2014 white Toyota Corolla (exterior paint correction with Rupes) – Detailed by Rodney

Rod73

Rod73

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Paint correction involving the horizontal panels. Majority one step compounding with Rupes Duetto, Rupes pads, and Menzerna polishes.


Quick background story 2 parts:
1st good friend of mine. He is one of the few people who actually makes an effort to maintain the quality of his car. Actually washes his car about as much as me, which leads to his main problem. Technique and tools that not too long ago featured a bucket not designed to wash cars and 2 bath towels among other bad wash decisions.
In addition the dealership took care of his car and by that I mean completely buffer swirled up. Also the Bodyshop brought those same exact problems on the front hood of his car after he was hit in a collision.

2nd I recently the Rupes Duetto to my collection. I understand that are a lot of questions and concerns about using the Rupes polishers on non-flat surfaces. I wanted to be mindful of my imminent struggles as I adjust, to help fill everyone in.

All in all considering he wasn’t in a position make a financial investment at this time to get his car detailed, I volunteered to fix his car up and set him on the right track no charge as long as he contributed with the car wash step. I also made him promise not to do the things that led to his paint being all jacked up in the first place for MY PIECE OF MIND LOL.





Undercarriage
Optimum Power Clean full strength
Chemical Bare Bones Under-Carriage Spray


Tire and Wheels
Carpro Iron X Paste
Meguiars Non Acid Tire and Wheel Cleaner
Blackfire Total Eclipse Tire Shine Spray

Rest of Car
Chemical Guys Citrus Red (slightly more than recommended)
Optimum Power Clean full strength (spritz the hard to come out spots)

Decontamination
CarPro TRIX Tar and Iron Remover
Wolfgang Elastic Poly Clay


Touch Up / Door Jambs / Exhaust Pipe
Blackfire Waterless Wash
P21s Total Auto Wash


Polished With
Rupes LHR 12E Duetto Random Orbital Polisher
Rupes 6 inch Green Medium Foam Pad
Rupes 6 inch Yellow Polishing Foam Pad
Menzerna PF2500
Menzerna FG400


Additional Prep
Car Pro Eraser


LSP
Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant 3.0




 
Better but still polishing to be done..

View attachment 35628

These kind of scratches were all over his car.

View attachment 35629 :nomore::eek:


Because this didn't fall under paid detail and was dealing with white paint that was probably hard, I went after the obvious damage on the horizontal panels knowing my goal for him wasn't show car restoration.

The amount of paint for the most part was very healthy. A little erratic in places but I seem to recall the 140 to 170 area where I was doing the majority of my work.


I did a test spot on the front hood (probing for the least aggressive approach) with PF2500 on the yellow Rupes polishing pad. After one try that combo was canned! Moved on the green medium pad. Two attempts with the PF2500 left noticeable improvement but definitely not enough for me to move to FG400 and green pad for pretty much the rest of the car that I was polishing.

I did check a couple of times to see how much paint was coming off and I had one area had it in the 30 micron area.

The top of the car was the worst part. A couple areas I went over twice. Here are a couple of 50/50 shots to see the extent of the damage. The part on the right is where I finished.

View attachment 35630

View attachment 35631


I didn't go to the blue Rupes pad because I wanted to avoid making a it necessary to have a two step correction. Fortunately FG400 really does finish really well! Even though I did follow up in a couple spots with PF2500 with a green pad.
 
This is the finished product:

View attachment 35632 View attachment 35633



10 Dedicated Hours

View attachment 35634 View attachment 35635

With the Rupes I did experience (still their) that learning curve with the pad stopping. I kept telling myself as I was adjusting to treat polishing like surfing a wave. One thing that did help was I amped up the polisher speed as I was negotiating the curves of the vehicle. Also catching myself slowing the movement down too much on the curves was creating more problems. So those were my experiences adjusting.


All in all he told me (even though a part of me wasn't fully satisfied lol) he was very happy with his car. He said it was glowing haha. He also promised, now that he is better educated this won't happen again ;)


Any feedback is always welcome!
 
https://youtu.be/6yiveBjzeIA

I wanted to upload this video of me spraying Carpro TR.IX Tar&Iron remover. My apologies for how long this took to add. Welcoming myself to the detailing on video world lol

Aside from butchering the name of the product on video, I felt the need to warn my friend of the smell.
 
Do you have any close ups of the paint with the light on it? It will show off your correction more :)
 
4u2nvinmtl said:
Do you have any close ups of the paint with the light on it? It will show off your correction more :)
Click to expand...

Sorry for my long response time, missing your comment. That is something I am really seeing. I need to do a better job of getting the lighting take care if I'm going to show my work. So I do appreciate the reminder.
 
I believe Toyota uses single stage ion the non pearl, white cars which is why you see so many relatively new white Toyotas with oxidation. Was the repaired area cleared? Or done in single stage as well?
 
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