the Car Care section on here which you could find useful. Good luck and post the results!

How are you finding the Meguiars stuff?

Enjoy your ten year old stilo, I enjoy mine

R:E painting trims:

I would think you would be able to paint the trims fairly easily, with some plastic primer and paint. you have to key, degrease, prime, paint and clear coat them, which will take a day to do. (or at least it did on my old punto)

You may run into problems matching paint however, as of course it will be darker than the car's as it's been in the sun for ten years.

Thanks for the response! I will definitely check out the car care areas. I need to sort out the roof, the wheels and the headlights/tail lights - probably need to buy more products for that.

Meguiars seem good, I did loads of reading up about detailing and then just felt totally exasperated by all the different products so when I saw the kit in Halfords I thought I'd just get it to save me a load of hassle. I'm never gonna get it to bodyshop standards but as long as the untrained eye is impressed then I am happy.

BLIMEY I am totally exhausted after all of that. Must have been compounding the damn car for 4 hours today. Hope it was worth it...






I might have to give painting the trims a go in spring. The car is mismatched red all over, the most faded area being the boot door, the rest of the panels that are removable have clearly been resprayed. Dunno what's going on but I reckon the red trims won't look too odd seeing as the doors are a fairly nice red anyway... maybe!

Maybe it just looks good in black trim? I have polished it up with some trim polish, helps a bit.

Dying to sort out those wheel trims now, and the steel underneath is so dull and textured. Maybe I should paint those?

Looks a nice shiney Red there , just keep at it

How the hell do you have sunshine? Oh and I don't have a dot on the I either.

Great improvement by the looks of those photos!

looks really nice, infact its pics like this that makes me want to go and refresh my waggon.
Meguires ive found is the best all round at bringing back the paintwork even on metallics. Its just so easy to get a good finish with that stuff, athough its not what i would call cheap.
My car has loads of tree sap so the paintwork so needs some work - im thinking of bringing out the clay kit for that.
Have you tried the colour cut t cut for your scratches, i remember some years back i had excellent results after someone decided to run thier keys down the side of my car.

The car is looking great, love it in that colour. I sometimes miss the shine youve got there, I get no reflections on my car anymore

roy lovelock said:

Have you tried the colour cut t cut for your scratches, i remember some years back i had excellent results after someone decided to run thier keys down the side of my car.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I used Ultimate Compound, which is basically very similar to T-cut, just more expensive version. I won't bother with t-cut as I'd rather use something less abrasive and as it's basically the same product, it would be a waste to buy.


Thanks for the comments everyone, my car has loads of scratched and nicks when you look really close (especially around the bumpers!) but it's great because now the gloss distracts from that. I am sure any of you could get similar results, it's just about elbow grease!

I need to look into how to polish up my windshield next - I have some very light scratches that I can see (probably from scraping off ice !!) and it's bugging me.

Also found a tip where if you use toothpaste on the plastic headlights, it can help make them sparkle. Not sure if my headlights are kinda trashed on the inside though!

If anyone has any tips and tricks, feel free to post and share

stilostilo said:

Also found a tip where if you use toothpaste on the plastic headlights, it can help make them sparkle. Not sure if my headlights are kinda trashed on the inside though!

If anyone has any tips and tricks, feel free to post and share

Click to expand...

Hello all!

How have you been?

It's been a while and not much progress unfortunately.

My stilo is just in the garage having a service at the moment, a nice big service too replacing all of the filters (although I forgot the pollen filter, damn).
It all adds up eh?

I also just purchased some nice Fiat standard wheel trims, as I just have boring rubbish unbranded ones on at the moment. I can't wait for them to arrive.

Here's a pic:


It cost me £50 for 4 with free delivery on eBay. The seller had a deal where you buy 3 and you get a 4th trim free sort of thing.

The sad thing is a little while ago a piece of scrap metal came flying at me on the motorway and took out my left grille on my bumper and also put a hole in my bumper as well so now it looks really rubbish!

I have had a little look on ebay but bumpers are expensive it seems.

Does anyone have a grill or know the best place to get one for cheap? I cannot believe how expensive they are from new.

Here she is with her now wrecked bumper and a hole for a grill:


Also, I need to replace to tyres. I have been quoted £60 a tyre for a brand new firestone tyre, including fitting. Is that a good price?

BTW Podge - I still have yet to try the headlight tip!! I hope it works because stilos have a huge headlight area on the rear, and if that was all glossy and shiny that would look fab.

Anyone also know where or what the name is of the headlamps that are kind of yellow? I really like the look... looks kinda old skewl