Please ...your advice

[bdoon]

My Volvo has been in the body shop for several months and I am driving a rental, a 2008 burgundy red (Sonoma Sunrise) Maxima. I scratched the bumpers, tried a remedial repair using dupli color and it looked terrible so I repainted both bumpers completely using the closest color dupli color had. Ended up ordering the Somoma Sunrise online and it was expensive.

After painting I sanded (grit 2000 wet) and applied several coats of clear coat. Was hazy so I applied buffing compound followed by polish (Meguilars plastic polish ) and it dried with a white haze...looks terrible.

What can I do? will wet sanding the clearcoat help?

I have to return the car this week and I am really worried. Have spent $200 and at least 10 to 15 hours...in retrospect I should have left well enough alone and just paid the rental company the extra bucks but I had already spent $600 for 2 tires on the rental and tried to repair the scratches on the cheap.

"We all shine on...life the moon and the stars and the sun" ok but what about my dull looking Maxima?

Brian

[retrofinisher]

Re: Please ...your advice

You probably have blushing caused by moisture in the air, If you painted in open air during a rain or after rain or humid overcast (Washington weather?) it could be very possible for the humidity to make it foggy looking.

The clear paint is likely fogged throughout? I don't think polishing will help.

That's a long repair on the Volvo

You could do single stage repaint and let the dealer deal with it?

[PorscheGuy997]

Re: Please ...your advice

What brand of buffing compound did you use?

PlastX is meant for use on clear plastic parts, so I wouldn't use it on you paint anymore.

When you wet sand, you are literally putting in small scratches in order to level the paint. That is what caused the haziness.

The best solution would be to obtain a bottle of ScratchX. If that doesn't work, you can try some M105, which works extremely well by hand. The idea of using a product like ScratchX or M105 is to remove these scratches and restore clarity to the paint.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Please ...your advice

You could try M105 it's about $30.00 a quart and like PorscheGuy997 stated, it might work as the product you've been using are not the correct product for the job...

You might try a bottle of Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner as it can smooth paint over and clear it up...

But retrofinisher might be right in that the problem is in the paint and no amount of polishing is going to make it acceptable...


Might be time to cut your losses...

[bdoon]

Re: Please ...your advice

You could try M105 it's about $30.00 a quart and like PorscheGuy997 stated, it might work as the product you've been using are not the correct product for the job...

You might try a bottle of Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner as it can smooth paint over and clear it up...

But retrofinisher might be right in that the problem is in the paint and no amount of polishing is going to make it acceptable...


Might be time to cut your losses...

Thank you for your response.

Actually when only the paint was on the car several folks remarked at what a good job I did. It was only when I started with the Buffing compound and polish that I got the "white effect'. ...trying to make it shine. You are right about the humidity , sun and heat and all those were there when I worked.

[bdoon]

Re: Please ...your advice

Thanks so very much.

When only the paint was on there several people remarked how good it looked except there was no shine. So when I tried the buffing compound (Turtle) and polish (Meguilars) I ran into the white haze problem. I am willing to give it a shot with the compounds you suggested. At this point friends are giving me a hard time about how I am going to end uop buying the rental car ha ha...not very funny.

I purchased a 2006 S60 R with only 15k miles on it in Feb 08. bought it at a Dodge dealer in PA. $5k under BlueBook. Was able to speak to the prior owner and the original dealer to verify maintenance. Beautiful car, great deal. 4 weeks later in the pouring rain some guy driving a late model rust bucket with almost bald tires drove into my drivers side front wheel well doing 40 to 45 mph as I entered the roadway from my office. He was speeding and actually steered into me thinkinking I was going to pull out in front of him. He thought he would go around behind me but I had stopped.

Had car towed to a Nationwide Blue Ribbon shop who have had the car back and forth to Annapolis Volvo. I am told because the car model is not very common getting parts etc is a real hassle...one wrong part shuts down the repair for 2 weeks according to the body shop. It has been months since I have seen the car. However the body shop is paying for the rental. Nevertheless I had an engine rebuilt years ago on a Ford in 12 weeks...this repair is now close to 20 weeks.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Please ...your advice

Here's a simple thing you can try.... gently rub a pure polish over the clouded areas, this might remove the cloudiness and restore clarity. Deep Crystal Polish is easy to find and might just do the trick and you can find it at just about any auto parts store.

You could also try #7 Show Car Glaze which is also pretty easy to find and is richer in polishing oils. The polishing oils and some gentle rubbing of the surface might just restore clarity if the cloudiness is topical.

If the cloudiness is throughout the paint, then no amount of rubbing on the surface will make the cloudiness in the paint go away...

But you won't know what you can do until you try...