Unhappy with my paint corrections

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Sticandy

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Hi, long time lurker, first time poster.

Just a little back ground. I'm a licensed automotive technician and big time car enthusiast.

After paying a small fortune to have my 2015 STI Opti coated, I was compelled to learn how to do this myself.

I threw out all my big box products, went to a local online detail company and spent a small fortune on good stuff. Among many other things I bought a 6" Griots Garage DA polisher and a few foam pads, meguiars M205, meguiars M101 and some Cquartz UK and Cquartz Dlux.

After doing my wifes car and fathers car, I started to have people asking for me to do some paid jobs.

I just finished one a little while ago and it's been bugging me so I thought I'd come here for some advice.

When I got the car I assessed the damage and it seemed to be just some minor swirling, he has proper washing techniques. I figured the M101 was too harsh for the level of paint correction. I washed the car, iron x, rinse, clay, washed and went over the car with a 1 stage polish with the M205 and the orange Lake country pad. The inspection lights showed the finish to be pretty good. I proceeded with the IPA wipe down and the cquartz UK and Dlux application. Looks great and my buddy can't see it, but in the sun there are a number of small scratches (swirls if you will) but you have to get the light to hit it just right to see them. The only saving grace is that the paint is metallic so it hides it very well. A plain color would have screwed me but I would imagine it would be easier to spot under the lights.

Before I proceed onto any other cars I want to figure out what went wrong. My products? Materials? Any help would be appreciated.

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Welcome to the forum. 205 should have finished nicely. Maybe the orange pad didn't finish down like you'd like it to have. Maybe the initial swirls were worse than you thought and you didn't get them out. Pics would be helpful to help the forum assess your results.
 
So you saw that the paint wasn't perfect, but didn't continue to polish it, or you didn't see it until you wiped it down and applied the coating? As WaxMaster1 said, it is probably best to post photos of the original condition and after polish (I would suggest always documenting cars with before and after photos, although I don't follow my own advice too strictly).
 
No, I finished polishing took it out in the sun and it looked good. So I pulled it back in, wiped down and did the coating. It was after the coating when I was in the sun checking for high spots that I noticed it. Like I said it's not too bad, I just want to get to the level of perfection.

I post pics tonight.

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Pictures would definitely help tell the story, but a couple things stand out from your post:

1: I would be sure to find out your customers goals for the job before starting to make sure you both have the same goals in mind. As geeks we tend to have higher standards than most civilians, and there's no sense removing more precious clear coat than necessary on what's likely a daily driver.

2: Are the scratches you're unhappy with holograms/buffer trails, or Random Isolated Deep Scratches (rids)? Take a look at Mike Phillips' articles on those to learn more.

Sorry to not be a ton of help, just wanted to throw out some food for thought. I'm a fellow auto tech/detailing enthusiast. I'll be doing some corrections for friends/coworkers as well, but will be playing conservative simply because their end goal is focused more on Safe, Clean and Protected than Show car perfect.

I'll step back and let the pros take over. :bolt:
 
Hi and Welcome to AGO. First off 100% correction is unattainable.
Few things to consider:
1) Did you take paint measurements?
2.) Of those measurements did you see any high or abnormal micron / mil measurements?

If so, that section of the vehicle could have been repainted. Non factory paints are not baked at the same temps as the assembly line leaving them a bit soft. After correction any subsequent wipes could cause some minor micro marring.

If you rechecked your work with a Flex Light after polishing and it was clear, and now you're seeing marring, it could be the above or just soft paint.
 
You need better lighting and did you do a test area. By that I mean, take the worse area and see what least aggressive combo works, If 4 passes with a certain combo worked on your test area, then it should work on the rest of the car. After every panel, do an inspection, so you won't have to go over it again.

If polishing was easy, anyone could do it.
 
One thing in particular stands out and needs some clarification. You said you used IPA to wipe the car down after M205. You also said that after polishing you took it outside to inspect, then back inside to wipe down and coat.

Did you do the IPA wipe before or after inspecting outside?

There are plenty of potential causes for these tiny scratches. Knowing if you were looking at bare paint or potentially had some polishing oils masking the finish will help eliminate some of those potential causes.

And if you used the IPA after inspecting, consider this a lesson learned to strip polishing oils before inspecting your work.
 
I can't add to what's already been suggested but wanted to applaud you for having high standards and secondly for inquiring/learning.
 
You have very good products, a great tool etc.

If this was your first time machine polishing I'd say you did really well. The deeper remaining swirls and scratches may simply require the use of the M101 followed by the M205.

I've been detailing cars all my life and teaching others to detail cars and even so... I ALWAYS do a Test Spot on ever car I detail. The reason why is because paint varies. Take a moment to read through this article,


How To Do a Test Spot


I'd recommend this article too....

DA Polisher Trouble Shooting Guide



And if you haven't read this one... well check it out too...


Video: Mark your backing plate to make it easy to see pad rotation



:)
 
Sharply Dressed said:
I can't add to what's already been suggested but wanted to applaud you for having high standards and secondly for inquiring/learning.
Click to expand...
Well thank you for those kind words. I enjoy doing this as a side thing and I don't want to put out a sub par product. The next car in is another sti like mine thay had a one stage and opti coat applied last year and the swirls were atrocious. I just wanna hone my craft.

oneheadlite said:
Pictures would definitely help tell the story, but a couple things stand out from your post:

1: I would be sure to find out your customers goals for the job before starting to make sure you both have the same goals in mind. As geeks we tend to have higher standards than most civilians, and there's no sense removing more precious clear coat than necessary on what's likely a daily driver.

2: Are the scratches you're unhappy with holograms/buffer trails, or Random Isolated Deep Scratches (rids)? Take a look at Mike Phillips' articles on those to learn more.

Sorry to not be a ton of help, just wanted to throw out some food for thought. I'm a fellow auto tech/detailing enthusiast. I'll be doing some corrections for friends/coworkers as well, but will be playing conservative simply because their end goal is focused more on Safe, Clean and Protected than Show car perfect.

I'll step back and let the pros take over. :bolt:
Click to expand...

I like the idea of asking about the expectations. I will definately do that going forward.



paul_g said:
Hi and Welcome to AGO. First off 100% correction is unattainable.
Few things to consider:
1) Did you take paint measurements?
2.) Of those measurements did you see any high or abnormal micron / mil measurements?

If so, that section of the vehicle could have been repainted. Non factory paints are not baked at the same temps as the assembly line leaving them a bit soft. After correction any subsequent wipes could cause some minor micro marring.

If you rechecked your work with a Flex Light after polishing and it was clear, and now you're seeing marring, it could be the above or just soft paint.
Click to expand...

I have not gone to the extent of checking paint thickness as of yet. I do know that being a subaru the paint is soft and thin. I will consider getting a measurement tool soon.

Audios S6 said:
One thing in particular stands out and needs some clarification. You said you used IPA to wipe the car down after M205. You also said that after polishing you took it outside to inspect, then back inside to wipe down and coat.

Did you do the IPA wipe before or after inspecting outside?

There are plenty of potential causes for these tiny scratches. Knowing if you were looking at bare paint or potentially had some polishing oils masking the finish will help eliminate some of those potential causes.

And if you used the IPA after inspecting, consider this a lesson learned to strip polishing oils before inspecting your work.
Click to expand...

You are correct that is my bad. I did do the inspection before the IPA. I should have known better. I will do that in the future.

Here's some more pictures. It's kinda hard to see in the pictures. As a matter of fact now that I looked again, I had to kind of struggle to find them but they are there. It may be me being too critical. Most people wouldn't notice. It's not the type of swirls that pops out when you walk by a car. Have to get very low, close and blinded to see.
752ca6ad54fd82e6abc936468ac37439.jpg
22e314045db13cc2aceb38a3d9d4c37c.jpg
104aadcc864a63ab1bc5d8372cb0cf8e.jpg
f113c90247bbb8850c6e3b66dfa6b747.jpg
10966c56c5d7cae4dd62af2c74b34d74.jpg



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I agree with lighting. Read some articles here on proper lighting. You have to look at every angle with proper lighting. Don't kick yourself for missing a few spots, even the best will miss something. If possible, have someone else check your polishing work before applying your coating product. A second set of eyes may see something that you missed. Good luck and don't get frustrated.
 
I'm by no means an pro. But the pictures actually look pretty good.
 
Mike.Phillips@Autogeek said:
I agree.

From the pictures it looks like he knows what he's doing.


Those sun shots look great!


:dblthumb2:
Click to expand...
WeekendDIY said:
I'm by no means an pro. But the pictures actually look pretty good.
Click to expand...

Thanks guys, maybe I'm just overly critical of myself.

Oh one last question. I've seen people mention about using multiple layers of cquartz but I've only ever done one. Is this common practice? I should mention all my coatings get topped regularly with hydro 2.

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