No apology needed, and the more feedback the better. Glad you're finally having some success.
Thanks for all the information and the photos. And while I tried varying amounts of product, it's possible that it was more than my technique causing the problems I was having.
Earlier in the thread I mentioned that I would like to get some advice from a local detailer. StuDLei put me in touch with Scott, of Scottwax Detailing, earlier this week, and I finally had the opportunity to meet him today.
First let me thank StuDLei again, for going out of his way to make the introduction. I'm a relatively new forum member and this went above and beyond my expectations.
I spoke with Scott the other day and explained that I was looking for help trying to figure out what products I could use on my car to do a proper paint correction. I also told him that I no interest in going into the detailing business, or becoming competition for him. This was just a request for some assistance to make it easier for me work on my own car.
As soon as I told him I had a black Nissan, he described the problems I was having before I even said anything. While there's a sticker under the hood that says Hard Clear Coat, it's anything but. If I remember correctly he said the paint tends to grab and is very difficult to work with, and in his experience, it doesn't like M105, which is what I was using.
Scott was working in the vicinity today and stopped by so we could experiment with some products and pads. His first reaction was surprise that my paint was in such bad shape for a somewhat new car. The car looks great until you see it in the sun, and is full of rotary buffer swirls galore, complements of the dealer. It also has an inconsistency in the finish, and places where it looked like a different orange peel than in other places, as if there were areas that might have been repainted.
First thing he tried was his Flex with a microfiber pad and M100. After several section passes he stopped and wiped up the compound, noticing some slight hazing. And I noticed little to no dust. This wasn't anything like the results I had with M105. I can't remember if he moved to M205 next or went right to an HD Polish, but whichever it was, the hazing was removed. While it wasn't perfect, there was more progress with the one or two passes he did, than I had made in the two days I spent experimenting.
Next up he used my Griot's DA and tried the M100 on an orange LC flat pad, which worked pretty well. He did the upper right panel with the Flex and the top of the rear door with my DA, and then I took a turn on the bottom of the door. That's the first I've worked on a lower part of the car and I know it would take me a while to get used to it and hold the DA straight.
The orange pad did a decent job for both of us, but no matter what we used it would probably require multiple passes to clean up the swirl mess.
The Murano has some large plastic panels in the back, as well as a plastic bumper, and he called my attention to the fact that you have to be careful around these and avoid generating too much heat while polishing. Oh, good. Something else to worry about.
At one point we talked about using M100 on a microfiber pad, followed by M205 on an orange pad, followed by the HD Polish on a microfiber pad, or it could be the reverse of the pads for the last two. It was getting hard to keep track of all the ideas.
As a final experiment he applied some Collinite 476 on one panel, some Clear Coat Carnuba Moose Wax - hadn't heard of that one before - on an adjacent panel, and finally some Opti Seal next to that. I have to wait until tomorrow to really see the difference in the daylight, but I could notice a slight difference even in the garage.
After a long conversation with Scott, and a list of more products I would need to do the work, and the realization that this isn't a practice car for me, I'm fairly certain I'm going to take advantage of Scott's experience and let him do the paint correction. I'm going to prep the car beforehand; take care of sealing or waxing after he's done, and do all the future upkeep to maintain the car as best I can. Ultimately, after thinking about this since my first conversation with him several days ago, and my experience today, I think I would be attempting a job that is too big for me, having never done this before. I should have started with a Smart Car or a Mini Cooper.
There's no doubt that I would get an immense satisfaction from doing the work myself, especially if it turned out well. I could also take another stab at it and call him to complete the job if I run into trouble. Or, I could possibly do something that makes doing it myself a very bad decision. For me, there's no ego involved whatsoever. I would like a better looking car, and I think that in this case, working with a pro is the best way to accomplish this. I would even be willing to help, but then he would have to charge extra.
Had I known I was going to go this route I might not have bought the equipment. Then again, I can probably still use the DA for future upkeep so it won't go to waste.
I'll try to make sure we get some pictures and start a new thread when the job is done, possibly next week depending on his schedule and a day I can be without a car. Scott said that this could be an all day job, and that's with me doing the prep, so you can imagine how big a job this could be.
