Okay, a little backstory;
I hopped on AutoGeek after ordering my brand new Ford Focus. I ordered it on October 2nd. I wanted to learn more about caring for the paint and finish of my new car. After some research, I instructed a confused but cooperative salesman NOT to prep my car before delivery. (In fact, he was excited to show me that it wasn't washed or prepped when it did come in; which I thought was cool)
On November 26th, my new car rolled off the assembly line to sit outside, unprotected at a factory parking lot before taking a dirty train to hop onto a filthy truck to get to the dealership. On December 3rd, it got to the dealership- and man did the filth show. It was absolutely filthy, despite having 0.2 miles on the odometer (just the distance from the end of the line to it's parking spot on the 'waiting' ramp!)
Signed the papers, took it home. Next day, a big winter storm blew in. Over the next several days, tons of snow, ice, and filth. Without a garage, my best hope was to keep it clean with coin-ops and waterless washes.
TODAY, it was finally above freezing, and the snow was done and not expected again for another week (woohoo!). So I got to my moms house (You're never too old to mooch off of your mama, haha!) to use her garage.
Washed, clayed, iron-x'ed;
Iron-X doing it's thang on the wheels (black paint + dark purple iron x doesn't really produce a dramatic picture on the paint);
'Clean';
Taped up and ready to go (and heaters going in the garage);
So the next thing I did (no pics, sorry) was use a 3" pad on my GG and some Meg's UP to get rid of some swirls on my spoiler. It had some protective plastic on it and the dealer removed it and wiped off the residue with something and swirled it. But; those were the only swirls I found so I guess I can't complain TOO much. (At least they didn't wash and thus swirl up the rest of the car). Worked great. Touched up two other small spots that had fine scratches from ice sliding across the car, used IPA to ensure that they were really gone- did awesome!
The next thing was supposed to be Menzerna SF4500. I kept hearing good things about how it makes paint 'pop'. But, I just couldn't see a difference. I taped off two separate 50/50 spots and tried various pads and speed settings and could never get to a point where I could see a difference with halogen lights, LED lights, flourescent overhead lights OR the bright sun. It looked the same to me. There were no scratches or correction needed to I elected NOT to polish the car. My thinking was it was not worth removing even a tiny amount of precious clear if the differences were not noticeable. Was that the right decision? Or was I just using the SF4500 wrong? The paint has to be soft because swirls came out with Meg's UP on a fine 3" polishing pad at speed 3, and they came out EASY. And yes, I did an IPA wipe to ensure that it wasn't just something filling IN the scratches.
But ANYWAY; onward and forward;
A coating of Detailers Pro Poly-Coat Paint Sealant;
Beautiful reflections!
Topped with Meg's M26;
I think it turned out okay! Gonna go out with the DSLR and take some GOOD pics (just some cellphone pics right now). But thanks for all the help AutoGeek!
Two questions I do have;
1) Does it sound reasonable that I wasn't able to see any noticeable difference with SF4500? Keeping in mind this is a brand new car never molested by the dealer.
2) The black 'pillars' in the doors were the other area the dealer removed plastic and scrubbed, leaving behind scratches. I wasn't able to achieve ANY correction with Meguiars Ultimate Compound. I was using a Griots Garage 3" red pad. Any pad/compound suggestions for getting rid of those swirls?
Thanks!
A parting shot;
I hopped on AutoGeek after ordering my brand new Ford Focus. I ordered it on October 2nd. I wanted to learn more about caring for the paint and finish of my new car. After some research, I instructed a confused but cooperative salesman NOT to prep my car before delivery. (In fact, he was excited to show me that it wasn't washed or prepped when it did come in; which I thought was cool)
On November 26th, my new car rolled off the assembly line to sit outside, unprotected at a factory parking lot before taking a dirty train to hop onto a filthy truck to get to the dealership. On December 3rd, it got to the dealership- and man did the filth show. It was absolutely filthy, despite having 0.2 miles on the odometer (just the distance from the end of the line to it's parking spot on the 'waiting' ramp!)
Signed the papers, took it home. Next day, a big winter storm blew in. Over the next several days, tons of snow, ice, and filth. Without a garage, my best hope was to keep it clean with coin-ops and waterless washes.
TODAY, it was finally above freezing, and the snow was done and not expected again for another week (woohoo!). So I got to my moms house (You're never too old to mooch off of your mama, haha!) to use her garage.
Washed, clayed, iron-x'ed;
Iron-X doing it's thang on the wheels (black paint + dark purple iron x doesn't really produce a dramatic picture on the paint);
'Clean';
Taped up and ready to go (and heaters going in the garage);
So the next thing I did (no pics, sorry) was use a 3" pad on my GG and some Meg's UP to get rid of some swirls on my spoiler. It had some protective plastic on it and the dealer removed it and wiped off the residue with something and swirled it. But; those were the only swirls I found so I guess I can't complain TOO much. (At least they didn't wash and thus swirl up the rest of the car). Worked great. Touched up two other small spots that had fine scratches from ice sliding across the car, used IPA to ensure that they were really gone- did awesome!
The next thing was supposed to be Menzerna SF4500. I kept hearing good things about how it makes paint 'pop'. But, I just couldn't see a difference. I taped off two separate 50/50 spots and tried various pads and speed settings and could never get to a point where I could see a difference with halogen lights, LED lights, flourescent overhead lights OR the bright sun. It looked the same to me. There were no scratches or correction needed to I elected NOT to polish the car. My thinking was it was not worth removing even a tiny amount of precious clear if the differences were not noticeable. Was that the right decision? Or was I just using the SF4500 wrong? The paint has to be soft because swirls came out with Meg's UP on a fine 3" polishing pad at speed 3, and they came out EASY. And yes, I did an IPA wipe to ensure that it wasn't just something filling IN the scratches.
But ANYWAY; onward and forward;
A coating of Detailers Pro Poly-Coat Paint Sealant;
Beautiful reflections!
Topped with Meg's M26;
I think it turned out okay! Gonna go out with the DSLR and take some GOOD pics (just some cellphone pics right now). But thanks for all the help AutoGeek!
Two questions I do have;
1) Does it sound reasonable that I wasn't able to see any noticeable difference with SF4500? Keeping in mind this is a brand new car never molested by the dealer.
2) The black 'pillars' in the doors were the other area the dealer removed plastic and scrubbed, leaving behind scratches. I wasn't able to achieve ANY correction with Meguiars Ultimate Compound. I was using a Griots Garage 3" red pad. Any pad/compound suggestions for getting rid of those swirls?
Thanks!
A parting shot;
