Longtime fan, new member.
A year ago I purchased my second black vehicle, 2011 Yukon with the non-metallic black finish. It took me 10 yrs to learn how to properly take care of my first black card, Ford F150.
My first detailing last year I applied a coat of Griot’s Paint Sealant with very good results. At this application I tried using clay but couldn’t not lubricate the surface enough to the point of the clay not sticking. Regardless, the Griot’s worked well, evened the paint out and resulted in a swirl-free surface.
Come last week, I had a little time, had just washed the car (two buckets and a boar’s hair brush), and decided to do another application. Maybe unfortunately, I had time, but didn’t think I had enough paint sealant to do the whole vehicle – so I mixed a little of the Griot’s #3 polish with the sealant. Thinking the #3 is fine enough that the paint sealant would fill anything created by this polish that I had mixed in. In retrospect, I would have had enough sealant to do the whole vehicle.
Again, no clay prior, I apply the paint sealant mix. This was in the evening, I apply the sealant to the whole vehicle with a DA machine and a red Griot’s waxing pad. Then remove with MF and detailing spray. When I get finished it looks good – in the dark. So I go and get a flashlight, in the dark I can see the swirls. In the daylight the swirls only come up in the direct sunlight. The following day it was cloudy and they were not visible – but I know they are there. I also still have faint circular halos on the surface and not sure where they come from.
So I’m questioning just what went wrong – knowing now the polish mixing was likely a bad idea, but like a dumb #$%@ I did it anyway. So what was it:
Is this paint particularly sensitive/soft and I need a specific product for black;
Did I need to clay;
Was the pad I used dirty;
Are the swirls just under the surface and the sealant/polish mix uncovered them;
Should I not have let the sealant dry before removing 9it was humid and took awhile to dry);
Something wrong with my wash sequence?
So now I want to fix this issue and looking for solutions and the right products. I could go back to the Griot’s sealant since I had good luck the first application. I would almost rather use a polishing solution to get rid of the swirls. Some of the products I see that I like, primarily the Poor Boys EP-X for this application, and apply enough coats to correct.
Looking for other suggestions from the experts.
A year ago I purchased my second black vehicle, 2011 Yukon with the non-metallic black finish. It took me 10 yrs to learn how to properly take care of my first black card, Ford F150.
My first detailing last year I applied a coat of Griot’s Paint Sealant with very good results. At this application I tried using clay but couldn’t not lubricate the surface enough to the point of the clay not sticking. Regardless, the Griot’s worked well, evened the paint out and resulted in a swirl-free surface.
Come last week, I had a little time, had just washed the car (two buckets and a boar’s hair brush), and decided to do another application. Maybe unfortunately, I had time, but didn’t think I had enough paint sealant to do the whole vehicle – so I mixed a little of the Griot’s #3 polish with the sealant. Thinking the #3 is fine enough that the paint sealant would fill anything created by this polish that I had mixed in. In retrospect, I would have had enough sealant to do the whole vehicle.
Again, no clay prior, I apply the paint sealant mix. This was in the evening, I apply the sealant to the whole vehicle with a DA machine and a red Griot’s waxing pad. Then remove with MF and detailing spray. When I get finished it looks good – in the dark. So I go and get a flashlight, in the dark I can see the swirls. In the daylight the swirls only come up in the direct sunlight. The following day it was cloudy and they were not visible – but I know they are there. I also still have faint circular halos on the surface and not sure where they come from.
So I’m questioning just what went wrong – knowing now the polish mixing was likely a bad idea, but like a dumb #$%@ I did it anyway. So what was it:
Is this paint particularly sensitive/soft and I need a specific product for black;
Did I need to clay;
Was the pad I used dirty;
Are the swirls just under the surface and the sealant/polish mix uncovered them;
Should I not have let the sealant dry before removing 9it was humid and took awhile to dry);
Something wrong with my wash sequence?
So now I want to fix this issue and looking for solutions and the right products. I could go back to the Griot’s sealant since I had good luck the first application. I would almost rather use a polishing solution to get rid of the swirls. Some of the products I see that I like, primarily the Poor Boys EP-X for this application, and apply enough coats to correct.
Looking for other suggestions from the experts.
