How do i tackle water spots on a Black Honda Civic

[wasser]

Greetings from Singapore,

I've recently picked up a used 4 year old JDM Honda Civic Type R and it has tons of water spots all over the horizontal panels and especially on the carbon fibre rear wing. Vertical panels look much better in the sunlight over the horizontal panels.

(Sorry camera phone is quite blurry, these are on the rear carbon fibre wing)

I believe they are type 2 water spots. I would say the rear wing has a much more severe water spot etching as compared to say the hood and the roof.
All the panels including the vertical panels are affected by light to moderate swirls and oxidation.

I have recently purchased a DAS-6 DA polisher and after reading many thread and watching many vids on using a DA, these are the steps i wish to take to correct the paintwork.

1) Wash, Meguiars Wash & Wax (2pail method)
2) Clay (using the suds from the shampoo)
3) Meguiars Ultimate Compound+ LC 6.5in white pad
4) Meguiars Ultimate Polish + LC 6.5inch white / black pad
5) Sonax Xtreme Brilliant Wax + LC Black Pad / hand

However, i have a few questions regarding my 5 step process. First of all, would the UC be too aggressive on a white pad for a soft painted Honda? The paint is definitely much softer than my brother's 2010 BMW 5 Series and i don't want to remove more clear coat than i need to get the job done.

I understand the best way would be to approach it from a least aggressive point on a test spot, that is why i have decided that it might be better to step down from a orange LC pad to a white one instead. What do you guys think?

Feel free to share your opinions and ideas! I hope to learn more from the gurus!rops:

 

[Flash Gordon]

Greetings from Singapore,

I've recently picked up a used 4 year old JDM Honda Civic Type R and it has tons of water spots all over the horizontal panels and especially on the carbon fibre rear wing. Vertical panels look much better in the sunlight over the horizontal panels.

(Sorry camera phone is quite blurry)

I believe they are type 2 water spots. I would say the rear wing has a much more severe water spot etching as compared to say the hood and the roof.
All the panels including the vertical panels are affected by light to moderate swirls and oxidation.

I have recently purchased a DAS-6 DA polisher and after reading many thread and watching many vids on using a DA, these are the steps i wish to take to correct the paintwork.

1) Wash, Meguiars Wash & Wax (2pail method)
2) Clay (using the suds from the shampoo)
3) Meguiars Ultimate Compound+ LC 6.5in white pad
4) Meguiars Ultimate Polish + LC 6.5inch white / black pad
5) Sonax Xtreme Brilliant Wax + LC Black Pad / hand

However, i have a few questions regarding my 5 step process. First of all, would the UC be too aggressive on a white pad for a soft painted Honda? The paint is definitely much softer than my brother's 2010 BMW 5 Series and i don't want to remove more clear coat than i need to get the job done.

I understand the best way would be to approach it from a least aggressive point on a test spot, that is why i have decided that it might be better to step down from a orange LC pad to a white one instead. What do you guys think?

Feel free to share your opinions and ideas! I hope to learn more from the gurus!rops:

You can use any polish you want on any kind of pad and will not cause damage (just waste time)

If I were you I would start with orange foam, or better yet microfiber pads using ultra cut. Plan on working in small sections and making multiple passes

 

[davey g-force]

If you have super soft paint, you would be wise to do a few test spots first, starting with the least aggressive method and working your way up.

Are they the only pads / products you have? I would purchase some orange pads and try the below in order:

- White pad & UP
- Orange pad & UP
- White pad & UC
- Orange pad and UC

Let us know how you go!

 

[wasser]

Thanks for the swift replies, I do have the Meguiars Swirl X as well.

But after doing research, it seems like it doesn't have any real abrasives in it, its more of a chemical based paint cleaner/polish.

The mirror glaze range are very hard to get around here, i have been looking for the M205 but the distributor only carries the gallon bottles! heh.

How many pads should i get per stage? Like for compounding and polishing? I would prefer to wax by hand, just a personal thing.

 

[tuscarora dave]

You can use any polish you want on any kind of pad and will not cause damage (just waste time)

If I were you I would start with orange foam, or better yet microfiber pads using ultra cut. Plan on working in small sections and making multiple passes

If it were me doing this car I'd do just as you suggested with the MF pads and 105, then finish up with a soft foam pad and some dark colored finishing polish such as Optimum Finish or SF4500.

Greetings from Singapore,

I've recently picked up a used 4 year old JDM Honda Civic Type R and it has tons of water spots all over the horizontal panels and especially on the carbon fibre rear wing. Vertical panels look much better in the sunlight over the horizontal panels.

(Sorry camera phone is quite blurry, these are on the rear carbon fibre wing)

I believe they are type 2 water spots. I would say the rear wing has a much more severe water spot etching as compared to say the hood and the roof.
All the panels including the vertical panels are affected by light to moderate swirls and oxidation.

I have recently purchased a DAS-6 DA polisher and after reading many thread and watching many vids on using a DA, these are the steps i wish to take to correct the paintwork.

1) Wash, Meguiars Wash & Wax (2pail method)
2) Clay (using the suds from the shampoo)
3) Meguiars Ultimate Compound+ LC 6.5in white pad
4) Meguiars Ultimate Polish + LC 6.5inch white / black pad
5) Sonax Xtreme Brilliant Wax + LC Black Pad / hand

However, i have a few questions regarding my 5 step process. First of all, would the UC be too aggressive on a white pad for a soft painted Honda? The paint is definitely much softer than my brother's 2010 BMW 5 Series and i don't want to remove more clear coat than i need to get the job done.

I understand the best way would be to approach it from a least aggressive point on a test spot, that is why i have decided that it might be better to step down from a orange LC pad to a white one instead. What do you guys think?

Feel free to share your opinions and ideas! I hope to learn more from the gurus!rops:

You have a safe, common sense process outlined above but as Flash mentioned wasting time, those 6.5" pads will definitely take a lot longer to remove the amount of material it will take to level out those water spot etchings.

I'd suggest microfiber pads because as they work at leveling the paint overall, they also work down into the curves and contours of the etchings and deeper scratches better than what foam pads do. You typically get a better looking finish without leveling or removing as much paint off of the car with MF pads.

 

[wasser]

UPDATE 10/03/2014

Hi to all once again, i spent a good 5 hours on the car while enjoying every moment of it. I managed to correct 80-85% of the paint's swirls, oxidation and scratches.

For the horizontal panels (hood,roof,trunk). i used a 2-step process consisting of Meguiars Ultimate Compound with a white 6.5in LC flat pad and also Meguiars Ultimate Polish to further bring out the gloss.


As for the vertical panels like the fender, bumpers and doors, i used Ultimate Polish as a 1-step with the white pad because the swirls and scratches are not as bad as the horizontal panels and it could correct nearly 80% of defects on my first application.


In conclusion, UC and UP is a great combo for beginners starting out with a DA polisher. This is the 2nd time i have laid hands on my DA and i have found it a breeze to work with these 2 products.

Meg's Ultimate Compound provided me with lots of cut and the finishing was really decent, however i found that it is quite difficult to wipe off (maybe its just a user problem). All it took was a 3 section passes with the hood divided into 4 sections and tadah! It dusts quite a bit but there again it could be a user problem.

Meg's Ultimate Polish, very very easy to work with. No streaks upon removal whatsoever. It does not seem to dry out on me and is exceptionally easy to remove while wet. Leaves a real smooth and glossy finish before waxing. However it is a very very mild abrasive polish and hence, deeper swirls may require a change in product or pad. One of my fave products so far to work with. I would highly recommend this to beginners!

In the future, i intend to move on to the Menzerna PF2500 to further remove the deeper scratches and swirls and as well as improve on the gloss. As seen in the last picture, the water spots still remain after using the Orange Pad + UC. The UC+Orange pad combo didn't do anything to the water spots at all.

As recommended by the fellow forumers in the earlier posts, would the Microfiber pads + Menzerna PF2500 work well together for the water spot etchings? What size pads would be ideal?

Thanks

 

[Flash Gordon]

You don't need Menzerna. Everything you need you have in Meguiars Ultimate Compound

As far as the remaining water spots. You may need wetsand to remove

I would ad Micro Fiber Cutting Pads to your arsenal too

 

[wasser]

Thanks for the reply Flash Gordon,

Which size of the microfiber cutting pads would you recommend?

 

[Flash Gordon]

Thanks for the reply Flash Gordon,

Which size of the microfiber cutting pads would you recommend?

I like the 6.5's myself