Help!!! Are these Holograms in my paint (2010 Audi S4)? Used FG400 and G21 w/MEGs MF Pad

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Matador

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Hey Guys,

actually have another thread in the show n shine thread. Originally just bought a 2010 Audi S4 prestige black on black with not too many miles. Was planning a full-detail to go from the never touched outside of washed and hand waxed outside to getting the paint as close to new as possible.

I washed with CG citrus wash to strip whatever was there along with tar and iron remover'd the whole car and then used my 'heavier' yellow autoscrub pad on my old school GG 6inch DA.

Things were going great until then. Cars paint felt like butter and I was excited to get started on the polishing. So I heard Audi paint is hard, did some research on here and saw a lot of people had success with Menz FG400 if the paint is in pretty bad shape. Figured the Boss 21 would do serious work on here with Fg400 and Menz MF pads.

I did a test spot on the hood and it looked promising. Well I thought this was the going to be the combo. I did the whole car but started noticing some hazing/holograming??? Am a novice so I am a bit overwhelmed. Was hoping with how hard this paint is, FG 400 would leave it LSP ready!

I was originally going to do the whole car today again possibly with a second polish to see if that helps. I have Menz 2500, Menz 4500 and just bought HD speed. What are you experts thoughts on what to use next and pad combo?


Pics of the hazing.


IMG-2536.jpg



IMG-2537.jpg



And also discovered this tiny bit of rust in the fenders....how bad is this? Will I need to repaint the whole fender? :( Or can it be saved? This really bummed me out. :(


IMG-2538.jpg


Thanks in advance!!
 
Can’t make holograms with a DA your probably seeing Mf Hazing follow up with white pad and finish polish to clean that up


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
You should be good after you come back with full polish. Start with the 4000, see if it goes away. What pad you got?

How many MF pads did you use on the first cut?
 
Do you mean the 4500? I only have that, not 4000.

I used 3 MF pads for the whole car but kept them clean as I could with my compressor/compressed air.

For the 4500, my pad options are these two.

606-AB1-F9-ACE2-4048-B43-F-096756-B2-C2-AB.jpg


8-BD78-D5-E-04-FA-4-C24-9-CD1-A083-A5-F65415.jpg



Or should I use a thicker pad? Have those too.

And here's a pic today, outside. I see the 'hologram' effect all over the car :(

BD3-E5-AB8-36-D9-401-E-9788-C42-ABF533416.jpg
 
Yeah, before you chalk it up as a fail you must polish. The white pads and your 4500. Let us know
 
I don't see any rust in the fenders. Just dirty felt liners and a pitted fender edge. That's normal wear and tear. To avoid that, you'd need to install PPF on that fender edge.
 
Just to note,

The word hologram is specific to the scratch pattern imparted into paint by the use of a rotary buffer. You cannot put holograms into car paint using any type of orbital polisher.

Orbital polishers put micro-marring into car paint but not holograms.


Also - fibers are a form of abrasives. If you use a microfiber pad, the fibers CUT the paint. Think about it, isn't this why everyone uses microfiber pads to do a better job of removing defects? Another way of saying removing defects is say,

Removing paint


In other words, microfiber pads do a better job of removing paint because they do a better job of CUTTING the paint than foam pads. This cutting shows up as micro-marring when you use a microfiber pad on an orbital polishers. If you put the same microfiber pad on a rotary it would then put in holograms.

Clear as mud?


To the OP - simply re-polish using a foam pad.



:)
 
Thanks, Mike! :)

That's the plan and thanks for the quick breakdown.
 
Sooo...I tried to knock it out this past weekend. I gave her a wash...but when I brought her out in the light to do an inspection of the paint after FG400 and Megs MF pad from last week...the whole paint looked like this. I did a test portion on the door using the 4500 and with the white foam pad and it did nothing.

I am a newb...are these RIDS? Should the FG400 and MF pad not have taken these out? They're really bad on the hood, but they're all over the car.

The paint looks amazing 90% of the time, but when you hit it in direct sunlight you see this all over the car. It's not super noticeable... Pic below adjusted to show the scratches as best as I can. Paint looks awesome though (for most part).

D7E497FF-4A7A-4504-8E41-4CFDBD0055CE.jpg


Anyway, I said I had enough for now. Felt defeated haha. So I said it looks good for what I am looking for and will pick up probably in the spring. I am happy to where it is now compared to where it was. Looks a ton better...but these little scratches (spiderwebbing?) sucks when I see it in the right light.

I finished it off with Menz Powerlock for the winter and will probably just do waterless washes from this point forward. Getting cold around here.

Thoughts?
 
I’d recommend seeing a pro detailer around where you live. Getting recommendations from the pros here has been a great help but when I had something wierd pop up, i got better info from someone looking at it in real life.

I’m lucky enough to live near griots and the are awesome.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Coatingsarecrack said:
I’d recommend seeing a pro detailer around where you live. Getting recommendations from the pros here has been a great help but when I had something wierd pop up, i got better info from someone looking at it in real life.

I’m lucky enough to live near griots and the are awesome.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice! I was thinking the same.
 
Matador said:
Sooo...I tried to knock it out this past weekend. I gave her a wash...but when I brought her out in the light to do an inspection of the paint after FG400 and Megs MF pad from last week...the whole paint looked like this. I did a test portion on the door using the 4500 and with the white foam pad and it did nothing.

I am a newb...are these RIDS? Should the FG400 and MF pad not have taken these out? They're really bad on the hood, but they're all over the car.

The paint looks amazing 90% of the time, but when you hit it in direct sunlight you see this all over the car. It's not super noticeable... Pic below adjusted to show the scratches as best as I can. Paint looks awesome though (for most part).

D7E497FF-4A7A-4504-8E41-4CFDBD0055CE.jpg


Anyway, I said I had enough for now. Felt defeated haha. So I said it looks good for what I am looking for and will pick up probably in the spring. I am happy to where it is now compared to where it was. Looks a ton better...but these little scratches (spiderwebbing?) sucks when I see it in the right light.

I finished it off with Menz Powerlock for the winter and will probably just do waterless washes from this point forward. Getting cold around here.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
That looks like some micro marring along with some RIDS. It probably needs a few more passes with 400 and then finish with 4500.

You need to remember that the paint is 10 years old and it's black..which shows even the slightest imperfection.
 
Here’s a fun question for you, do you only noticed the swirls on those parts of the body line? Meaning, on the flat surfaces does it look better? I wonder if you just need to learn a little more on how to correct those curved panels. IE using a smaller pad and slowing down.
 
I'm with Rsurfer that you have both micro marring and deeper defects left. Also remember when you cut down the middle deep defects black paint shows the deeper defects very much more in sunlight.

I think that the sf4500 has to little cut to correct the micro marring on the hard Audi paint. Maybe the SF3500 is enough but I would also get the PF2500 if it's not.

And here comes a curve ball and try the HC400 on the white pad and and don't think that you will be getting any micro marring from that combo. And work it through real good with light pressure the last 2 passes. The HC400 has a finishing ability of 8/10 which is quite good actually. So if you do a test spot and I think that you will be seeing a clear finish with the deeper defects left.

Do any of the the deeper defects catch your fingernail when you move it over one of the visual deeper defects. In the sun picture it's not in the haze/micro marring where you see it on the right in the sun glare. But those that lights up just to the left of of the center of the sun. Remember this is not any unusual that you need to be doing 2 steps. When you dial in än one step you look at how much gloss and clear finish you can get with the most aggressive combo to get that. A cutting step is not so unusual that at under the inspection light shows almost worser than when you started. The benefit with the white pad and HC400 if you get a clear finish with this combo you reduse the deeper defects little more. But remember also that you abrade clearcoat and make your paint thinner. Some deeper defects is just not worth to chase after. So concentrate at get up the clarity of the paint next time you give it a go. Rather than keep compounding on. If you are going to be correcting it to almost flawless you need to have the tools and also experience to do this. As you probebly would need to be spot wet sanding and takeing measures with a PTG so you know where you are at. And still if someone have used a bad wash technique or driving through tough terrain or have it parked where people slide by the car or swirlomatic car washes has been very aggressive. The defects might be so deep that you can not level down that much that's needed to be done so you comes down to the undamaged paint.

Don't know if you have wiped it down with a panel prep wipe product or IPA on your paint? You can have compound residue left in the defects and when it dries it gets white and shows defects much more. Usually very visible on rock chips after a correction.

/ Tony
 
2wookies said:
Here’s a fun question for you, do you only noticed the swirls on those parts of the body line? Meaning, on the flat surfaces does it look better? I wonder if you just need to learn a little more on how to correct those curved panels. IE using a smaller pad and slowing down.
Click to expand...
It is really bad on the hood. So for the most part it looks like that all over the car. Not just body line.

SWETM said:
I'm with Rsurfer that you have both micro marring and deeper defects left. Also remember when you cut down the middle deep defects black paint shows the deeper defects very much more in sunlight.

I think that the sf4500 has to little cut to correct the micro marring on the hard Audi paint. Maybe the SF3500 is enough but I would also get the PF2500 if it's not.

And here comes a curve ball and try the HC400 on the white pad and and don't think that you will be getting any micro marring from that combo. And work it through real good with light pressure the last 2 passes. The HC400 has a finishing ability of 8/10 which is quite good actually. So if you do a test spot and I think that you will be seeing a clear finish with the deeper defects left.

Do any of the the deeper defects catch your fingernail when you move it over one of the visual deeper defects. In the sun picture it's not in the haze/micro marring where you see it on the right in the sun glare. But those that lights up just to the left of of the center of the sun. Remember this is not any unusual that you need to be doing 2 steps. When you dial in än one step you look at how much gloss and clear finish you can get with the most aggressive combo to get that. A cutting step is not so unusual that at under the inspection light shows almost worser than when you started. The benefit with the white pad and HC400 if you get a clear finish with this combo you reduse the deeper defects little more. But remember also that you abrade clearcoat and make your paint thinner. Some deeper defects is just not worth to chase after. So concentrate at get up the clarity of the paint next time you give it a go. Rather than keep compounding on. If you are going to be correcting it to almost flawless you need to have the tools and also experience to do this. As you probebly would need to be spot wet sanding and takeing measures with a PTG so you know where you are at. And still if someone have used a bad wash technique or driving through tough terrain or have it parked where people slide by the car or swirlomatic car washes has been very aggressive. The defects might be so deep that you can not level down that much that's needed to be done so you comes down to the undamaged paint.

Don't know if you have wiped it down with a panel prep wipe product or IPA on your paint? You can have compound residue left in the defects and when it dries it gets white and shows defects much more. Usually very visible on rock chips after a correction.

/ Tony
Click to expand...

Thanks, as always Tony! I may try that in the spring (400 with white pad). None catch my finger nail...which I think you mean deep where it's almost metal?

I kind of feel the same way about not going too crazy given the age of the paint and not taking too much paint off in general.

I did not wipe it down with an IPA. I just washed the whole car again and was thinking that may take any residue or the oils in the compound out.
 
Matador said:
It is really bad on the hood. So for the most part it looks like that all over the car. Not just body line.



Thanks, as always Tony! I may try that in the spring (400 with white pad). None catch my finger nail...which I think you mean deep where it's almost metal?

I kind of feel the same way about not going too crazy given the age of the paint and not taking too much paint off in general.

I did not wipe it down with an IPA. I just washed the whole car again and was thinking that may take any residue or the oils in the compound out.
Click to expand...

Do an IPA wipe down to see the true finish. Washing will help with the dust, but some soaps have glossing agents or polymers/waxes that could hide the true finish and may not remove all the polishing oils.
 
Back from the dead!!

After doing some more research...because this paint really bugs me haha. Caught my car in the light tonight, and snapped these two pics.

I have so much trouble snapping the fine little scratches in it. But here's two trying my best. The second pic shows it pretty well. Those damn fine scratches...

My stuff is almost exactly like the example in the post below.

IMG-6566.jpg


IMG-6567.jpg


I found this thread:
https://www.autogeekonline.net/foru...-audi-avant.html?highlight=Audi+phantom+black


This guy used Menz MF pads and FG 400.

He had similar results...but had to polish a couple of times to get the scratches in the paint like mine!!

So it's the paint that's super duper hard on this car....

Makes me feel better because i thought it was user error on my part. Anyway--I only did one run with Menz FG400 and Meg MF pads on the whole car.

Instead of going at it again with FG400 and bust my butt trying to get it right...I saw Mike Phillips reccomend Uber Compound. Never used it....but I am sure if Mike reccomends, it must be awesome.

Thinking of buying a 16oz. Should I get new pads? And if so, what's the top MF or wool now??? Pads to buy, to help me out here.

With the Labor Day sale, I am ready to spend me some cash!! LOL Help me spend some...
 
Bumping this back up!

What is the the best pads to mate with Uber compound? Any reccomendations? Specifically for my super duper hard, Audi Phantom Black paint.

Wanna take advantage of this sale right now! :p
 
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