Need help figuring this out

[blazr]

Okay so this weekend I was able to spend some time with my moms new ride. I am planning on fully correcting it but was only able to finish the hood . Im still learning and I feel like I almost got it down. I was able to finally figure out when to stop working the SHR, but didnt quite get the FMP down. It was pretty close as i only had micro marring really small and hard to see. Any how since I wasnt gonna finish the whole truck I figured I would just give it a wash and some wax for protection until next week when I plan to do some more panels. So I gave it the ol 2 bucket wash and finished up with some buttery wax and some glaze here and there.

 

Well now to the actual problem....

 

The weather was cooperating all day up until about 7pm. It started to rain as I was finishing up glazing and and dressing the wheels. This was not a problem as the car was under the car port and I had managed to park it in just the right spot so as no water would hit it. My sister then decides she wants to take the truck to go and drop off my brother at his house... Thinking it would be okay... even tho I knew it was raining.... I told her Okay...

 

BIG MISTAKE....

 

When I got home from work, my mom tells me " All that work for nothing huh" And i thot it was just a few water spots on the back of the truck.

 

Look at what it looks like now:P

 

 

 

So im thinking the rain may have made the glaze not cure properly or maybe even the buttery wax and wit washed some of it off?

 

 

I was thinking of giving it a quick rinse. Didint wanna wash it as the weather isnt being freindly.

 

Any suggestions?

[blazr]

Yea, that's just brutal. Talk about a hack with a rotary, that guy need to be tared and feathered.

 

Yea no kidding, yet I think that would be going easy on the guy:lolsmack:

So before I went ahead and worked on my freindswhite 99 ecliipse, I went ahead and reviewed the PC videos proivede by Junkman. After watching the videos, i realized I might have not been putting enough pressure when working on the side panels of the SUV. Since I felth this was my problem now I tried to really pay attention to it when I was polishing my freinds car.

 

Since the car was droppped off on saturday afternoon rather than friday afternoon, I was already a bit behind. I completed the interoir and clayed a bit on saturday. After finishing the prep work on Sunday morning, I started polishing. I payed lots of attention to the pressure and marker I put on my PC. This paint was trashed and dirty! The first SSR SHR and FMP round of polish barely helped with the swirls. With the second round of SSR SHR and FMP, the car looked much better, but not perfect. I was unable to do a third round of SSR SHR and FMP since I was looksing daylight and my freind needed the car the next day. So I did an IPA wipe down and layed down MSS on the car. It came out looking real nice! I was pleased I didnt see micro swirls like before, and the owner was amazed at the turnaround of the car, even tho it was not perfect. He will be bringing the car back for me to finish it up in a month or two, hopefully ill have the FLEX by then.

 

With regards to the micro marring I was experiencing, On the last pass of FMP for the car I inspected it, if i felt like it had noticable micro swirls, i went back over it with another pass of FMP. I felt like I minized a lot of my micro swirling problem, but then again this is a white car and I have read that it is a very forgiving color when it comes to micro swirls.

 

The owner said hed take a few pics for me the next day since I finished after dark and didnt really have time to take any. Still no pics from the guy:willy:

Here is a quick before and after I was able to get on my phone.

Before pic was taken after I completed claying of th hood

 

After pic was taken right after IPA wipedown.

[blazr]

First Junkman... now Dylan answers... Its my lucky day!

 

I am working on a 2010 black escalade. In all hoesty im not too sure how hard the paint is. I started with FMP . I did one pass and not much improvment was done. I did a second pass of fmp and it helped a bit more but you still really see the big swirlys in the the light. So at this point i kicked it up to the OJ pad and SHR. ( i was trying to be as careful as possible with the paint). The SHR did the job in 2 passes. all the big swirls seemed to be gone but of course i had the smaller swirls to get out. After hitting wih fmp i had super tiny swirl left behind.

 

Dylan please let me know what yu think.

[blazr]

I will answer after I have had a chance to study your videos.

 

Thanks Junkman. Look forward to your diagnosis

[Team Adam's]

First Junkman... now Dylan answers... Its my lucky day!

 

I am working on a 2010 black escalade. In all hoesty im not too sure how hard the paint is. I started with FMP . I did one pass and not much improvment was done. I did a second pass of fmp and it helped a bit more but you still really see the big swirlys in the the light. So at this point i kicked it up to the OJ pad and SHR. ( i was trying to be as careful as possible with the paint). The SHR did the job in 2 passes. all the big swirls seemed to be gone but of course i had the smaller swirls to get out. After hitting wih fmp i had super tiny swirl left behind.

 

Dylan please let me know what yu think.

 

Sorry if I missed this earlier in the thread, but are you using a Flex or PC?

[blazr]

Sorry if I missed this earlier in the thread, but are you using a Flex or PC?

 

I am using a PC , setting of 5 with very little pressure. I was trying to be as careful as possible with the paint.

[Junkman2008]

I am using a PC , setting of 5 with very little pressure. I was trying to be as careful as possible with the paint.

 

So exactly who's technique are you using?

[blazr]

So exactly who's technique are you using?

 

Id be attemptin your technique Junkman

[Junkman2008]

Okay, after looking at your videos, it looks as if you're working on a car that has some years on it, correct? Your cell phone is not capable of showing the damage that I was expecting to see (the micro-damage from overworking a polish). What I do see is damage that is deeper into the clear coat as compared to the swirls in the first video. This "deeper damage" will either take time to remove with the PC, a stronger polish/pad/machine or an even more aggressive option like wet sanding. Some of the damage looks like pitting from the car being sandblasted. This is the nature of the beast when you drive a car daily. The tiny rocks on the road will eventually create missing speckles of paint on the front, lower sides and front of the hood area.

 

What I would like to see is a video f you doing one pass, while you explain EVERYTHING that you are doing. I need to see what you're doing too so get a friend to record it. This time, use a video camera. Cell phone videos look like crap.

[blazr]

So thats what those specks are!?! I was wondering what they were. Makes complete sense. The car is about1-2 yrs old but new to my family as of december. Its my moms "new" Escalade. It was a previously a rental.. I even found what appear to be holograms along the right rear quarter panel. Just another thing ill have to work out of the paint.

 

 

With regards to the tiny swirls I mentioned, I was able to show this to a local Adams dealer who gave me some good advise that I feel will help. But until I try it i will not know. Im anxious so ill be trying it this weekend. Thanks for the info Greg!

S

As for your request Junkman, I will be helping my freind with his 99 eclipse. Ill see if I can get him to record a few passes of my working. Thanks for the input thus far:bow:

[Junkman2008]

Wow, it's a former rental??? OMG, you're lucky that there is still paint on that thing!

 

Rental cars are mistreated worse than any car on the planet. The cleaning process that they go through would make the hair on your toes stand up!

[blazr]

It was a good deal:)

 

I believe you about the cleaning process, this suv is proof.. take a look at the swirls and holograms I mentioned earlier.

[Junkman2008]

Yea, that's just brutal. Talk about a hack with a rotary, that guy need to be tared and feathered.

[Team Adam's]

blazr - what kind of car are you working on? if its something with really soft paint it may not be entirely your technique thats the issue... sometimes you need to adjust the process to compensate for different paint types.

[Junkman2008]

Looks good from where I'm sitting.

[Team Adam's]

Looks good... I'm assuming you clayed to remove those specs PRIOR to polishing correct?

[blazr]

Thanks guys! I was really pleased with the way the finish came out.

What I ment to say is... I got the swirls out but not some deeper scratches. Sorry about the confusion.

 

 

You are correct Dylan, i did clay before polishing. I tried removing those specs with just the clay, I could feel the clay removing the junk on the clear coat, but it didnt seem like they were going anywhere. The clear coat felt smooth, but it was almost like it was stained by the contamination. I washed the car after claying hoping all this stuff would loosen and clean off but no luck until I started polishing. Should i have been able to remove that stuff with just the clay?

[Junkman2008]

... Should i have been able to remove that stuff with just the clay?

 

If the substance is sitting on top of the paint, clay should remove it. Maybe you didn't clay hard enough.

[blazr]

If the substance is sitting on top of the paint, clay should remove it. Maybe you didn't clay hard enough.

 

 

I was afraid you would say that:lol:

 

I thought i prepared my self enough... ate a good breakfast w/ protein shake and even took my vitamins.

 

I even was even using both hands at one point to see if that would help, but the specs remained:confused: until:pc:

[mc2hill]

The first SSR SHR and FMP round of polish barely helped with the swirls. With the second round of SSR SHR and FMP, the car looked much better, but not perfect. I was unable to do a third round of SSR SHR and FMP since I was looksing daylight and my freind needed the car the next day.

 

This statement has me puzzled - did you do the entire car with SSR, SHR, FMP one time, then do the entire car with SSR, SHR, FMP again?

[Team Adam's]

Should i have been able to remove that stuff with just the clay?

 

Yes... if it came off when you went over it with the polish/pad it should have been removed by clay.

 

What you there is some kind of surface contamination, so the fact that you took it off with the polisher means those little particles were then in your pad and potentially ground into the paint thru the rest of the detail.

 

This might explain why you had remaining damage... the pad you were using had small particles embedded in it.

[blazr]

This statement has me puzzled - did you do the entire car with SSR, SHR, FMP one time, then do the entire car with SSR, SHR, FMP again?

 

My apologies for the confusion, I think faster than I type and forget details.

 

I tried SSR first, since it didnt seem to do much, I tried hitting it again with the SSR. This time was a little better(Test Spot 1). I then tried the SSR on spot near test spot 1. After this pass of SSR, I went behind it with SHR(Test spot 2). Test spot 2 seemed to have more damage removed than spot 1. That being said I decided to use the method for spot 2. I did the FMP on test spot 2 just to see how it would look, but still needed improvement. So I went down the 3 step process again on that spot. This looked much much better.

 

Once I figured I would need to have at it 2x. I did the whole car SSR once, SHR once then SSR again and then SHR, FMP. It seemed much easier to track the progess this way.

 

 

Test spot 2 seemed to have more of the swirls gone than test spot 1. This could have been because I didnt follow the 2 SSR passes with a pass of SHR(I only realized this now).

 

Now that you questioned that, Im wondering, what would be the most efficient way to tackle a paint correction like this? Maybe the pros can provide some info or advice?

 

 

 

Oh and Dylan, thanks for that info. Ill be sure to make sure the paint is completly rid of contamination.

[mc2hill]

I tried SSR first, since it didnt seem to do much, I tried hitting it again with the SSR. This time was a little better(Test Spot 1). I then tried the SSR on spot near test spot 1. After this pass of SSR, I went behind it with SHR(Test spot 2). Test spot 2 seemed to have more damage removed than spot 1. That being said I decided to use the method for spot 2. I did the FMP on test spot 2 just to see how it would look, but still needed improvement. So I went down the 3 step process again on that spot. This looked much much better.

 

That makes more sense. In this case the best thing to do is a test area, like you did.

 

Once I figured I would need to have at it 2x. I did the whole car SSR once, SHR once then SSR again and then SHR, FMP. It seemed much easier to track the progess this way.

 

I would done 2 passes with SSR before moving up to SHR (then FMP). This could have saved you a pass of SHR. But if it looks like you wanted it to, then your method is good too!

[blazr]

That makes more sense. In this case the best thing to do is a test area, like you did.

 

 

 

I would done 2 passes with SSR before moving up to SHR (then FMP). This could have saved you a pass of SHR. But if it looks like you wanted it to, then your method is good too!

 

 

 

I didnt know it could be done that way:willy:

 

Wish i wuldve known before hand. It wuldve saved me lots of time...

 

Thanks for that peice of info

[mc2hill]

I didnt know it could be done that way:willy:

 

Wish i wuldve known before hand. It wuldve saved me lots of time...

 

Thanks for that peice of info

 

There are lots of ways to do this stuff, the one that gives you the results you want is fine! I occasionally work with a professional detailer and he is always looking for the most efficient way to do things.

[blazr]

Yeah im always trying to get more efficient with my washing a polishing since im still learning, I have a long way to go. I cant blame him for wanting to be more efficient. After that paint correction, my hands were very numb for a while.