Before I start, I'd like to apologize in advance for this post being so long. I've just had many issues over the past year and wanted to be detailed about them.
Hey everyone, I’m a newbie here. I read Mike’s article about single stage paint and it gave me some insight as to what is going on with my car. I have tried to correct the problem numerous times and every time I wax my car, 3 weeks later the problem returns and it’s even worse if it rains a lot. I am hoping that the members on this board as well as Mike can help me with my issue and point me in the right direction. I must apologize in advance as this post is EXTREMELY long. Sorry....
I have been having paint issues for the past year and a half. I recently found out Honda uses single stage paint on some of their cars, including white. I believe this is why I am having huge issues with my paint every time it rains regardless how much I wax it. It seems that the wax is not bonding to the paint anymore. I am not a person who neglects my car at all. I love it when it looks clean and I try to keep up with it. I used to get it waxed 2x per year but now it seems I have to wax it every 3 weeks.
I’ve posted on detailing websites before and have gotten mixed info.
Basically my paint looked good until last year sometime. I would wax the car before winter and then again before summertime. Last March I noticed that my white paint was extremely dirty and if I washed the car, the dirt would still be there as if it was stuck in the paint or pores. I then decided to bring it to a local well known guy who simonizes cars. He told me he clayed and hand waxed the car. When I got the car back it looked cleaner but you could still see some areas that the dirt was embedded in the paint.
That same weekend I got my car back from being simonized, my husband decided to use Mother’s cleaner wax to clean my car b/c we couldn’t believe it still looked dirty from the simonizing that was just done. We put a wax over the cleaner wax as well. That lasted about 2 weeks, no joke. It rained and the wax was gone! Again, my car got filthy and you would never have known this car was waxed 2x within a month. My dad then decided to go over my car with Nufinish and it cleaned up well. That lasted about 3 months. Again, my car started to look like it was holding dirt in the pores of the paint so I would wash it and it would still be there. Basically I dealt with this for a year.
This past May/June I got the car hand waxed by a local car wash. Again, after a week, the paint looked like nothing was ever done to it. I decided to buy Liquid Glass Polish as my father used to use this when I was younger and his cars looked amazing. We waxed it 2x with Liquid Glass within a week and it held up nicely for 2 or 3 weeks. After it rained, there was no wax left on the car AGAIN. At my wits end now, I finally took my car to a local body shop and showed them the car and the guy was basically clueless but explained that my car is a single stage paint b/c most foreign dealerships use this type of paint. He recommended that I get my car compounded with a mechanical buffer (since I never had this done), polished and then waxed.
I had a complete detail done to the car 3 weeks ago which included the machine buffer, polish, clay and hand wax. The car looked amazing when I got it back. I hadn’t seen my car look this good in years. Anyway, this past weekend (3 weeks after my full detail), we had torrential downpours on Long Island and now my car looks like it has these black or brown rain drop size spots dried into the paint.
I washed my car and these spots will not come off. If you run your hand along my paint, it doesn’t feel smooth anymore. It feels like the wax is gone. I’m at a loss on what to do next. I keep thinking maybe I need a paint job? My car only has 60,000 miles on it and is only 7 years old. I’ve heard that whatever is on my car is probably etched in the paint which I don’t doubt that it is but I thought using the machine buffer and after the compound, clay, polish and wax I just had it would help my paint fight off the element and rain spots for a few months. What else can I do aside from compounding and everything else I’ve done? I really don’t know what else to do and I’m tired of spending hundreds of dollars on stuff that isn’t working. I appreciate any info you can give me. Thank you.
In a nutshell, this is what I had done to my car over the past year. Please note that every time I waxed my car again (even in such short period of times, my car was starting to hold dirt again):
May 2007: car was simonized with clay and hand wax
May 2007: applied Mother’s cleaner wax and also waxed over it with a carnauba wax
June 2007: father applied Nufinish
October 2007: applied Nufinish
May 2008: had car hand waxed by local detail center
June 2008: applied 2 coats of Liquid Glass Polish
July 2008: (3 weeks ago) had the following done to my car: clay magic, compound with machine buffer, polish, hand glaze and carnauba paste.
After all this, I would think the car’s paint should look nice and the wax should still be on after 3 weeks, even after a day of torrential downpours. Can anyone provide any insight on this for me? Is it that the pores of the paint are open? If so, how do you close them so this doesn’t happen anymore? I don’t mind getting the car waxed every 3 months but really, every 3 weeks? Please help with any info…
Thank you.
Hey everyone, I’m a newbie here. I read Mike’s article about single stage paint and it gave me some insight as to what is going on with my car. I have tried to correct the problem numerous times and every time I wax my car, 3 weeks later the problem returns and it’s even worse if it rains a lot. I am hoping that the members on this board as well as Mike can help me with my issue and point me in the right direction. I must apologize in advance as this post is EXTREMELY long. Sorry....
I have been having paint issues for the past year and a half. I recently found out Honda uses single stage paint on some of their cars, including white. I believe this is why I am having huge issues with my paint every time it rains regardless how much I wax it. It seems that the wax is not bonding to the paint anymore. I am not a person who neglects my car at all. I love it when it looks clean and I try to keep up with it. I used to get it waxed 2x per year but now it seems I have to wax it every 3 weeks.
I’ve posted on detailing websites before and have gotten mixed info.
Basically my paint looked good until last year sometime. I would wax the car before winter and then again before summertime. Last March I noticed that my white paint was extremely dirty and if I washed the car, the dirt would still be there as if it was stuck in the paint or pores. I then decided to bring it to a local well known guy who simonizes cars. He told me he clayed and hand waxed the car. When I got the car back it looked cleaner but you could still see some areas that the dirt was embedded in the paint.
That same weekend I got my car back from being simonized, my husband decided to use Mother’s cleaner wax to clean my car b/c we couldn’t believe it still looked dirty from the simonizing that was just done. We put a wax over the cleaner wax as well. That lasted about 2 weeks, no joke. It rained and the wax was gone! Again, my car got filthy and you would never have known this car was waxed 2x within a month. My dad then decided to go over my car with Nufinish and it cleaned up well. That lasted about 3 months. Again, my car started to look like it was holding dirt in the pores of the paint so I would wash it and it would still be there. Basically I dealt with this for a year.
This past May/June I got the car hand waxed by a local car wash. Again, after a week, the paint looked like nothing was ever done to it. I decided to buy Liquid Glass Polish as my father used to use this when I was younger and his cars looked amazing. We waxed it 2x with Liquid Glass within a week and it held up nicely for 2 or 3 weeks. After it rained, there was no wax left on the car AGAIN. At my wits end now, I finally took my car to a local body shop and showed them the car and the guy was basically clueless but explained that my car is a single stage paint b/c most foreign dealerships use this type of paint. He recommended that I get my car compounded with a mechanical buffer (since I never had this done), polished and then waxed.
I had a complete detail done to the car 3 weeks ago which included the machine buffer, polish, clay and hand wax. The car looked amazing when I got it back. I hadn’t seen my car look this good in years. Anyway, this past weekend (3 weeks after my full detail), we had torrential downpours on Long Island and now my car looks like it has these black or brown rain drop size spots dried into the paint.
I washed my car and these spots will not come off. If you run your hand along my paint, it doesn’t feel smooth anymore. It feels like the wax is gone. I’m at a loss on what to do next. I keep thinking maybe I need a paint job? My car only has 60,000 miles on it and is only 7 years old. I’ve heard that whatever is on my car is probably etched in the paint which I don’t doubt that it is but I thought using the machine buffer and after the compound, clay, polish and wax I just had it would help my paint fight off the element and rain spots for a few months. What else can I do aside from compounding and everything else I’ve done? I really don’t know what else to do and I’m tired of spending hundreds of dollars on stuff that isn’t working. I appreciate any info you can give me. Thank you.
In a nutshell, this is what I had done to my car over the past year. Please note that every time I waxed my car again (even in such short period of times, my car was starting to hold dirt again):
May 2007: car was simonized with clay and hand wax
May 2007: applied Mother’s cleaner wax and also waxed over it with a carnauba wax
June 2007: father applied Nufinish
October 2007: applied Nufinish
May 2008: had car hand waxed by local detail center
June 2008: applied 2 coats of Liquid Glass Polish
July 2008: (3 weeks ago) had the following done to my car: clay magic, compound with machine buffer, polish, hand glaze and carnauba paste.
After all this, I would think the car’s paint should look nice and the wax should still be on after 3 weeks, even after a day of torrential downpours. Can anyone provide any insight on this for me? Is it that the pores of the paint are open? If so, how do you close them so this doesn’t happen anymore? I don’t mind getting the car waxed every 3 months but really, every 3 weeks? Please help with any info…
Thank you.
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