[Dackz]

Well, the car is looking worse. I dont know where it happened or how, but the swirls and scratches are really bad. Im about blind from looking at them, but I think I made it worse.

PC with 105/orange and 205/white. The sealant looks great, but man, those scratches. You cant see them unless you look RIGHT at them and almost blind yourself in the sun. The light stand didnt really bring them out much though.

Hope they show, my camera isnt great and I was blinded looking at them.

The effort and what came out of it, is not a good thing, I dont think this is for me. I would much rather pay to have it done right once a year and maintain it the rest of the time then just to screw up with all the effort I put into it. Very dissapointed in my work. Pics might not do it justice, but its not great at all, again, wouldnt notice them unless blinding yourself looking into the sun.

[ShowTime12]

It really doesn't look that bad and I doubt anyone can notice them unless they stand 1 foot away from your car looking right at the sun reflection. What polish did you use and how many passes did you do? Maybe a more abrasive polish will give you the 100% paint correction your looking for. Also, did you use a finishing polish since you said you made it worse?

[Cosmin]

u got the wrong pads , white is polish and goes with 205 and orange is cutting and goes with 105

[Dackz]

Originally Posted by ShowTime12

It really doesn't look that bad and I doubt anyone can notice them unless they stand 1 foot away from your car looking right at the sun reflection. What polish did you use and how many passes did you do? Maybe a more abrasive polish will give you the 100% paint correction your looking for.

Well, I did about a 1x1 area and alternating movements, first left to right on the area, so 3-4 left to rights, then 3-4 up and downs, did that 3 times over it with the Meguires 105, then lightened up my next 2 times in same manner. So, not sure if thats 1 pass or 5 passes really. I mean, Im guessing its 5 because I didnt re-apply 105, I just did that and then moved to the next section. Then I did lighter pressure with the Megs 205 in the same manner and lightened up each time.

It looks stunning with the BFWD in the shade though. I dunno...I maybe they are just scratches that wont come out unless wet sanded or something?

I dunno, expert advice here? Are they just scratches and I would need something stronger anyway??

My steps were

CG Citrus wash, 2 bucket method, no grit guards but I used 5 gallon paint bucket paint grids
Clay - DI fine grade and dodo juice born slippy
Washed it again, this time with optimum car wash (just to get all the stuff off)
Polish with 105/orange, wiped with plush microfier, polished with 205/white, buffed with new plush microfiber. 3 pads each, so 2-3 panels a pad.
Washed again with CG citrus wash to get rid of what may have been left over polish
BFWD applied by hand with blue finesing pad (rather do it by hand then with PC)

When I dried it, I sheeted it and blotted the paint, the towel was dang near dry still.

Im just discouraged. If those are truly just scratched, then that sucks. At least I have space gray and the car doesnt show stuff bad at all, haha. If this was black it would be hideous. That and I may be really anal. Ill go outside and get a pic of a few spots on the side with my lightstand.

[Dackz]

Originally Posted by Cosmin

u got the wrong pads , white is polish and goes with 205 and orange is cutting and goes with 105

Woops, Ill have to edit that...I had it right but I wrote it down wrong.

Went out and took pics with lightstand...pics didnt show anything, its the kind of angle that you have to like have your head down on the car and the light beams off it just right to see them. They may be too deep to take out with what I did, but if thats the case, I have A TON of them to take out, just on the hood/front fenders alone. I dont know if I can describe them any better then that, but they are everywhere, but you have to be with head almost on the car or the light has to be at an obtuse angle (for more then 100deg) to see them.

I think I may take it to a detail shop in town tomorrow and have them inspect it and see if they are scratches that could even be removed. I literally either did nothing to the car or made it worse somehow. All the pads were brand new and clean, went straight to a labeled ziplock bag after opening them, surface of car was clean, the only thing I can think of is if there was somehow dirt on my wash mit but that was clean too.

Super dissapointed right now though. I mean yea, 99.9% of people wouldnt even notice but I see it and it makes me cringe........argh.

[jopa489]

Originally Posted by Dackz

Super dissapointed right now though. I mean yea, 99.9% of people wouldnt even notice but I see it and it makes me cringe........argh.

Ah, if I had a dime for every time I've thought those exact words. Welcome to the world of detailing..

On a more positive note, the car does look tremendous. Really nice depth and gloss to the paint. Let us know what the detail shop says.

[Dackz]

Originally Posted by jopa489

Ah, if I had a dime for every time I've thought those exact words. Welcome to the world of detailing..

On a more positive note, the car does look tremendous. Really nice depth and gloss to the paint. Let us know what the detail shop says.

Thanks. It looked great and I thought it was a great success. Perhaps the wash I did AFTER I polished it had a little more contamination then I thought, or my mit was dirty or something. I dunno, but yea, the depth/gloss is amazing, and like I said, even looking this way its not bad because the color helps to hide it

My process above looks good though? Am I right on the passes and such? Put the polish on the paint (105 says to do this), apply buffer, buff up and down over lapping the area 1x1 foot, and thats 1 pass, when I go back and do my left to right overlapping, thats pass 2, then when I go up and down again, thats pass 3, then left-right with less pressure is pass 4, and up down again is pass 5 right? Is that the correct thing?

Maybe if I step up to cyan pads with 105 it would cut more? I have one cyan pad, I didnt think I would need more then orange to be honest. But even from the start, there were some scratches that wouldnt come out, but wont show in photo's at all, but at the right angle like I said, you can see them but looking right at them, you cannot, only when the light catches it right.

Will let you guys know what the place says. I figure if I take it in just for a consultation they should know if it will be able to be removed or not.

This wasnt as easy or expected as I was hoping though. Heck, could have even somehow gotten a spec of dirt on it in the clay or the sealer pad, who knows. The towels are clean though, this I know.

[jopa489]

Your process looks good to me. I'm somewhat surprised the 105/orange didn't remove those - it's tough to tell for sure by pictures alone, but the blemishes don't look too severe. There's a chance you may need just a bit of wetsanding to get them out more completely.

[Dackz]

Watching some video's on youtube of all this stuff. Im thinking it was a total error in skill and technique, possible dirt or something as well. Pretty sure, lol. Still going to the place to see what they say. Might have to take the damn sealant back off and do it again But Im thinking I was using too much product and goign a bit too fast and working too short.

[jopa489]

There's a lot of bad technique on the Youtubes when it comes to detailing. Check out Mike Phillip's videos, mainly this series here. Everyone has their own style and technique, but Mike shows and explains the basics very well. You can compare this to what you did the first time around, and learn for next time.

[Dackz]

I actually was watching junkman2000's videos. From what I have read and what he showed, it looked correct but I will watch those as well, thank you for the link.

Also, the shop said they could definetly come out, typical detail process, 3-step, cutting compound, polish and sealant. I took it to 2 places, one qouted me 10 hours or so at $35 an hour, the other $4-5 hours at a flat $110. Gee, I wonder what place does a better job? haha

The guy at the first place said they didnt appear to be anything major, and at the worst that he would be able to blend them in a bit more.

I dont think I spent enough time on it really. Im thinking I only did 1 pass too. Perhaps you can better explain a pass to me?

Here is what Im confused on. Lets say a 2x2 area. I put my bead down on the paint, about 2-3" worth, then put the pad on it, then turn it on, lets say Im working 105/orange. Now I do up and down overlapping each time, the entire 2x2 area. Is that a pass? Then pass #2 is when I go left and right overlapping the area? Or is a pass when you work it in, stop, put another bead of product on? Im guessing the latter.

He also said that they would probably end up doing step 1 a majority of the time. 5-6 hours on the cutting step alone. That sounds about right, considering it took me 3 hours to do it all. (polish steps wise) I just think I rushed it a bit much and maybe didnt use the correct technique.

[Jeff@TopGearSolutions]

Orange pad might be fine, but you might need to apply more speed and pressure.


Start from Speed 3, Work to speed 6, then back to down to 4 On the orange pad.

Then Start at 3, work to speed 5, then back down to 3 on the white pad.

That's usually the technique I use. A good amount of pressure is fine with the PC too.


I never stood by the amount of passes people say, its all relevant to the car at hand.

Doing a test spot and checking correction in the sun is the only way to really judge how many "passes" you make.

If I think whats going on is correct, it sounds like you need to speed up the pad a little bit, slow down your movment a little, and dont forget to lower your speed and do one more pass.

[Dackz]

Jopa, those videos helped alot, thank you!

As for one other question, how do you guys do a panel/polish and such? Do you do all the car with the 105/orange and then do the 205/white, or do you do a section of both, and then move on to the next section, taking your pad off each time?

I do have 3 pads of each color, enough to do the whole car with different pads. Thanks again for the info guys, I think now that I know the technique better I will have better results.

[Envious Eric]

whole car with one product, then move on to the next step. You dont want to compound a section, then polish it, wipe it off, then move to the next panel and repeat because you will be overlapping sections anyway, so the previous panel you polish will get slightly compounded again and polished again

take 105 and orange using about 20lbs of pressure on the PC speed 6. Get a scale and press down on the scale with the pad on the PC to figure out how much pressure is 20lbs. You also want 5.5" pads, not the bigger ones on the PC - smaller is better on the PC = more cutting ability.

if you can see through the 105 residue that you have not removed the defects, immediately reapply 105 to the pad (not the panel) and go at it again while the section is still slightly warm. The paint will be a tad softer while warm making the compounding/polishing more effective. (think about detailing a black car in the sun - a mild polish will work where in the shade and cool, a medium polish is necessary (not good to detail in the sun though)).

Then come back behind the whole car with 205 and the white pad on speed 6 on the PC. Use less pressure as you are using the abrasives in 205 to remove the haze from the 105 step as the scratches/swirls marks should have been removed already. If not, 205 isnt going to remove what 105 didnt...so hit it again with 105. You dont have to completely remove the 205 residue with the MF if you are going to rewash. Get most of it off, but dont sit there and keep wiping! On almost every detail I do, I wipe a max of two times and whatever oils are left on the paint, those get removed by either a wash, or CGEZCG.

when you rewash the car, wipe in vertical passes so that you can see if you are instilling more damage with the wash media, and horizontal passes while drying to see if its the drying towels.

Your paint isnt the softest out there, so you may not be going aggressive enough (pressure wise). Try it out and see what happens! Do a 50/50 tape line to check your results - do one side all the way through and leave the other alone, remove the tape and view.

Hope that helps...

Eric

[Dackz]

Originally Posted by Envious Eric

whole car with one product, then move on to the next step. You dont want to compound a section, then polish it, wipe it off, then move to the next panel and repeat because you will be overlapping sections anyway, so the previous panel you polish will get slightly compounded again and polished again

take 105 and orange using about 20lbs of pressure on the PC speed 6. Get a scale and press down on the scale with the pad on the PC to figure out how much pressure is 20lbs. You also want 5.5" pads, not the bigger ones on the PC - smaller is better on the PC = more cutting ability.

if you can see through the 105 residue that you have not removed the defects, immediately reapply 105 to the pad (not the panel) and go at it again while the section is still slightly warm. The paint will be a tad softer while warm making the compounding/polishing more effective. (think about detailing a black car in the sun - a mild polish will work where in the shade and cool, a medium polish is necessary (not good to detail in the sun though)).

Then come back behind the whole car with 205 and the white pad on speed 6 on the PC. Use less pressure as you are using the abrasives in 205 to remove the haze from the 105 step as the scratches/swirls marks should have been removed already. If not, 205 isnt going to remove what 105 didnt...so hit it again with 105. You dont have to completely remove the 205 residue with the MF if you are going to rewash. Get most of it off, but dont sit there and keep wiping! On almost every detail I do, I wipe a max of two times and whatever oils are left on the paint, those get removed by either a wash, or CGEZCG.

when you rewash the car, wipe in vertical passes so that you can see if you are instilling more damage with the wash media, and horizontal passes while drying to see if its the drying towels.

Your paint isnt the softest out there, so you may not be going aggressive enough (pressure wise). Try it out and see what happens! Do a 50/50 tape line to check your results - do one side all the way through and leave the other alone, remove the tape and view.

Hope that helps...

Eric

Yes, all this info helps guys! I will try and make some time in the next week or two and get this done the right way.

[Envious Eric]

if you cant get it, talk to http://www.theintriguedetail.com/ and see what they say!

[Dackz]

Originally Posted by Envious Eric

if you cant get it, talk to http://www.theintriguedetail.com/ and see what they say!

Yea, I have heard they are THE place in Denver to take it, but problem is they are about an hours drive away. I would have to have them take me to a golf course and drop me off while it would be done, haha.

[Envious Eric]

.....and thats a bad thing???? LOL

[Dackz]

When you've spent more time in the native grass then on the fairway the last couple of times you've gone out.....kind of haha. Had to order a bag of balls from amazon the other day, haha