am i going crazy and seeing things?

[fgraciano1980]

ok i know cleaner/polish (83,80,82...) is supposed to remove blemishes but does it also "hide" them. kinda like wax tends to "hide" swirls for a while and them they come back.

i ask because i used 82 with a 8006 pad on the DA this sunday on my hood to remove some spots that were etched in. note: i cant go any more aggressive than 82 since my clear coat is really soft. so i worked 82 into my hood with a speed of 5 and pressure on the head. when i removed the cleaner/polish, i noticed the etched spots were completley gone. i was working under flouresent lighting too and i was literally putting my nose on the hood to see if they were really gone and they were. i topped the hood off with some nxt wax and called it a day.

today i looked at my hood under the same lighting conditions and from a regular stance i saw those spots again am i going crazy and seeing things? they should have been removed right? as far as i know cleaner/polish shouldnt "hide" blemishes but remove them.

someone please help

[Murr1525]

I've had it happen where spots almost seem to go 'clear' when moist, like from product, then dry and be visable again. If that makes sense, or maybe I am crazy as well.

Either way, if they are still there, its going to take something abrasive to remove etchings. The thickness of the clear coat is more of an issue than the softness, as far as wearing throuh it.. perhaps buying a pint thickness guage can help you judge how agressive to go. I think I have seen ScratchX by hand remove swirls as well as #82 can, so I dont know if that would be an option.

[Mike Phillips]

I've seen this problem a number of times in my life, a good example was Alex's Corvette.



Alex had been racing his Corvette when another Corvette splashed mud puddle water onto the finish. After asking for advice on CorvetteForum and being told the etchings were only in his 13 plus layers of another companies paint sealant, he decided to bring it down to Meguiar's where we helped him to machine clean the finish and remove the spots.

Here's the same car in the picture above before we worked on it. It had these round etchings everywhere in the rear of the car.

Type II Water Spots - Etchings below the surface


Close-up of same photo above



We lightly machine cleaned the finish using M83 with a W-8006 foam polishing pad on the G100 on the 5.0 setting. The spots appeared to be gone. We applied wax and Alex left.

The next week he called me and told me the spots had returned? So he brought his Corvette back down and we got a little more aggressive with our cleaning process using M83 and we also used ScratchX by hand, 2-3 applications worked in really well. This time, before applying any wax, we wiped the finish down with a 50/50 mix of Isopropyl Alcohol and water, (multiple times), and then inspected the finish very, very closely.

The etchings were gone. Alex inspected, I inspected and we also had anyone in the are walk over and inspect. Then we went to wax.

Problem was gone this time for sure.

So it's possible that you're cleaning and polishing are hiding the defects to the point you cannot see them, but then they are returning to a level your eyes can detect later over time. The cure is to insure that you are completely removing them.

If you're clear coat is soft, they should work out very easily, simple use a more aggressive product to start with, and then follow this with the M82. I would suggest either the M80 Speed Glaze, or the M83 DACP, maybe even the ScratchX.

Wipe the area down using 50/50 mix of Isopropyl Alcohol and water before going to wax.

In some cases, depending upon the film-build of the paint and your comfort level with pursuing removing the defect, you may not be able to remove all of the defects and you may have to learn to either live with them or have the car painted. You are limited by what you can do by how thick your paint is. (or isn't).

[fgraciano1980]

mike, thanks for the insight im gonna try 80 then 82. im a little weary of 83 and i have scratchx, but after using the G100 i dont think i can go back to hand polishing large areas anymore. i tend to use scratchx on small concentrated areas, but my hood is covered all over with these etchings and i just had the car painted 4 months ago

so what does a mix of 50/50 isopropyl alcohol and water do? remove polish oils?

[Pete-FWA]

Correct, that 50/50 mix removes everything on the surface and leaves you with bare top coat.

Those DA's make most hand work obsolete. Don't even feel lazy, either, because they not only replace the hand work, they make it better. You can do more, faster, with higher quality results.