New Car Lack of Paint Clarity

[Imatk]

So I just purchased a new car and it happens to be the same color as my "old" car.

I will be selling the other one, but it's not sold as yet.

Anyway. I notice a HUGE difference in the paint clarity of the new car to the old car.

The old car was painted from bumper to bumper (not the sides) as I had a racing stripe painted on it.

The paint clarity of the old car FAR exceeds the new car and actually makes the new car paint look quite dull.

I suspect it's from orange peel to some degree, but I'm not certain.

On to my question

I already hit the new car with some Optimum Compound and a yellow cutting pad, and it didn't seem to make a dent.

I was using my metabo on about 1500 rpm. I finished it off with a white pad and Optimum Polish at about 1000 to 1200 rpm and it's just as glossy as before, no marks, but still dull compared to the old car.

So I'm guessing that I'm left with no option other than to color sand the car.

I've never color sanded before so I'm obviously apprehensive about it and was hoping some of you guys who had a good deal of experience with it could tell me if it's something I should attempt or just live with the paint as is.

Or is there an alternative to wet sanding that I'm missing?

Thanks for any advice

[Imatk]

Re: New Car Lack of Paint Clarity

Double post sorry guys... please delete this one.

[TerryAdams]

Re: New Car Lack of Paint Clarity

Wet sanding/Color sanding = LOTS OF WORK and TIME. If the paint on the car is older than 30 days, it is as hard as it's going to get.

Is this a "Factory" paintjob on the car? If so, it doesn't have a lot of "spare" clear coat on it, to sand down to an even level. Use extreme caution!!!! We are talking about a "two stage paint job", right?

It your still wanting to see if it makes a difference, try a SMALL test spot on a panel that if something happens to it, it can be resprayed? Better yet, buy an old fender at a junk yard to practice on. Start with a super high grit(2500, 3000) and use a proper backing pad for the sandpaper.

The products you used are top notch, btw. Meguiar's #105 and #205 have surpassed the current formulas of Optimum Compound and Polish, but Optimum are still very good products, in my opinion.

There are a ton of old posts regarding "Orange peel", and "Color Sanding" you can do searches on, within this forum.


Good luck to you and keep us posted on the project.

[Mikejl]

Re: New Car Lack of Paint Clarity

Do you by chance live in So. Cal? You could bring your new car to a Thursday night Open Garage where one of the Mikes' (Phillips, Stoops or Pennington) could take a look at it for you.

Mike

[bene vita]

Re: New Car Lack of Paint Clarity

Hi Imatk,

You said above:

"So I'm guessing that I'm left with no option other than to color sand the car. I've never color sanded before ...."

STOP.... do not even THINK about wet sanding your car. There are many threads and posts here on the forum that go into great detail on this subject so I will not try to go into detail here.

Take a couple of hours and read all of the posts on the subject and you may just love the "clarity" of your paint.

Wet sanding is, to give an example, very much like "Parachuting" from an airplane. It is NOT taught on the internet in words and pictures in Parachuting forums. You should not learn this art form from a forum.

Imatk, anyone ... yes anyone can wet sand a car but only the well trained can polish out the wet sanding marks.

As a United States Parachute Rigger at Lakehurst New Jersey (about 100 years ago) we spent four weeks learning how to LAND before we were even allowed to make our first jump.

Why this example ... ANYONE can jump out of an airplane (wet sand) because people do not get hurt jumping they get hurt LANDING (polishing out the wet sanding SCRATCHES.)

The two most important things you will need is a Very Qualified Instructor and Lots of Practice on a junk yard part or an old clunker that no one cares about ... NOT your NEW CAR!!!

In the next few hours/days you will get some replies to your thread, many from some very qualified people here on the forum. Please take time to digest all of the information given to you.

If you get replies from any of the "Three Mikes" at Meguiar's ... that's Mike Pennington, Mike Phillips and Mike Snoops ... don't just digest these replies, read them over and over until they are memorized.

This post was not typed for any other reason than to have you to realize that the LANDING can hurt ... a lot ...without proper instruction and practice.

Have a great week end.

Harry - "Bene Vita"

[Imatk]

Re: New Car Lack of Paint Clarity

Thanks very much for the replies guys.

Yeah it's a factory paint job and yes it's definitely older than 30 days.

I'm perfectly fine with not wet sanding the paint, but I wanted to see what, if anything, could be done to improve the paint clarity.

I've got quite a lot of experience with polishing so I'm not too concerned with correcting the scratches once they are present, but I am concerned with the longevity of my paint.

I realize that the factory clear is going to be thinner than an aftermarket job without question so I wanted to see if any of you who have experience with wet sanding would have any opinions on the matter.

I also have a PTG that I've used since I picked up the rotary so I'll have an idea of what I'm working with but I don't want premature clear coat failure, or simply making the paint worse than it was to begin with.

[Markus Kleis]

Re: New Car Lack of Paint Clarity

Next thing I would try is a run around the car with M205 and a yellow pad, possibly followed by another pass with M205 and a black finishing pad. Added an insane amount of clarity and gloss to my paint.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: New Car Lack of Paint Clarity

Next thing I would try is a run around the car with M205 and a yellow pad, possibly followed by another pass with M205 and a black finishing pad. Added an insane amount of clarity and gloss to my paint.

I would try the above to a small section first, we call this a Test Spot.

Actually, the right thing to have done would have been to performed a test spot with all those products you used in the first place.

Make sure your products of choice, your method of application and your skills and abilities can make one small area look good before going over the entire car, that way you don't waste your time and remove paint needlessly.

Always dial in your system before going over the entire car. If you don't have some Meguiar's products, maybe consider getting a few, nothing wrong with other products but Meguiar's has a 100+ year old reputation of being pretty good at this kind of stuff.

Personally, I've never had to do a job a second time in my entire life but I've always used Meguiar's and I've always, always always done a test spot before going over the entire car.

I make sure I can fix it in the first place before even taking the job on.

What you want to do is to see if you can make a small section look good and if you can then repeat the process that made the small section look good to the entire car. It's called, "Doing a Test Spot"

Test Spot on a Mosler to remove scratches and restore clarity to the clear coat.





After our choice of products were applied and wiped off to the test spot the Mosler was pulled out into the sun to inspect. The products and procedures selected worked in the test spot and then they were duplicated over the entire car.




Once you dial-in a successful procedure to one small area, all you have to do is repeat the procedure over the entire car. If you can make one small area look good, it's not a leap of faith to figure out you can make the entire car look good.


LSP applied (NXT in this case after machine cleaning and polishing)




LSP removed



FWIW

[Markus Kleis]

Re: New Car Lack of Paint Clarity

I would try the above to a small section first, we call this a Test Spot.

I should have clarified that, definitely my mistake, as I would use a test spot myself.

[Imatk]

Re: New Car Lack of Paint Clarity

Sorry I should have been more clear as well.

I've been polishing cars for several years now so yes I did only do a test spot.

I have not, although, ever color sanded/ wet sanded a car before and that's why I posted here in this particular forum.

I don't have any experience using Meguiar's polishes. I've only used the Optimum and Menzerna line.

One thing I learned very early on is that it's better to understand the way a particular polish or compound works than to try and dive in with one that you have no experience with.

I've never had to look any further than OP OC or the Menzerna line, but I'm sure there's always a first time.

As I already tested OC with a yellow cutting pad and got no joy what would you suggest I try from the Meguiar's line?

I doubt a mild polish/pad combo is going to work.

I tested OP and Menzerna's FPII with a white pad and it did nothing to help the clarity.

My final process was a yellow cutting pad with OC followed by a white polishing pad and OP.

Both via rotary.

[Chex]

Re: New Car Lack of Paint Clarity

I've heard that Optimum has another compound (Hyper compound). If the defects are not removed easily with OC, you could give that one a try.

Rgarding Meguiar's, you should try M205. It works extremely well, it has a good cut and finishes very nice. It is very similar to P106FF of the menzerna line (Final finish and it also works very closely to nano polish).

Once I tried M105 and M205, I don't want to use anything else for my jobs