PHOKUS

Damn fine work.

Ok well im off work tomorrow so im gonna make a few more passes in that spot and try to get some better pics in the sunlight. Appreciate the help guys

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?

1. 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.
2. If you're the courageous type, go slow and try it yourself.
3. 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 like where your head's at, a deep cleaner dedicated strictly for glass. So to deep clean the inside windshield I can use a damp towel and any dawn dish soap? Do u just put a few drops on the towel, scrub the window and then wipe dry?

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.

Thanks for the link to the bulletin.

My personal wheels are also starting to show clearcoat failure. They have never seen snow, or salt spray, and they are carefully maintained. My belief is that the clearcoat can only take so many years of abuse, heat cycling and everything wheels are subjected to in use. Getting paint to adhere to a polished surface has never been easy. It is aggravating, not really sure of a better solution. Polished wheels require lots more maintenance, polished & clearcoated have "limited" life time, and chrome is an entire different look, that usually is more durable.

Back when I designed OEM wheels for FORD & GM (at Superior Industires) we subjected the wheels to durabilty testing that included salt spray and other environmental issues, along with rotary and radial fatigue testing. I don't remember the cycle time details though. Regardless, real life use the coating seems prone to failure eventually.

I'm looking for new wheels for truck now.

Best of luck with your situation.

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.

Its "globby" for me too but not sure it matters.  Its not a product like detail spray and needs to be rubbed around with a wet towel and buffed dry like wax.

 

Make sure you waste a couple squirts before applying it to the car as it separates in the tube/nozzle and seems to smear bad if applied to the car. 

 

I know there is a lot of guys that love this stuff but I am struggling with liking 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!

^phenomenal work - looks like you combined all to have best of all worlds!

^Interior looks great Aaron

Thanks to both of you.

I don't believe you need to wait at all when removing Brilliant Glaze and Americana Wax.  From the videos I've seen, you simply apply it to a panel and the wipe off.  That's how I apply/remove Brilliant Glaze.  With the Americana, I apply it to several body panels, sometimes half the car, before I wipe it off. 

This is correct. Allowing Americana to cure for 30-60 minutes maximizes its durability, but it's not required to get excellent performance.

I have had a gallon of rinseless wash for awhile, but really haven't used it. I want to start doing rinseless washes. I'm curious what you guys do with your towels after a wash. If you use 6-8 towels for a wash, do you immediately wash them, or wait until you have more for a full wash? If you save them for a later wash, how do you let them dry without getting musty?

I always wash my towels immediately after use, no matter how small a load I have. I need them ready at all times.

Thanks! I'll give steel wool a try this week. Do I just do this directly or can I use it with the Detail Spray?

 

@BrianT - I don't actually have any sanding marks, the polish is capable of handling up to 3000 grit marks if needed.

If you've got stubborn contamination, use steel wool in combination with a chemical. I would start with mild chemicals, and get more aggressive until the contamination is removed.  I *highly* recommend removing any plastic trim around the windscreen, as well as claying once you've achieved contaminant removal

Here are a few chemical ideas to get you started:

• Car Shampoo in a 1:4 mix with distilled water
• Dawn dish soap
• All Purpose Cleaner mixed 1:1 with distilled water
• Simple Green
• Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol mixed 1:1 with distilled water (be careful here, this will not provide any sort of slippery barrier for the steel wool. Test in a SMALL area first!)

If none of these are successful, you might consider that your windshield was chemically damaged in transit. In any case, if steel wool isn't cutting this stuff off, your last hope is to try having your glass polished. There are a variety of purpose-made glass polishing pads and polish.

I own a black car, wash in the sun pretty often, and have never encountered this issue.

On good paint, Adam's soap always rinses clean. The only time I get streakiness is on paint with dead/dying clear that's gone porous, or the water I'm using is mineral-rich. If you have hard water, compensate with additional soap.

A foam gun or cannon is a great solution. Another great solution is Rinseless Wash. It compensates for hard water even better than Car Shampoo.

Good luck!

I just got a bottle of that and tried it today too.  I haven't been happy with any of the tire cleaners I've tried, but this stuff seems to work quite well.  It's also the first time I tried the Tire Shine.  It goes on a bit shinier than I like for my Mazda 6 (I like how VRT looks initially), but I'll give it a day or two and I bet it will dull down.  However, on my white Z4, I prefer more shine, so I think it will work great there.  I do like the fact that it is a spray.  I very much prefer using towels to apply products than foam applicators.

Note on the Tire Shine that for a duller effect, use a sponge to apply the Tire Shine. Then use a MF towel to buff dry. It gives that new tire look without much shine. And on a CLEAN tire, it will last for a while, usually a couple of weeks. The cleaner the tire, the longer it lasts. And Tire & Rubber Cleaner is the best I have ever used to get my tires clean.

I use TID for "touch" places (door handles, gear shift, parking brake, controls, blinker, steering wheel, wipers, etc)

I use LC for leather.

I use VRT for everything else (dash, door panels, trim, all plastic surfaces). I love the rich, supple look it gives everything.

Your windows from the factory already filter some UV (windshields and moonroofs offer the most built-in protection). Adding UV protective tint on side windows further guards against UV damage.

Here are a couple of shots when my car had around 50k miles, using the above methods.

Fantastic effort, sir! Thanks for sharing.

Any fatty-acid-based soap (what most soaps are made of) will do the job.

Soap does its job by using hydrocarbon chains to form micelles when exposed to water. The micelles attract and link on to the oils, which link onto the chemicals, which we can now remove from the glass with a towel. Without these micelles, it is VERY difficult to coax the oils, minerals, and chemicals off the glass surface. This is the most likely reason someone is having a difficult time getting their glass streak-free using only Adam's Glass Cleaner. Once these oils have been removed, getting streak-free glass is incredibly easy using Adam's Glass Towel and Glass Cleaner.

As some have pointed out, if you have other contaminants on your glass (usually on the outside) you may need to get more aggressive. My method is best applied to the interior side of the glass. Most of us use soap on the outside, so the oils are pretty much a non-issue there.

I use Adam's Car Shampoo diluted 20:1 in distilled water. The micelles I noted above are happiest in a mineral-free water suspension and, consequently, when the micelles are happy they are at their peak cleaning power.

Edited for clarity.

The reason MBs are run so often is because they are successful!

The challenge is how to keep people interested.

• Leverage social media and allow people to build MBs. Add a button on the shopping cart to "Submit For Mystery Box!" For their participation, they are entered in a drawing for gift cards, product, and grand prize is a visit and on-site detail by Adam himself! Preferably before winter.
• Two versions, $40 "Mystery Box" which has a guaranteed value of $75, and a $10 "Wild Card" box which could have ANYTHING. Whammy boxes contain sample bottles, air fresheners, mugs, and are limited to ONE BOX​ per customer. So for $50 you get a regular mystery box, and a wild card box.

Just a couple ideas I have.

Glass is sort of my forte.

I use soap and water with a single soft to clean glass. Then I use Glass Cleaner and a glass towel to make them streak free. Once clean, I maintain with Glass Cleaner.

Airborne oils and chemicals adhere to glass. You need soap to get the oils off. Once these are gone, Glass Cleaner will be able to do its job.

Clean debris and dust off the surface first.

Spray TID into a clean towel. Wipe the surface. Enjoy the sheen. Enjoy the smell.

I have been one-stepping with PCP for some time now. The biggest improvement for me was the machine. I am on the old formula, so I still have to deal with dusting, but I am quite happy with the results.