Is this Oxidation? or Did i ruin my clear coat?

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Is this Oxidation? or Did i ruin my clear coat?

I read somewhere that youre not suppose to use your finger tips to apply pressure with compounds right? how much pressure do I use?

You probably read this,

Removing Random Isolated Deeper Scratches - Man vs Machine






It's too easy for most people to not think about what they're doing when they're doing it and the natural thing to do is to put too much pressure on just the finger tips as you hold a pad and work a product.

Make a conscience effort to focus on the task at hand and hold your hand/fingers flatter against the pad and just do your best to spread some of your pressure to the face of your entire fingers, not just the finger tips.

Use medium pressure, spread the product out using a circular motion and then you can continue to work the product in circular motions or straight lines, your choice. There's a thread about circular motions and straight lines in the Hot Topics forum. (I'll let you search for that thread). Work your section for about a minute and then wipe off the reside.

Again... if you see the color of the paint coming off onto your applicator pad you're working on single stage paint, if you don't see the color of your car's paint coming off on your applicator pad you're working on clear paint.

Don't make this harder than it has to be and keep in mind the bad sections on your car could be past the point of no return with ANY companies products.

Not everything can be fixed in this world.

Good luck, push away from the keyboard and go work on your car.

[clickclack123]

Re: Is this Oxidation? or Did i ruin my clear coat?

This is probably the slowest detailing job ever. I finally got around to spot checking my car to find out whether its a Single Stage or Clear Coat finish. Here are the pictures. I used a white terry cloth applicator and as you can see the end product doesn't seem to have any paint on it, just the UC smeared around the applicator.





Here is the result im getting so far from the view of the off colored left rear passenger panel. I applied it on the top left corner of the door. It seems to be heavy oxidation on the back end of the car, and the UC removed it pretty well, but i keep second guessing whether the doors (front & rear) are either starting to match or if they still off. Will completing all the steps/stages produces a better result or is that basically the color i will get?

Also I had a problem with the applicator i used. I couldnt really get a good grip on it so i could never have a consistent circular motion as i had to keep regripping it. It kept sticking to the car and would bend/fold over itself. Should i use a foam applicator for the actual compounding? Will it make a difference or is this just part of Hand detailing?

[tguil]

Re: Is this Oxidation? or Did i ruin my clear coat?

I think that the paint simply is not going to match -- for whatever reason.

Tom

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Is this Oxidation? or Did i ruin my clear coat?

From your pictures, it definitely looks like you're working on a clear coat finish that has oxidized due to neglect. Probably a lesser quality clear than the factory clear. Modern clear coat paints can and will oxidize but much more slowly than a single stage paint.

Tom's right, even if you restore clarity to the clear layer, the color coat under the clear is either a different color than the factory color layer surrounding it or it was matched and faded to a different color than the color surrounding it that it was originally matched to.

Could be either or, and even both.

Clearing up the clear layer and restoring gloss and shine will definitely make the paint as well as the car look better but the only way to make the two colors match is to repaint the affected panels or the entire car.

Really good to see you take what you've learned on the forum and then put it into practice in your garage to get to where you're at today with the car.

[CieraSL]

Re: Is this Oxidation? or Did i ruin my clear coat?

From your pictures, it definitely looks like you're working on a clear coat finish that has oxidized due to neglect. Probably a lesser quality clear than the factory clear. Modern clear coat paints can and will oxidize but much more slowly than a single stage paint.

Tom's right, even if you restore clarity to the clear layer, the color coat under the clear is either a different color than the factory color layer surrounding it or it was matched and faded to a different color than the color surrounding it that it was originally matched to.

Could be either or, and even both.

Clearing up the clear layer and restoring gloss and shine will definitely make the paint as well as the car look better but the only way to make the two colors match is to repaint the affected panels or the entire car.

Really good to see you take what you've learned on the forum and then put it into practice in your garage to get to where you're at today with the car.

My mom and dad have a 1990 Honda Accord LX that's the same color as the one pictured below (it's not the same car, I just got that picture off the internet), and it looks great for being 19 years old. None of the panels are mismatched. I'd say that some of your panels have been repainted, and you're getting some oxidation from neglect. You can't really fix that without repainting the whole car, the only thing you can do is try to make it look better. Just follow the advice of the experts, and you should be good to go. Good luck!

[Markus Kleis]

Re: Is this Oxidation? or Did i ruin my clear coat?

Notice how the black plastic trim is more faded on the door as well? To me, this looks like a previous owner used a door from a junkyard and that explains the different color plastic and paint.