recommendations needed on what I need/need to do on 2015 mustang

[Khyber]

Hello everyone.  I am needing some tips.  I've been told the 2015 mustang has really thin paint so I'm trying to figure out what to do.  I haven't decided on any brands yet(looking at adams, cg, and zaino) but I see this community here at adam's seems to be active so I figured I'd ask.

 

I have taken extremely good care of my 2015 mustang gt I've had since Janurary.  It has been clay bar'd once and waxed.  It's time for a new wax as it's been since jan or early feb since I clay'd and waxed it.

 

I do have some light swirls that are primarily on the hood.  The sides seem to be minimal as well as the back if any I can find.

What I'm curious is, what do I need to have/need to do?  Do I need to use a PC or a Torq?  Should I start out by hand?  So many products out there I'm not sure if I should use one or multiple etc.  I don't want to screw up on my new car and start eating away the clear coat on this thin paint. 

 

Any guidance would be helpful,  thanks!

[Chris@Adams]

You will not harm your paint with a PC and Adam's products and pads.....Americana or Patriot wax are great choices. What color is your car?

[Khyber]

it's competition orange

 

[Chris@Adams]

Sweet! BTW Welcome!!

[kfxjc]

Screw the car, nice house!!

[Beemer]

Do yourself a favor and watch the Adam's videos.  A lot of your questions will be answered there.

 

Most of us will suggest you get a polishing machine (PC, Flex, Cyclo) but a few here polish by hand using Revive.  I think you need at least a PC to get out swirls.

 

I don't have any experience with CG other than perusing the website.  It's OVERWHELMING the number of products they have that all do basically the same thing.  When I ordered my Camaro in 2009 I also ordered ZAINO and I used it for the first year of it's life.  However I soon discovered Adam's and found the Adam's product line just made a LOT more sense to me - not to mention the videos and this forum for help.

 

Good luck - oh, and, Nice looking Mustang.....  If you like that sort of thing.  <grin>

[Khyber]

thanks all, and not my house btw. I lived in it once...but it's my parents... I've been gone from there for a while now. 

 

anyways, I just didn't know if using a PC was necessary. I've watched both adam's and cg's videos...but the cars they used were either older cars that looked horrible or weren't new cars with minimal correction needed.

 

I agree it is overwhelming the amount of cg products.  zaino I feel like i'm paying alot for a little amount but it's supposed to last good while...my dad uses it on his harley and loves it. in regards to adam's I found out about adam's through mustang6g forums.

 

I've never used anything more than meguiars over the counter wax before on my other cars and mothers clay.  I figured with this car though I need the good stuff and need to do it right...I don't really know how effective meguiar's actually is.  I'm just in sticker shock at the moment over how much all these products cost by all these brands.

Edited May 28, 2015 by Khyber

[Gunny]

Nice car and color

 

With my black car, I had a lot of problem with other manufacturers on getting the swirls and light scratches out.  Some worked a little bit, but all were a pain to wipe off and left streaky, oily, residue.  Adams is by far the best I have ever used and will always use from here on out.  Well worth the money.  Quality, excellence, and easabiltiy of the product.  Not too mention the amount of info they put out, and the great customer service!

 

You can get a lot of it out by hand, using Adams Paint Corr. & Revive.  I did, and got a lot out.  Problem with a black car is, everything shows a whole lot more and after awhile, I ended up wanting them all out and got a porter cable.  Watch the videos and do what they recommend and you'll be fine.  And the finished product will be excellent!

[Feets31]

I have an orange Camaro and that color hides the swirls pretty well.  You might seal and wax it this year and correct it next year.  

[Team Adam's]

Hello everyone.  I am needing some tips.  I've been told the 2015 mustang has really thin paint so I'm trying to figure out what to do. 

 

Honestly, your paint is no thinner than every other car on the market. Every ownership group thinks they have 'the worst factory paint' - reality is they all use a very similar process to paint the cars, there is a minimum coating thickness they have to put on in order to get the paint to appear even and last at least thru the 3yr/36k warranty. Its not like GM, Ford, Dodge, etc are inventing new paint processes - they buy their tooling/robotics/materials from other companies and often times it all comes from the same guys.  I'm on a number of enthusiast forums and its funny that every board (Camaro, Mustang, Subaru, Audi, GM Trucks, etc) the exact same statement is made about the paint being very thin, very soft, easily chipped, too much orange peel, etc. - you start to realize that all those things are just common for factory paint, regardless of make or model.

 

 

  I haven't decided on any brands yet(looking at adams, cg, and zaino) but I see this community here at adam's seems to be active so I figured I'd ask.

Thanks for the consideration - won't be able to offer you much insight on the other brands here, but we can certainly give you all the info you need on our stuff.

 

 

I do have some light swirls that are primarily on the hood.  The sides seem to be minimal as well as the back if any I can find.

What I'm curious is, what do I need to have/need to do? 

 

You'll need a machine. Hand polishing can give you a slight improvement, but even fine lines and minor swirls are going to need a machine to correct them.

 

 

Do I need to use a PC or a Torq? 

 

 

A PC is definitely a nice place to start for a beginner, especially if you're budget conscious. I won't comment on the other tool since its someone elses, but it has a few functional design flaws that I'm not a fan of, but to each their own.

 

If you spend a little more the Cyclo is an even better option with smoother operation, a touch more capable than the PC, and extremely versatile. Plus, as a bonus its made in the USA (if that matters to you)

 

 

Should I start out by hand?

 

 

You can, but like mentioned above you won't be removing the marks you're noticing.

 

 

So many products out there I'm not sure if I should use one or multiple etc.  I don't want to screw up on my new car and start eating away the clear coat on this thin paint.

 

There are a lot of misconceptions about what polishing does, will do, or the damage it will cause - most of them spread by lack of understanding or guys online who don't know sharing incorrect or bad info. Heres the facts:

 

An average new car will have a total coating thickness (TCT) around 6mils of combined clear, base, and primer coat. Of this, typically, 2mils or more is clear coat. At the absolute thinnest it'll be 2 so we'll work off that number since you are concerned about the clear on your car being thin.

 

1mil = 25.4 microns (µ)... so basic math you have at a minimum 50.8µ of clear coat to deal with.

 

Now, keeping that in mind the most aggressive combo we sell is the Flex 3401 paired with a microfiber cutting pad and paint correcting polish. Thats nowhere near the combo you'd use for light swirl marks, but again for the sake of argument we're going to go to the extreme end of the scale. The heavier swirl marks will fall somewhere around 4µ-6µ in terms of depth. A pass of the Flex 3401 with the MF pad and CP will remove approximately 6µ unless you go unnecessarily hard at it.

 

So in essence, even if you went hard at it every single time, getting as aggressive as you possibly could you would have to go 8 straight passes before you would be in a possible range of having an issue where you've thinned the clear too much.

 

NOW - no one is going to do that, right? So in your scenario I'd suspect a pass of Finishing Polish and a white foam pad will get the job done. Thats a process that will remove less that 1µ per pass, my measurements show usually around a half that.

 

So knowing all that you can see how a polisher can benefit you and really doesn't have this crazy level of risk when used appropriately. If you continue to do a good job of maintining the finish and preventing damage you won't need to polish very often, maybe 1x a year. At that pace we're realistically talking a loooooooong time before 'thin clear coat' is an issue for you.

[Ricky Bobby]

^^^Dylan sparks and speaks the knowledge.  I made 2 passes with MF pad and a correcting compound last year (August of 2014), previously I had only done one pass of the old school Meg's D300 when I first bought my X.

 

I have some random RIDS I may need to do spot correction on down the line, with MF pads.  But honestly after 3 passes total of a compound the car is 90%+ corrected.  Yearly maintenance with a pass of a finishing polish to get any light swirls is all thats needed for maintenance.  So you seriously have to be overworking polish, pad, and pass #'s before you worry about strikethrough.  The vehicle should look amazing way before you get to that point.

[Khyber]

awesome thanks for the detailed info!

[mc2hill]

Landon, where are you located?  We are a friendly bunch on here, and if a forum member is in your area they may be willing to let you test drive their Adam's stuff.

[Guest washemup]

As Dylan already stated, all newer cars have thin paint. The manufacturers do this now to keep the production lines running faster.

 

Before you get into correction of your paint, an understanding of what caused the swirls and scratches to begin with, to prevent you from doing this in the future, is the first step.

 

Are you using mechanical car washes to clean your car? Even the "touchless" version are not good for your paint, as they use strong chemicals which can strip waxes and sealants. The major culprit of swirls and scratches is improper wash/dry technique.

 

I'm kind of an "Old School" guy when it comes to washing, I only use the foam gun, 2 bucket with grit guards wash. This is not to say that a proper "rinseless" or "waterless" wash when done properly can effectively remove dirt, dust, fingerprints, bird droppings, etc.

 

In order for swirls to be caused something has to be "grinded" into your clear coat. So when removing these things off your paint the first thing to do is rinse as much of the debris off your paint as possible. I find that on my Camaro, the rear, trunk lid, window sills, and top along the concave areas tend to hold the most dirt in between washes.

 

Your car may be different, take a couple minutes to go around it before you rinse it to assess each panel and note which areas have more contamination. I think you'll find that under normal conditions these areas will tend to be the most "dirty". So some extra pre-wash rinsing time here is beneficial.

 

Though it's not always 100% necessary, I use a foam gun after rinsing, 2oz of Adams Car Shampoo, to lubricate remaining contaminates for ease of removal. This will aid in lifting them off the paint, suspending them in the foam, so they can now be wiped, not rubbed or scrubbed off the clear coat.

 

Next the 2 bucket with grit guard wash. The idea here is to remove all the contaminates that the foam gun has now "detached" from your paint. 2 oz of Adams Car Shampoo in the soap bucket then given some pressure from your hose will give you a lot of foam and lubrication for your wash. A high quality mitt, pad, or wash wedge is imperative to minimize the chances of introducing any new damage to your clear coat.

 

Wash from the top down, as the lower portion tends to have more "film" and "road grime", gliding the wash mitt, pad, or wedge across the surface, you never should "scrub" or use pressure. The lubricity and cleaning agents in the Adams Car Shampoo are doing the work for you, pressure isn't needed.

 

I generally do a panel at a time, unless the car is more soiled then normal, then split panels in 1/2 or even 1/3 if needed. I use a mitt and check it after each pass for contamination. If I see dirt, I flip it over and use the other side, as soon as both sides are soiled, I put it in the rinse bucket and drag it lightly across the grit guard on both sides. Wring it out and check for contaminates, repeat as needed.

 

The great thing about Adams Car Shampoo is that I don't need to get in a hurry, as long as the car is cool the soap can dry and be rinsed off easily with no spotting issues.

 

Once you get this right all the dirt will be in your rinse bucket, with the soap bucket being as clean as it was from the start.

 

Drying the car you'll want a high quality microfiber drying towel, air if you have it, and Adams Detail Spray. One mist of detail spray per panel will aid in drying, provide lubrication while drying, and add some gloss. Again the idea here is to "glide" the towel across the paint to remove the water, no pressure. The Adams Detail Spray smells so good, avoid "overuse" LOL

 

Once you have your wash method down, then I would look into paint correction. No need to correct your paint if your going to put swirls and scratches right back in.

Edited May 31, 2015 by washemup

[milnosaurus]

This.  I develop the robots that paint majority of the cars in the US.  There are not any crazy new processes.

Its not like GM, Ford, Dodge, etc are inventing new paint processes - they buy their tooling/robotics/materials from other companies and often times it all comes from the same guys.