GerryC

The damage could have already been on the car and was being hidden by filler wax, like Chris said. Or you could have simply not seen them the first time. It is also likely that the damage you're seeing was introduced during claying, or even washing. Couple of different possibilities, but regardless you will need a correcting polish to remove swirl marks. Revive is a paint cleaning polish and is not designed for removing those types of imperfections. Can you take a photo of the scratches?

Hey Gerry!  If by "strip wash" you mean claying after a two bucket wash I'm afraid I'm already past that.  Other wise what do you mean by strip wash and how is that done?

Strip washing involves simply adding APC to your foam gun and/or wash bucket to remove the old wax/sealant. I figured you were already past that stage, but the advice is there for next time or for anyone else who needs it.

I actually strip washed my G8 yesterday, clayed the whole car, and put on a temporary coat of BW until I have time next week to polish and seal for the season. That's another alternative approach. Now I can proceed with the method I described in my earlier post of doing one panel at a time, and can start with polish since everything's already been clayed.

You go long enough without a garage and you start to figure out your own tricks to dealing with the outdoors

Yes, Americana is the only product that needs to be wiped off within a few minutes of application.

My recommendation for this situation would be to wash the entire vehicle, and then do the entire clay/polish/seal steps to one panel at a time. This is how I corrected my G8 last year. I clayed a whole door, two-step polished the door, and then sealed the door before moving on to the next door, etc. Do NOT strip wash the entire car to start. You don't want to expose the entire surface of the car all at once - only as you begin each panel. This way the only unprotected paint at any given time will be the paint you are currently working on. Another bonus to this method is you can take breaks between completing panels.

It is obviously going to take more time to do your car this way (I did 3 panels a day over the course of 4 days) especially with the frequent product/pad switching, but it is the most feasible I have come up with for correcting a car outdoors. 

When the Revitalizer was first sold it came in the standard clear 16oz bottle. People soon found out that this plastic did not play well with the chemical and the bottles cracked - mine did too. That's why the Revitalizer is now sold in the 36oz "frosted" plastic (which the DWC originally came in) because it does not react to the chemical in the same way. This bottle is made of HDPE plastic, vs the PETE plastic of the clear bottles. If you've seen Breaking Bad you'll understand the significance of HDPE 

If you've transferred some Revitalizer into a clear plastic Adam's bottle, this is likely the cause.

Color transfer is common and normal when working with single stage paint. I've only worked with single stage gloss, though, not matte. I imagine you wouldn't clay or polish that, only wash.

Once you wipe off all the polish residue, you can wipe the car down with WW or diluted IPA, then move on to sealant. Washing again is unnecessary and time consuming.

Unfortunately, yes. That's why we stress the importance of doing a test area and getting one spot perfect so you know what process to take on the rest of the car. Otherwise you'll just end up wasting time and product and not getting the results you're after.

Do one area with the white foam and the PFP, then pull the car out into the sun and see if the swirls are gone from that area. Don't do any other part of the car until you are satisfied with that one area, then replicate that technique over the rest of the car.

The blue hex grip is the same foam, I believe, as the yellow and red. 

If you have an extra pro tire sponge that hasn't been used for VRT, you can use it for applying LPS by hand since the face of the applicator is the same texture as the black sealant machine pad.

I use the "all purpose" towels for interiors; short side for cleaning, long side for dusting/wiping.

Many people use diluted IPA to wipe down panels after polishing to prep for sealant. Others use WW, and some don't use anything. Personal preference. I like to use WW because it helps reduce static charge on the surface so dust doesn't cling when you're laying down your protection.

Why is the "Adams" logo in different spots on different bottles?? I'm not going to lie.... That's going to drive My OCD absolutely nuts! I may need professional help and I admit it!! =)

I think he ordered some of the die cut decals and put them on the bottles himself

No, it won't hurt anything. 

 

Quick Sealant is heat resistant to around 300*F, making it the better option for places that get hot.  That being said, your exhaust tip(s) will rarely, if ever, get that hot.

QS is on my wheels, exhaust tips, and under-hood paint. 

or if the in-laws are in town...perfect timing to detail the cars!!!

To them you're detailing their cars, but in reality you're just practicing on something that isn't yours 

There's a good chance you need to finish with the white foam pad, as the microfiber might be a bit too aggressive for your clearcoat and is leaving behind those micro scratches that you are still seeing. You do not need to start over from the beginning, just pick an area that has swirls and do a pass with the white foam and PFP and see if they go away.

My G8 is a daily driver; I did a full correction last year and then applied two coats of sealant. With proper washing (and snow removal ) techniques, I would say that the paint still looks about 95% as good as it did last year. My wash frequency is about the same as yours. It all boils down to how you touch the paint. Obviously, the less you touch it, the better it is. But when you have to touch it, how you touch it is also important. When you are washing and drying, you don't need to apply any pressure whatsoever. Let the weight of the pad or towel do the work. Pressing down will just grind the dirt in and start causing swirls to re-appear.

It is of course possible to get a daily driver 100% swirl-free, but unrealistic to maintain it as 100% swirl free since it will be driven and washed often. However, you should be using more than one wash pad in order to minimize the amount of dirt that gets put back onto the car. At least two, one for the top half down the the midpoint of the doors, one for the lower half where the majority of the dirt is. They're cheap enough that I use three.

Do you have a coat of sealant on your paint?

If you are applying SVRT to hard plastics, you need very little product to do so. Sometimes, you can even dress hard plastics with just the residual product still in the applicator. Hard plastics won't absorb SVRT the same way soft rubber (weatherstrip, tires, etc) does.

And like others have said, make sure the surface is clean before dressing.

This was an issue with the first batch of DS 2.0 (when they still had to use the "new formula" sticker you have there) and I believe it has since been resolved. It is purely a cosmetic change and should not affect the performance of the product. Of course, if you find it doesn't work as it should, feel free to call up and have it replaced 

You are forgetting to clay, which is the most important step if you are going to be performing paint correction. There is a bunch of stuff stuck to your clearcoat that traditional washing will not remove - brake dust particles, environmental contaminants, etc.

Clay after washing. You can leave the rinse water on the surface of the vehicle to save time. Other than that, your steps are right, and like Eric said you don't need to wash the vehicle again after polishing, a wipedown with WW will suffice.

You can seal and glaze any shiny surface. Glaze on chrome will melt your face 

Any reason that "out of stock" merchandise isn't just labeled as " temporarily out of stock"??

Instead its just completely removed from the website. So one might think its discontinued when it is simply out of stock.

I believe it's based on ETA of the product being back in stock, but it still seems a bit buggy to me. They're trying to square away new storefront software that will eliminate a lot of this confusion.

Every plastic surface is different, and as such it's hard to get a single product that works well on everything. I have had no luck with TID on the smooth plastic that surrounds my G8's center stack (streaks like Matt said, and took too much effort to level out), but it works great on the smooth plastic that covers the entire dash of the vette. TID works great on the textured plastic in my G8, but the textured "dash pad" in the vette needs LC in order to look detailed. Once you figure out what works where, it becomes second nature.

Any claying or polishing will remove the trace amount of wax in the RW, so it won't affect anything.

What was the very last polishing pad you used before you started sealing? Was it the white foam or the white microfiber? Softer clearcoats don't finish well with the more aggressive microfiber pads and will require the foam finishing pad to get it perfect. If you can get a picture of the swirls in the sun that would help.

If you haven't finished waxing yet, don't continue. If you have to re-polish an area it will remove the wax.

You do not need to clay when you are going to re-apply wax. Sealants last for 4-6 months depending on storage/driving conditions of your car. When you go to apply more wax a month or so later, claying would be unnecessary and it would also remove the sealant.

Since the longer-lasting product (sealant) is going on first, there is no "weak link" in your layers. 

I use 90% IPA diluted 50/50. It doesn't need to be strong. Just try to avoid hitting plastic trim with the alcohol.