Full detail, problems. (Pictures)

[paul.segovich]

Well, today was mothers day so I figured that I would clean up my moms car. Her and my dad are often too busy to care for it properly, and I noticed that it was looking anything but stellar.
I'll take you through the process!

A couple of before pictures. Nothing too special.

Bugs from months and months.



Dirt, road grime, tar from miles of unwashed, and winters of uncared for travel.


I don't know if my mom even knows that you can clean the engine. (And the automatic wash certainly doesn't do it.)



Washed, clayed, and hit it with the maroon pad, with m205. I did one pass over the whole car, and two in problem areas.
As you can see in the pictures, there are still some spots that I just couldn't get to come up. Any suggestions?

Afters:

[Marc08EX]

Re: Full detail, problems. (Pictures)

How did you remove the tar?

[paul.segovich]

Re: Full detail, problems. (Pictures)

I soaked it with a MF of first the car wash solution, then 1:8 APC+, and then a light soak of goo gone. Hosing off between each step.
The front end is the most problematic, it's got slight discoloration, dark spots. Which I just couldn't get off.

I finally got frustrated and just applied some wax to the car, until I could formulate a process to remove the defects properly.

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: Full detail, problems. (Pictures)

Try the bug and tar remover. Let it dwell a while. It should work very well. The car looks a lot better.

[paul.segovich]

Re: Full detail, problems. (Pictures)

That sounds like the perfect product. Unfortunately, I don't have the time right now to order it and wait for it to come in as I only have a week of leave left.
And I'm not express shipping a bottle of bug and tar remover haha.

[RDVT4ME]

Re: Full detail, problems. (Pictures)

M205 may be too mild on the aggressive scale if you are not seeing the shine you want. Also the purple pad on a DA can cause hazing.

You might try Ultimate Compound or M105 on a yellow pad to bring those area's up. Then finish with M205 and a polish or finish pad.

[paul.segovich]

Re: Full detail, problems. (Pictures)

The purple pad is no good, then?

[RDVT4ME]

Re: Full detail, problems. (Pictures)

The purple pad is no good, then?

The purple pad is a tool that has a specific purpose. It is a very course pad intended for heavy defect removal. It is not intended to be used as the final polishing step. It is often used with a rotary buffer for heavy defect removal. Meguiars does not recommend it's use with the DA as the course pad combined with the motion of the DA can often create hazing. It will remove the heavy defects but leave the hazing....which can then be removed with a pad like the yellow polishing pad with a polish. You basically trade the heavy defect with an easier to fix lighter hazing defect. I would not recommend using the purple pad for the final polish step. Step down to the yellow polish pad and that usually does the trick.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Full detail, problems. (Pictures)

The purple pad is fine, assuming you mean the purple pad that comes with NXT Tech Wax. Same as the yellow pad, just a different color.

[Dubbin1]

Re: Full detail, problems. (Pictures)

That sounds like the perfect product. Unfortunately, I don't have the time right now to order it and wait for it to come in as I only have a week of leave left.
And I'm not express shipping a bottle of bug and tar remover haha.

Go to any auto parts store or a walmart and pick up a bottle of Turtle wax bug & tar remover. The stuff works great and wont harm the finish.

[RDVT4ME]

Re: Full detail, problems. (Pictures)

The purple pad is fine, assuming you mean the purple pad that comes with NXT Tech Wax. Same as the yellow pad, just a different color.

Hey Mike...I assume he is talking about the maroon/purple foam cutting pad and using it with the DA. I stand corrected if that is not the case.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Full detail, problems. (Pictures)

Hey Mike...I assume he is talking about the maroon/purple foam cutting pad and using it with the DA. I stand corrected if that is not the case.

Ouch, my bad, sorry. Let's see if I can fix this little faux pas of mine.

Paul, we don't recommend using the maroon W7207 Soft Buff 2.0 Cutting Pad with a D/A since it is so aggressive that it can easily haze the paint. Even if we recommend it, however, you coupled it with M205 Ultra Finishing Polish, which is a very fine, refining product that isn't really the best product choice to pair with this pad.

Bob touches on this in Posts #6 & #8 above, and also recommends trying something like Ultimate Compound instead. Basically what you want to do is match up a liquid with the appropriate pad (there are always at least a couple of options here) in order to achieve the sort of total cut needed to correct the defects, but also to find a combination that the paint responds to well. That can be the tricky part. But since the pad and liquid both offer their own level of cut, and even kind of cut, you don't want to mix and match in too extreme a fashion. A liquid designed for final finishing polish to extract maximum gloss from the paint coupled with a pad designed to provide enough cut to level out 2000 grit sanding marks is pretty extreme.

Going to a liquid with a more generous cutting ability, like Ultimate Compound, and then coupling that with a pad offering the appropriate level of defect removing cut like the W8207 Polishing Pad will get you much closer to your intended goal. We'll even recommend UC over M105 for D/A use since it will give you a much longer buffing cycle and much less dusting.

[paul.segovich]

Re: Full detail, problems. (Pictures)

Spot on actually with the pad confusion. Thank you for clearing all that up Mike.
I do, looking back, see my mixed up 105/205. Just assuming when I saw the 05 resulted in that.
Eventually I'll get it haha.