Can I improve the luster of my 2 year-old Honda??

Mynewt

Mynewt

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Hi all.

I'm rather new at all this. But not totally inexperienced. I just bought a 2011 Honda Odyssey with only 12k miles on it.

Since buying it two weeks ago, I have taken the time to go over it with my PC 7424XP.

I first washed and clay-barred it, then did one thorough pass with BlackFire gloss enchaining polish and then another go-round with Meguiars Ultimate Liquid Wax.

This improved the shine, but the reflection in the paint didn't really get clearer.

Of course, I don't want to go at this with too strong an approach, so I thought I'd ask for the collective wisdom of the group about how(of if) I can get this paint to reflect more clearly.

I'm ready/needing to place an order here with AG and would love specific product advice. Maguires preferable, but not necessarily.

Current photo attached.
 
Really hard to tell with the picture, the car and the issues are distant. Try a close up picture, give us a better idea of said issue.
 
Is that the polished metal metallic?

I have personally owned a 2011 Ody in the polished metal metallic at one pt and worked on a Honda Element of the same color not too long ago. This particular color hides scratches and swirls very well and the nature of that color will not reflect like a black color will. However, I know that you will be able to get a great shine out if it. I also did not find the Ody or the Element to have that notorious soft Honda paint. If anything, I would say that it was about a medium.
 
cleanmycorolla said:
Really hard to tell with the picture, the car and the issues are distant. Try a close up picture, give us a better idea of said issue.
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I wasn't really thinking along the lines of there being an "issue".

I have this shot of the hood to offer. I can take more close-up shots of the van tomorrow morning. (I won't be home 'til after dark tonight).

Seems I may be missing something in the way I'm formulating my question. I was thinking there may be some simple/known methods of improving factory paint. (or not)


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c8n said:
Is that the polished metal metallic?

I have personally owned a 2011 Ody in the polished metal metallic at one pt and worked on a Honda Element of the same color not too long ago. This particular color hides scratches and swirls very well and the nature of that color will not reflect like a black color will. However, I know that you will be able to get a great shine out if it. I also did not find the Ody or the Element to have that notorious soft Honda paint. If anything, I would say that it was about a medium.
Click to expand...

Yes, it is the "Polished Metal" metallic paint. I'll have a closer look as to why I'm not getting anything close to a mirror finish. It seems the pain just isn't laying that flat.

It's great to hear from someone who has experience with this very paint.
 
Yeah... unfortunately, you will not be able to get a mirror like reflection from that paint. But as said, you should still be able to get a great shine.

BTW congrats on the car, I loved that car while I had it. Only got rid of it because I no longer needed that big of a car and my garage is rather on the small side.
 
My wife has a 2012 Honday Odessey as her daily "mommy mobile" and I understand exactly what you are trying to do, since it is dealing with the same lack of luster. Here is what I did, which may or may not apply to yours (FWIW, gray colors don't offer the most reflective surface)

I washed and clayed and gave a light polish with Menzerna 4500 on a white pad. This was sealed with 2 coats of CG Blacklight (one machine applied on a white pad (using medium pressure x 4 slow passes on the GG6 Speed 4) and one hand applied). This was followed by 2 coats of Pete 53, hand applied.

This gave me the anticipated results and gave me amazing longevity.

Here is a pic:

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I did take care of a 2010 Odessey (gray) and did not do the polishing or the Pete step and this was the end result

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End result was a little less of the wet look but still improved the reflectiveness of this flat paint, and had appropriate long term protection.
 
c8n said:
Yeah... unfortunately, you will not be able to get a mirror like reflection from that paint. But as said, you should still be able to get a great shine.

BTW congrats on the car, I loved that car while I had it. Only got rid of it because I no longer needed that big of a car and my garage is rather on the small side.
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Thanks for the kind words.

Maybe another way of coming at this is: how far down the abrasives chart can I safely go with this paint? Am I correct in assuming Meguiars Ultimate Compound is too aggressive? Could I safely use Meguiars Mirror Glaze #83 Dual Action Cleaner/Polish or is that even too far to go?


Dr_Pain said:
I washed and clayed and gave a light polish with Menzerna 4500 on a white pad. This was sealed with 2 coats of CG Blacklight (one machine applied on a white pad (using medium pressure x 4 slow passes on the GG6 Speed 4) and one hand applied). This was followed by 2 coats of Pete 53, hand applied.
Click to expand...
Thanks! I'm all over it!
 
My initial test spot with the Element, was with Meg's SwirlX on LC CCS orange pads. This brought the color back but didn't do much on swirls. I had to bumped it up to UC on LC CCS orange on speed 5 with medium pressure and 4 section passes which finished very well. If I remember correctly, I followed up with UP by hand as I didn't see any DA haze.

On the Ody, I really didn't have any paint defects that I wanted to deal with and only thing I have done was Meg's ColorX on orange pads.
 
Thanks everyone for the help. I went ahead and ordered a bottle Menzerna 4500 (or was it 4000?; i was looking at both) and some CG Blacklight. I also ordered a fresh round of LC pads.

I took a few close shots of the paint this morning. Seems maybe there are no surface problems to address; it's just the nature of this metallic gray paint. And the fact it isn't laid on the car as mirror-smooth as some other cars I'm familiar with.


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You can see in this picture that Bruce's arm and guitar neck is kinda wavy in the reflection off the the far left of the frame.

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Pretty good reflection all-in-all. But a little orange peel (?) waviness can be seen in the left/foreground of this shot. (If I'm not mistaken; like I said I'm pretty new at developing these sensibilities).
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