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Applying products by Hand - Avoiding "cheetah spots"
Have you ever worked on your paint by hand and ended up with a result completely opposite of what you were expecting, or hoping for? Something like one of the two images shown below?
Yes, these both look really horrible, scary, disappointing, etc. At this point most people think the product they used is horrible and that they've ruined their paint, when the truth could be something quite different. It could be a simple product mismatch for the particular paint, it could be bad technique, or it could be poor choice in applicator material. All you wanted to do was remove some fine scratches or light swirls, and instead the finish now looks worse than when you started. What's worse is that the softer or more delicate your paint is, the more pronounced this sort of marring will be.
Let's take a look at how this unwanted result can come about, and then we'll look at how to clean it up.
Below is an example of paint with fairly typical swirls, but it could also be an isolated scratch that you're dealing with. You want this gone, and you're going to be working by hand. What could go wrong?
An old school rubbing compound can be very harsh on a modern clear coat and at the very least will leave very fine swirl marks in the paint. This can result in a dull, hazy appearance even if you use it with a quality applicator pad and you use good technique. Below is what can happen when you select such a product. Remember, the paint started out looking like what you see above. Is this better??? No, and we'll show you how to fix this in a moment.
What if we use a modern paint cleaner but we pair it with a very aggressive applicator, like a terry cloth towel? Our Customer Care Center receives calls like this on an almost daily basis and the caller is almost always blaming the product for causing problems. Below is the result of using Ultimate Compound, an excellent, high tech and modern paint cleaner, with a 100% cotton terry cloth towel. Is this better than the original picture above? It certainly looks different, but it's not what you were shooting for. We'll show you how to fix this in a moment.
Poor technique is the most common cause of the "cheetah spots" and again, the more delicate the paint the worse the marring will be. Here we used the same Ultimate Compound as above, but with a foam wax applicator pad. We always recommend using this sort of pad, so why the horrible finish? The problem here was poor technique. Pressure from having the fingertips pressing down on the pad concentrated the energy of the compound and pad into small areas, seriously marring the finish. This is actually the worst looking test of the three, yet it was done with what most would consider the "correct" product and "correct" applicator. This really illustrates how important proper technique is. And yes, we'll show you how to fix this in a moment.
While the above three examples of defect removal gone bad were created in slightly different ways, the fix for all of them is the same: use the proper liquid, the proper applicator, and above all else, good technique.
When using a paint cleaner, polish or compound by hand you want to stick with a soft foam applicator pad rather than terry cloth or even a microfiber towel. Even then, good technique is critical to achieving a good result. The image below shows how NOT to handle the pad when applying your paint cleaner; this will cause pressure points that will, in turn, result in the "cheetah spots" you see in the first picture in this post, and it's exactly how we created the mess you see directly above.
You need to spread the pressure across your fingers, laying them flat against the pad to eliminate these pressure points. This is the technique we teach in our Saturday Detailing 101 Classes, and we've done this on dozens of different cars over the years, with all kinds of paint defects. Now, keep in mind that you're working by hand so you need to work small areas at a time. The taped off area you see below isn't just used for demonstration purposes: you need to restrict your work area to maybe 12" x 12" when working by hand. Exactly how much pressure you should use is going to depend on the severity of the defects, the hardness of the paint, and your ultimate goal.
Always start by doing a test spot. We can't stress this enough. Look back up to the very first image in this thread: if a test spot had been done first, that mess wouldn't be covering the entire hood. With proper technique you can, in many cases, rival the work done by a DA buffer, but it takes a LOT more work and a LOT more time. A LOT. And technique is absolutely critical if you're going to come close.
A great option for working by hand is to use something like our S3HP hand pad with a 4" buffing pad to prevent pressure points. This is a very ergonomic way to work by hand, and can be highly effective, especially when dealing with delicate paint that mars quite easily. For correcting an entire vehicle, this is much less tiring than using just an applicator pad, and it can yield excellent results.
Below are several examples taken from our Saturday Detailing 101 Classes. In every case the test spot on the left side was done by hand, and the one on the right was done with a G110v2 DA buffer. It took longer to do the spot by hand, and it was a heck of a lot more work! To duplicate that over an entire vehicle is not easy at all, but with the DA it's a snap. Still, on this wide range of vehicles with an equally wide range of issues, this should make it clear that you can achieve great defect removal and an excellent finish by hand. With good technique. (See the trend????)
The paint here wasn't as bad as some, and the clear area you see was done by hand (you can just make out the corner of the G110v2 applied side in the upper right corner). This is a huge improvement using the same product and pad we used earlier but made a huge mess. What do you think made the difference?
Much more serious swirls, but still an excellent result. You can see a deeper scratch that wasn't removed on the hand applied side. That's going to need more work, but the improvement is dramatic.
Here we see a noticeable difference between the hand applied side and machine applied side, but still a massive improvement over the uncorrected area. You're not always going to get the same result working by hand as you would with a DA, but you should not make the paint worse than when you started!
This paint was pretty hammered, but it cleaned up quite nicely. Yes, there are still a few marks left on the hand applied side.
This is probably the most dramatic turnaround we've seen in quite some time on a clear coat finish. Again, hand application on the left, machine application on the right. Hard to imagine, though, that this could have been made any worse!
The common denominator in all of the above is this: the right product (Ultimate Compound used in all, but ScratchX 2,0 is often equally as successful), the right applicator (foam wax applicator) and proper technique - keep those fingertips away from the pad! Every one of these examples was done exactly the same way but the paint and defects varied quite a bit.
It can be done, but there's no magic here. Even the best products in the world won't do the job on their own - they need your skill to get the most out of them. So if you're creating cheetah spots, haze, or other issues, it's time to step back and review what you're doing and how you're doing it. Adjust your technique, and create the clear, glossy paint you were hoping for.
Have you ever worked on your paint by hand and ended up with a result completely opposite of what you were expecting, or hoping for? Something like one of the two images shown below?
Yes, these both look really horrible, scary, disappointing, etc. At this point most people think the product they used is horrible and that they've ruined their paint, when the truth could be something quite different. It could be a simple product mismatch for the particular paint, it could be bad technique, or it could be poor choice in applicator material. All you wanted to do was remove some fine scratches or light swirls, and instead the finish now looks worse than when you started. What's worse is that the softer or more delicate your paint is, the more pronounced this sort of marring will be.
Let's take a look at how this unwanted result can come about, and then we'll look at how to clean it up.
Below is an example of paint with fairly typical swirls, but it could also be an isolated scratch that you're dealing with. You want this gone, and you're going to be working by hand. What could go wrong?
An old school rubbing compound can be very harsh on a modern clear coat and at the very least will leave very fine swirl marks in the paint. This can result in a dull, hazy appearance even if you use it with a quality applicator pad and you use good technique. Below is what can happen when you select such a product. Remember, the paint started out looking like what you see above. Is this better??? No, and we'll show you how to fix this in a moment.
What if we use a modern paint cleaner but we pair it with a very aggressive applicator, like a terry cloth towel? Our Customer Care Center receives calls like this on an almost daily basis and the caller is almost always blaming the product for causing problems. Below is the result of using Ultimate Compound, an excellent, high tech and modern paint cleaner, with a 100% cotton terry cloth towel. Is this better than the original picture above? It certainly looks different, but it's not what you were shooting for. We'll show you how to fix this in a moment.
Poor technique is the most common cause of the "cheetah spots" and again, the more delicate the paint the worse the marring will be. Here we used the same Ultimate Compound as above, but with a foam wax applicator pad. We always recommend using this sort of pad, so why the horrible finish? The problem here was poor technique. Pressure from having the fingertips pressing down on the pad concentrated the energy of the compound and pad into small areas, seriously marring the finish. This is actually the worst looking test of the three, yet it was done with what most would consider the "correct" product and "correct" applicator. This really illustrates how important proper technique is. And yes, we'll show you how to fix this in a moment.
While the above three examples of defect removal gone bad were created in slightly different ways, the fix for all of them is the same: use the proper liquid, the proper applicator, and above all else, good technique.
When using a paint cleaner, polish or compound by hand you want to stick with a soft foam applicator pad rather than terry cloth or even a microfiber towel. Even then, good technique is critical to achieving a good result. The image below shows how NOT to handle the pad when applying your paint cleaner; this will cause pressure points that will, in turn, result in the "cheetah spots" you see in the first picture in this post, and it's exactly how we created the mess you see directly above.
You need to spread the pressure across your fingers, laying them flat against the pad to eliminate these pressure points. This is the technique we teach in our Saturday Detailing 101 Classes, and we've done this on dozens of different cars over the years, with all kinds of paint defects. Now, keep in mind that you're working by hand so you need to work small areas at a time. The taped off area you see below isn't just used for demonstration purposes: you need to restrict your work area to maybe 12" x 12" when working by hand. Exactly how much pressure you should use is going to depend on the severity of the defects, the hardness of the paint, and your ultimate goal.
Always start by doing a test spot. We can't stress this enough. Look back up to the very first image in this thread: if a test spot had been done first, that mess wouldn't be covering the entire hood. With proper technique you can, in many cases, rival the work done by a DA buffer, but it takes a LOT more work and a LOT more time. A LOT. And technique is absolutely critical if you're going to come close.
A great option for working by hand is to use something like our S3HP hand pad with a 4" buffing pad to prevent pressure points. This is a very ergonomic way to work by hand, and can be highly effective, especially when dealing with delicate paint that mars quite easily. For correcting an entire vehicle, this is much less tiring than using just an applicator pad, and it can yield excellent results.
Below are several examples taken from our Saturday Detailing 101 Classes. In every case the test spot on the left side was done by hand, and the one on the right was done with a G110v2 DA buffer. It took longer to do the spot by hand, and it was a heck of a lot more work! To duplicate that over an entire vehicle is not easy at all, but with the DA it's a snap. Still, on this wide range of vehicles with an equally wide range of issues, this should make it clear that you can achieve great defect removal and an excellent finish by hand. With good technique. (See the trend????)
The paint here wasn't as bad as some, and the clear area you see was done by hand (you can just make out the corner of the G110v2 applied side in the upper right corner). This is a huge improvement using the same product and pad we used earlier but made a huge mess. What do you think made the difference?
Much more serious swirls, but still an excellent result. You can see a deeper scratch that wasn't removed on the hand applied side. That's going to need more work, but the improvement is dramatic.
Here we see a noticeable difference between the hand applied side and machine applied side, but still a massive improvement over the uncorrected area. You're not always going to get the same result working by hand as you would with a DA, but you should not make the paint worse than when you started!
This paint was pretty hammered, but it cleaned up quite nicely. Yes, there are still a few marks left on the hand applied side.
This is probably the most dramatic turnaround we've seen in quite some time on a clear coat finish. Again, hand application on the left, machine application on the right. Hard to imagine, though, that this could have been made any worse!
The common denominator in all of the above is this: the right product (Ultimate Compound used in all, but ScratchX 2,0 is often equally as successful), the right applicator (foam wax applicator) and proper technique - keep those fingertips away from the pad! Every one of these examples was done exactly the same way but the paint and defects varied quite a bit.
It can be done, but there's no magic here. Even the best products in the world won't do the job on their own - they need your skill to get the most out of them. So if you're creating cheetah spots, haze, or other issues, it's time to step back and review what you're doing and how you're doing it. Adjust your technique, and create the clear, glossy paint you were hoping for.
Did you apply wax / sealant?
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