Black car with swirls and problems with Ultimate Compound

[Bpinheiro]

Hi Guys,
I started to work on my girlfriend black Honda Fit.
The car never was polished, was waxed and ever was washed on common car washers.

Can you imagine the situation of paint?

I washed the car with NXT and applied the Ultimate Compound with "cotton" on the left side.
Now when I look in the sun has a lot of marks like a "dirt of wax". This is not good! =(

Could you please help me with this?
How I can remove it and restore the paint?


Regards,

Bruno
Sorry the problems with the first post.

[ethereal45]

Re: Black car with swirls and problems with Ultimate Compound

Hi Bruno,

Honda Fits are known for having soft paint, which means you have to be very delicate when working on them. A cotton towel (or terry cloth, as we call it here) is usually too harsh or aggressive, especially for a car with soft paint. My guess is what you did was marr the surface.

Does the spot look cloudy or hazy? If so, you can try working the spot again using a softer applicator, like one of the yellow foam "Hi-tech" applicators. Going gently over it again with Ultimate Compound, or maybe even something gentler like SwirlX may fix the problem.

Alex

[Bpinheiro]

Re: Black car with swirls and problems with Ultimate Compound

Hi Alex,

The spots are hazy.
Here in Brazil is difficult to find a store with all Meguiars products. I will try find the yellow foam and SwirlsX. I had one yellow foam that came with the NXT wax.

I confess that I put a little of force thinking "I need to remove these swirls". =(

Can I have problems using the polisher on Fit considering that a haven

[Bpinheiro]

Re: Black car with swirls and problems with Ultimate Compound

.

[Bpinheiro]

Re: Black car with swirls and problems with Ultimate Compound

I dont know why just appears my post cut.

[ethereal45]

Re: Black car with swirls and problems with Ultimate Compound

The foam applicator that came with NXT wax will work just fine -- that's exactly what I'm talking about. You could try and give it a very light and delicate application of Ultimate Compound, or find a gentler product to follow up with. I will let someone take over from here since I'm not really much of an expert at solving these issues.

[Bpinheiro]

Re: Black car with swirls and problems with Ultimate Compound

...

Again cut

[Bpinheiro]

Re: Black car with swirls and problems with Ultimate Compound

I apply with the foam applicator and remove with the towel before dry, correct?

[ChevyNick]

Yeah you apply the UC with a foam applicator and work it until its almost dry and then wipe it off immediately with a microfiber towel or your cotton towel.

[Bpinheiro]

Re: Black car with swirls and problems with Ultimate Compound

Alex,

Look the pics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11471822@N03/7288249368/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/1147182...in/photostream

[ethereal45]

Re: Black car with swirls and problems with Ultimate Compound

Yes that just looks like marring to me. A less aggressive product should clean it up (SwirlX or maybe Ultimate Polish). Ultimate Compound applied a little more gently with that foam applicator would also probably work.

[ffboy]

Re: Black car with swirls and problems with Ultimate Compound

Those can be corrected, Ultimate compound may be a bit too aggressive on your paint, so you may want to step it down to either SwirlX, Ultimate polish or ColorX and always do a test spot before doing any major paint correction. With a test spot, you can determine the right product combination and technique.pressure, and having determined it apply it to the entire car rather than having to re-correct the entire car all over.

You can also try working in a smaller area to prevent the compounds/polich from drying out on you, even when using a D/A polisher. Allowing them to haze can make removal harder and cause more hazing or marring, since megs polishes and compounds should not be allowed to dry to a haze

Pressure is definitely needed, but too much will cause problems. Normally what i would do is apply just enough pressure to allow the product to be worked in and enough for the applicator not to fall off my hand as i'm working it in, until most of it is gone rather than apply heavy pressure.

You can also go to the "Challenge of Delicate paint" thread. It can help you a lot, and a honda is also used as the test/demo car

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Black car with swirls and problems with Ultimate Compound

Bruno, as Alex points out the Honda Fit is known for having very delicate paint. The ones we've worked on have been very easy to correct using nothing more aggressive than just a good cleaner wax like ColorX or M06 Cleaner Wax. You might want to read through The Challenge of Delicate Paint for some additional information on dealing with this type of paint.

Especially when hand applying some products, and definitely with a cotton applicator, it is surprisingly easy to get overly aggressive and create the type of marring you're seeing in the paint. The article linked to above will give you some good pointers for preventing this type of defect.