PHOKUS

You'll love the Rupes. Do yourself a favor and grab at least three Orange pads and a couple MF while you're at it. The Rupes LHR15MkII cuts so fast you'll have to start thinking about residue management. The easiest way I know of to accomplish effective residue management is to simply change the pad. It's a larger up front cost, but each of those pads will last longer and so will the tool. Your total time on each job will go down because you aren't fighting to remove the nasty residue from four panels ago. I change pads four times per passenger vehicle, and six times on vans and trucks. It might seem extreme at first, but when you finish a job 30 minutes ahead of time and your arms still have strength left, it makes the finished product that much better.

Generally, side mirror caps are cheap, but you have to tear the entire assembly apart to get the cap off. I found it easier and cheaper just to buy a new mirror assembly when the side mirror on the van met a mailbox. Cost less than you might think. Plus you can resell the old one to recoup some of the cost.

Winter is fast approaching. I am going under the knife next Wed. with an expected four-week recovery. Today was unbelievably nice. This is a perfect storm for me to FINALLY get the daily prepped for winter! Here's how it went down: Double dose of Strip wash w/Adam's Foam Cannon followed by hand wash and rinse. Clayed w/Visco + Gemming Tool using Detail Spray as lubricant. Coat of VRT on all rubber and plastic surfaces not getting compounded. 2-stage compound + polish using PCP and PFP, combination of Gen5 and Gen6 pads on a Rupes 15 MkII. My clear is soft enough I did not need the MF pad. Machine-applied LPS to all painted surfaces. Coat of Americana on side, top, rear-views, and rear glass. Glass sealant on outer side of windshield. Light coat of VRT to remove stray compounding residue off rubber and plastic. Going to add a coat of Americana + Brilliant Glaze tomorrow. I got the paint to about 95% good here. Happy with that, for sure. Here are some crappy phone snaps for your enjoyment. I hadn't done the glass at this point. That's not dust...that's how much metal flake is in my paint! Luckily, the love marks the neighborhood cat put on the hood came out no problem. Even the roof came out nice. There's ice-cold beer in that there fridge, just waiting for me to be finished.

You nailed it. Go from least aggressive method first. If it requires sanding, I would start at 4000 grit, then 3000, then 2500 only if absolutely necessary. Remember to post your results and method!

Damn fine work.

Any number of things can cause pitting, but based on what you said I think we can eliminate a few things. You noted you cannot feel them with your fingernail, so that leaves tree sap and artillery fungus (which is usually black, but can bleach from UV exposure) out. From your explanation, they appear to be pits or recesses in the clear. This could absolutely be air bubbles in the clear, exposed from the compounding you've done. If the spots are uniform and circular, air bubbles are the most likely explanation. If they are odd shaped and vary in size and depth, they could be caused by foreign object collisions. Silica (sand) can cause pitting when they collide with your paint at high speeds. You being in Texas, there's plenty of sand and speed to be had. One other thing to bear in mind - your clearcoat is not endless. You've done quite a bit of polishing already. You may not have much clearcoat left.

Wet sanding with 3000 grit is essentially like rubbing your paint with water-resistant tagboard. Get yourself some 3000 grit wet/dry sheets, some distilled water in a spray bottle (you have some already for compounding/polishing already, right??), spritz some water, and gently begin sanding. You will see the clear coat begin to get "frosty". I use the cross-hatch method as it allows me to track my progress against the blemish. The tricky part here, and this is fair warning, if you rush it you can go through the clear. Without seeing the blemish myself it's difficult to tell how deep into the clear the etching has gone. In my experience, even the deepest organics etch only 1-3 microns. Clearcoats can be as thin as 8 microns or as thick as 50 microns if your car has been repainted. Most factory clears are between 15 and 25 microns. Of course, this is impossible to tell without a paint gauge. So what's the best advice here? Well, if you're unsure of your skill but are willing to learn, find a vehicle of similar YMM to practice on before wetsanding your car. If you're the courageous type, go slow and try it yourself. If you're simply unwilling to risk going too far, seek a professional you trust. In my eyes, option 1 is the way to go.

Lint roller. A big one. Also use Damp Dry on low heat. The heat fluffs the fibers, then air dry fully.

I would say a better solution would be put a few drops in a dish of water and mix it up. Then dunk the towel in the soapy water and scrub the glass. The important part here is ensuring the soap you're using has had a chance to permeate the water and "activate", ready to link onto contaminants and lift them off the glass. I use single soft towels for this step. Once you have the glass "stripped" of contaminants, you'll find Adam's Glass Cleaner and the Glass Towels incredibly effective at clarifying glass.

Adam's Glass Cleaner is excellent for maintenance cleanings. The problem lay in the expectation that the use of the word "Cleaner" means it will clean anything. This simply is not the case. GC is nowhere near strong enough to strip wash filthy interior glass. You need something stronger. Be it isopropyl alcohol, dish soap, car wash shampoo, or even a mild degreaser. There are any number of variables to contend with here. Choose a chemical for deep cleaning glass while taking these variables into account. The real key here is using chemicals *just* powerful enough to do the job. If you're on these forums, you like to take special care of your belongings. This approach of using the correct chemical for the job at hand is what drew me to Adam's in the first place. That said, particular consideration should be given to what you use and how you use it. The current Glass Cleaner is an excellent product when used on slightly dirty glass. I feel that Glass Cleaner should be renamed Glass Maintainer, and a new product with surfactants introduced called Glass Cleaner. This Glass Cleaner would be able to penetrate under the film covering the glass and lift contaminants away. Or maybe they combine the two? In the same fashion that we detailers dedicate so much of our precious time to our paint, perhaps it's time we begin looking at glass in a similar fashion. Adam's has approximately 21 products dedicated to perfecting paint, but only 2 products for glass. Considering how important it is to see through glass, I am shocked this market niche isn't broader. How about it, Adam's? You ready for another challenge?

APC is all-purpose, but it's no substitute for upholstery cleaner. Diluting APC any further than 1:1 with water is pointless in my opinion, as APC isn't all that strong to begin with. Try a 1:1 dilution of APC on your carpet, but be prepared for lots of elbow grease. APC doesn't foam up like C&U Cleaner, which is to say APC won't lift the contaminants out of the carpet. If you have a steamer and a strong shop vac or an extractor, you might be able to get it out that way. If it were me, I would just either go to the store and pick up some carpet cleaner or wait for my Adam's order to come in.

Bingo! Most wheels will see clearcoat failure nearest the hub first as that is where the heat transfer from hot brakes takes place. X number of heat cycles later, the clearcoat begins to fail, exposing the bare aluminium beneath. As mentioned in posts above, once the Au oxidation process begins, there is almost no easy way to stop it. The further away from the hub it gets, the slower the oxidation process becomes due to a lower max thermal delta (difference) that portion of clearcoat has had to endure - thus is in better condition. Salt and other chemicals further compound this problem and accelerates the damage being done by the thermal cycles. The only true solution is to have the wheels pulled, tires removed, the clear completely stripped, acid-bathed to remove oxidation / contaminants, and re-cleared.

Brakes, even on a show car, should still be functional. Using polish or wheel cleaner is NOT the approach I would take. I would take the rifle(gun) cleaning approach here - Clean and Preserve. Remove the wheels. Use a borestick or bore snake to clean the holes, use a stiff-bristled nylon (brass or copper will leave residue on iron) brush from a gun cleaning kit to clean the dimples. Finish with the power washer. That's it.

Hey Rich! I love G&G. I see you're in Iowa as well. If you're close by, I could swing over and show you why I love G&G so much.

This deserves its own webisodes on YouTube! Great job. Your enthusiasm is just a little bit infectious, and I feel you've started down a path to be successful. Thank you for sharing your story!

Car looks fantastic. Welcome to Adam's!

Thanks to both of you.