Need help polishing

Guys I need help selecting a pad and polish. My car was delivered to my is less than perfect condition and I have been trying ever since to fix it. I just spent 18 hours this weekend washing, claying, cleaning and polishing. I tried 5 polishes and 3 pads but nothing can cut them. You cannot feel them, you cannot catch a nail on them, you cannot even see them under halogens without looking hard at the right angle, I can't even get a picture of them. The car is clean, shiny and smooth, everyone thinks I am crazy, but I know they are there, and I want to get them out.

 

Anyhow, I have tried edge white, blue and green pads. SSR1, SSR2, XMT360, Megs Deep Crystal Polish, and Megs #7. So what are you guys using on your cars to remove swirls? Nothing I have tried is working and I am loosing faith in detailing and car care products very quickly. I feel like smashing my pc right now.

Might be a job for a pro.

 

*edit* The RIGHT pro.

 

Post pics when your done, sound like it'll b glossy!

You seem to have used all the product I would have recommended. How about you try a light rubbing compound and a cutting pad? I like the 3M rubbing compound to get my swirls out. I use that just so it goes quickly, not that I've ever really needed to use rubbing compound.

Compounding scares me, I have an orange pad and some compound that I have had for years, but never had to cut something that bad. I am going to do my friends civic next spring that he just bought for a dd. It has over 200k miles and looks like it has never been touched. I want to work on that just to see how much of an improvement I can make, the oldest car I have ever worked on was 3 years old. But on the civic I won't be afraid to try compounding, will be good practice.

 

The car was delivered to me this way, and I complained to the sales person (car was bought sight unseen). He told me he can have his detailers work on it and I told him his "detailers" have f'd it up enough already. 9 months and 6000 miles later I don't think Subaru will do anything about it, even though it has only ever been hand washed with great care and is a garage queen. This is the whole reason I bought my PC and everything that goes along with it (cleaners, polishes, sealants, mfs, brushes, tape, glasses, apron, etc, etc, etc). All in all, if I add everything up i've bought trying to reapair and maintain, its $1500 - $2000, not to mention 40+ hrs (thats 1hr per 150 miles driven, sounds quite low, I spend probably another 3 hours on detailing forums and guides per 1 hours spent detailing). I don't want to have to pay a pro to fix it since I have everything already, but I would pay a pro to make suggestions and show me how to do it since I don't know any other local enthusiast detailers. It just frustrates me because I have never spent so much time, energy and money and had this much determination only to fail.

 

Pictures can be deceiving, but here are a few I took when I was wrapping up for the night.

Umm ... what is the problem?

 

Are they swirls, or are they scratches? You can get some fine scratches that won't polish out, but not through the paint (technically, they will eventually polish out, but it just isn't worth it).

 

If you can't photograph it even in direct sunlight, I don't know WHAT anyone could tell you.

 

My best answer on this one is that no matter what you do, pretty much no car will ever be "perfect."

That car looks extremely shinny already!

 

My take on this is even if you get it perfect, how long until it is not once again?

 

I think you should just leave as it, you really would not want to hurt the paint.

 

X

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsessive-compulsive_disorder

As others have mentioned......to hard to tell from the pictures what the problem is:(

I think I see what you are trying to show us. On the passenger door picture the defect is on the fender. On the Headlight picture the defect is on the hood near the seam between the hood and the fender.

Am I right?

Sorry for the bad news but they look like paint defects from the factory. I would take it back to the dealer and show it to them. Not sure if its something even wetsanding can fix

^^^ unless that is residual dust from polishing, because if those are scratches, then they are major!

 

X

^^^No not scratches, if they are what I think they are and if thats what he is showing us, then they are actually defects underneath the clearcoat You can't feel them like scratches because there is nothing to feel.

Yeah but those are huge and easily capture in camera.

 

If that is the case, then that is a paint defect that would be covered no questions asked.

 

I think we need clarification from the OP because not even Subaru has that bad of a paint.

 

Those shadows look like 2 inches long!

 

X

To the OP...Get a halogen projector light (the ones that get really hot), their cheap, or a led flash light then shine it on the paint directly to get pictures of what you are trying to show us. Make sure to turn the flash of on you camera too.

Strive for excellence, not perfection.

That pic of the hood/fender doesn't show anything (that I can see). Looks like the camera moved slightly. I cannot tell what is on the door, but its gotta be a reflection of something.

 

I will try to get some better pics tonight, I also posted on nasioc to see if I could pay someone to come give me a hand. I am still learning how to use the PC and what pads/polishes to use.

 

Since the green pad works but leaves buffer trails, I might just need to do ssr2 with the green pad, then ssr2 with the blue pad and ssr1 with the blue pad. There should be no reason to compound, if these are infact under the clearcoat the dealer will be hearing from me for sure.

 

The scratches go side to side and only on the top panels. Since I wash using the two bucket method, top to bottom, front to back on the top panels and up and down on the side panels, then blot dry and use the metro to blow it completely dry, I know these are not from me. The only thing I might have done to damage it was quick detailing with cheap target mf's when I first bought it.

Which is worse, polishing or rubbing compound?

 

I might recommend trying detailer's paradise's CUT...Almost feels like rubbing compound when it comes out but I used it on an acrylic fish tank and didn't see any "huge" dents...although it didn't get some of the swirls out but those probably should have been resolved with sandpaper.

Finally got a pic of one of the bad areas.

http://lh5.google.com/birbeck/R17C6lp4o7I/AAAAAAAAAwM/zojyMAGeeAk/s800/DSCN3416.JPG

 

If I zoom out only a couple inches they are no longer visible. The stuff above the light is not scratches, its a reflection of the garage door opener.

http://lh3.google.com/birbeck/R17MBFp4o8I/AAAAAAAAAwU/VTBSPRlJADE/s800/DSCN3413.JPG

are they just water spots from sitting in the lot?? In that case use something soft and soak it in vinegar then let it sit on the problem spot for a few minutes.... should get the spots off. I had this problem and it worked well

There is no water spotting, the car is very clean. What you are seeing is the metallic paint and maybe some polishing dust.

mmmmmm ic. I thought the polishing dust was what ur after....you'll have to get better pics.

****

If you are referring to the horizontal lines in the first pic, those actually look fairly deep. Might be time for a rotary and wool pads or at least step up to the yellow LC pads. Still, very good job!

 

BTW, I read somewhere that it is almost impossible to get rid of all the swirls and scratches. Under the right lighting conditions and the right angles, some will always show up. I never believed it until I saw it for myself. My brother in-law's silver Lexus looked perfect in the sun and under halogens after polishing. Minor scratches showed up under parking garage flourescents later that same day.

If you are referring to the horizontal lines in the first pic, those actually look fairly deep. Might be time for a rotary and wool pads or at least step up to the yellow LC pads. Still, very good job!

 

BTW, I read somewhere that it is almost impossible to get rid of all the swirls and scratches. Under the right lighting conditions and the right angles, some will always show up. I never believed it until I saw it for myself. My brother in-law's silver Lexus looked perfect in the sun and under halogens after polishing. Minor scratches showed up under parking garage flourescents later that same day.

 

Thats exactly what these are like. I cannot see them under halogens unless I get two inches from them and look directly into the light. The only time I can see them is in a dark parking lot under fluorescent lighting. The way I was able to finally get that pic was by turning off all the halogens and using just the fluorescent overhead in the garage, and that pic was the only one showing something out of like 20 I took.

 

Here is what the car looks like under halogen.

http://lh4.google.com/birbeck/R179JVp4o9I/AAAAAAAAAwc/dq3tCuufxEM/s800/DSCN3410.JPG

I say you never drive under fluorescent lights ever again!

 

X

problem solved