my first failure at a car detail :-( :-/

[oboeboy]

hey guys,

man I am dissappointed today...

I was trying to make my brother's car look better this morning...

he has a 1972 malibu with red single stage paint, looks like it s a repaint but I dunno..

it was very oxidized but no worse than the red mercedes in the extreme makeover session...

I went at it with some colorX, clay and then #83 both by PC...

my first observation is that it seemed like his paint, was just absorbing the product as i put it down...
second observation was that there was a TON of red all over my pads, saturating amounts of red, even when i tried doing a couple sections with a foam pad by hand the little foam thingys were COVERED with a dark red muck that you could wipe off of the pad...

It ruined my polishing pad and made the velcro come off and i had to throw it away

when i got done with the colorx, some of the oxidation was removed and the rest just kinda got swirled up, you could see the pattern of my PC in the paint... but I pressed on and clayed the surface, (the clay was pulling red as well) and then after the clay, i went at with the DACP with the PC on 5 and it did nothing to help the shine and gloss, i still had the "absorbing" effect going on with paint and the DACP. (for example, i did the thing that mike does where you apply product on the PC pad and then bounce the pad around where you are going to work the product to lay some of the product on the paint, and after i crossed the area of product on the paint you could see where the product was because the paint was a different color underneath!) You could see pattern of my PC in the paint, just moving the oxidation around after working with the DACP to a light haze...

so i tried putting a little nxt on the best looking part of the hood just to see what it would look like, and even application of NXT using a foam pad was pulling paint, not as much but still turned the pad red...


what have i done wrong here.. the car definitely was no worse the the MBZ.

UGH

[DETLMAN]

Thats a bummer when you run into a situation like that. You are probably righ that it is a repaint and that may have alot to do with what happened. The only chance you have to bring back paint like that is a rotary buffer and a more agressive product like #84 or #85. The layer of dead paint is just too thick to really remove without the agressiveness of the rotart, and honestly that might not even do the job if the paint is dead. Re-paint paint doesnt respond the same as factory paint will.

[mirrorfinishman]

Originally posted by DETLMAN
The layer of dead paint is just too thick to really remove without the agressiveness of the rotart, and honestly that might not even do the job if the paint is dead.

I am not all that sure that you need the aggressiveness of a rotary. After all, look at how much dead paint you were already able to remove by using your PC. Hey, I wouldn't be surprised to see you get better results by using #2 Fine Cut Cleaner applied by hand. At the very least you would probably have better control of cutting away the dead paint. Just an idea.

Also, you should not look at this as a failure. Hey, it's not even a mistake. Just as long as you learn something from your experience, that's really all that matters.

[WHITE HONDA]

READ THE ARTICLE HERE ON THIS SITE ABOUT THE BAD PAINT ON THE BENZ @ Extreme Make over section. Should answer alot of your questions oh use Apc /Murhpy Oil soap to clean the pads

[scrub]

I know where you're coming from on this one. Relax! You tried to do the best you can with the finest products on the market. You also had the experience of this forum to ask for assistance. Maybe that's about as good as the car will get. I've had the same thing happen. I just did the best I could on the rest of the car and cut my price. We offer a service in which the owner is somewhat responsible for the initial condition of the car. Unfortunately there are limitations of what we can do depending on what you're given to work with. Had the car you mentioned been garaged kept you would be showing off pics in the Extreme makeover section.

I've also noticed this will happen few and far between. Don't let it get you down!!

I forget, what year was that Mercedes?

Good luck!