Once Again - I Fail

[mb911]

Re: Once Again - I Fail

Megafast -

I wish I could show you pictures. I have a digital SLR, and i know how to use it pretty well. However, when they only show up at night, it makes it hard to see, and the camera isn't that good at low light as it is only a lower end SLR.

I don't think the thread is completely useless though as I could still be offered ideas on how to get more aggressive with this obviously really hard paint.

If I take you pictures, the only ones that will come out are ones that will make you compliment me on how good it looks.

I guess I might just have to live with it for now. In normal situations, it looks fine. I was at the gas station today, and the paint looked just gorgeous. Just keep it away from bright lights at night when those polka dots show up. It also have some swirls in direct sunlight around the sun portion reflection, but again ultimate compound doesn't even take those out, so it's not much hope with the products I have I suppose.

Guess I need a repaint with some cheap soft paint. ha-ha.

[Mikejl]

Re: Once Again - I Fail

Do you have a dual zenon or LED flashlight? If so you may be able to get a picture to post.

Mike

[Firstson]

Re: Once Again - I Fail

My only suggestion is one for the smearing issue. Last time i detailed my car heavily was the few days following christmas. I have a industrial chicken heater in my garage so that i can detail in the winter but i don't always leave it on. When i applied wax i turned it off so it didn't blow any kind of dirt onto the wax. When i came back and wiped it off, i had the smeary issue. But i then turned the heater on for a few and went back and wiped what just seemed to be extra wax that hadn't cured right because of the cold. That would be my best guess for the smears.

Peace

[mb911]

Re: Once Again - I Fail

Thanks all. My car doesn't look that bad I guess. I was admiring it today. I guess the 8 hours of work still made it look better than before.

I'm going to get some M105 DA safe and try that. M105 should be more aggressive than Ultimate Compound, yes??? Even though UC is pretty aggressive, one would think the professional M105 DA would do even more yes?

Thanks!!!

[roushstage2]

Re: Once Again - I Fail

It's hard to say that M105 will fix it without knowing exactly what it is.

[mb911]

Re: Once Again - I Fail

It's hard to say that M105 will fix it without knowing exactly what it is.

But I can't remove anything in my two cars paints with anything else I've tried. So I'm just hoping M105 DA is more aggressive than Ultimate Compound.

We shall see. Fingers crossed. Unless anyone posts that UC is just as strong at M105 DA, I'll go ahead with my order.

Appreciate all the help. Nice to have somewhere to turn.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Once Again - I Fail

Unless anyone posts that UC is just as strong at M105 DA, I'll go ahead with my order.

M105 is more aggressive than Ultimate Compound, also just to note that M105 is formulated for use with a rotary buffer while Ultimate Compound is not. They can both be used by hand, DA Polisher and Orbital Polisher.

This defect you're trying to remove is either,

On the surface
A part of the surface, equally level with the surface - the paint is level but mottled where the defect is
Below the surface

If these spots or defects, (whatever they are), are on the surface you should be able to feel them and tell they are raised and on top of the paint. If so, claying or compounding should remove them.

If these spots or defects, (whatever they are), are equal with the surface then compounding should remove them.

If these spots or defects, (whatever they are), are in the paint then compounding should remove them.

The only thing you need to be wary of is if these defects are deep into the clear coat then removing them may run the risk of going through the clear layer into the color coat.

So be careful and use good judgment and don't buff through the clear layer.

[mb911]

Re: Once Again - I Fail

Thanks Mike - Appreciate that Sir. Well, hoepfully I won't be able to go through the clear, since the paint seems so hard.

Must be equal or below the surface because you can't feel them, and I did clay nicely.

Right now I can NOT remove any light scratches or anything with ultimate compound either, so I think I need to try M105 regardless. Even if I still can't get out the spray drops or whatever they are, maybe it will help with light swirls/scratches in the future.

With such a hard paint and a polishing pad, I don't think there will be much harm to the paint, most likely, isn't that probably true? Fingers crossed. Will get M105 DA ordered and try it out Saturday.

I did 4 applications or so of Ultimate Compound with a polishing pad with lots of passes each time on the hood. I should probably have plenty of clear left? I mean, it didn't touch any defect in the hood, so I hope I'm not ruining my paint. ha-ha!

[Hemin8r]

Re: Once Again - I Fail

I'm taking a wild guess that your streaking may have been due to layering the wax a little too thick. Use one light coat of wax followed by a second coat after the first has been removed. A few months ago I worked on a C class mercedes that had some sever water spots. Following is the link. Are the water spots similair to your spots?

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23236

[mb911]

Re: Once Again - I Fail

Heim8r - thanks for posting. No, these dots are much smaller and strangely more uniform. I did have ones like those on the paint inside the engine compartment, but they cleaned off with some Swirl X by hand.

Heim8r - DId you find the paint hard? That CLK Class looked great afterwards and it probably has identical paint to my black SLK unless it was a bit older and they made it even harder since then, but I see you had to use a rotary to get good results. You think that my trying M105 DA with the DA might give me similar results, since I don't have a rotary?

I can't believe M80 worked even with rotary since it's like putting a placebo, when I do it and not much better with ultimate compound.

Now on my old Japanese sedan, these gentler cleaner/polishes M80, M205, M83 work great.

[Hemin8r]

Re: Once Again - I Fail

Heim8r - thanks for posting. No, these dots are much smaller and strangely more uniform. I did have ones like those on the paint inside the engine compartment, but they cleaned off with some Swirl X by hand.

Heim8r - DId you find the paint hard? That CLK Class looked great afterwards and it probably has identical paint to my black SLK unless it was a bit older and they made it even harder since then, but I see you had to use a rotary to get good results. You think that my trying M105 DA with the DA might give me similar results, since I don't have a rotary?

I can't believe M80 worked even with rotary since it's like putting a placebo, when I do it.

I'm baffled as to what it can be. The next thing I would try would be to use the maroon pad #7006 with some #80 and if that doesn't work try some #105also on a 7006 pad. Just know that the 7006 pad is going to haze your paint a bit so you'll need to go over it a couple times using the 8006 pad to remove the hazing. Try it on a small section before moving on and check your work to see if there is an improvement. It's kind of a tough call since we have no clue what it is.
As for the paint hardness it wasn't too bad. I believe a posted a 50/50 shot using the DA. There was some improvement. It would just take a few more passes to get it to look right. As for your #80 gumming up. try using less product and clean your pad often so it won't be too saturated with product.

[Carfire]

Re: Once Again - I Fail

:iagree

This is a really confusing post.
It is even worse that it does not come out in a picture.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Once Again - I Fail

mb911

Where are you located?

[mb911]

Re: Once Again - I Fail

:iagree

This is a really confusing post.
It is even worse that it does not come out in a picture.

Sorry for making it confusing. I will try one day again to take a picture. It just doesn't want to show up.

I might just live with whatever was sprayed all over it. How could it be over every bit of the car though? Seems a bit strange doesn't it? Could it be from the factory paint machines?

Well, I still need to fine tune my process on the car though, to be able to get swirls and light scratches out in future, so everything I've learned here will help me anyway, even if the round uniform dots remain.

I'm also just going to try enjoy it (the car) more. I mean, I used Ultimate Compound, some M205, some #7, and then 2 coats of NXT 2 all with my G110. I'm sure the paint still looks better than most out there that never get any attention.

[mb911]

Re: Once Again - I Fail

Ok...UPDATE!!

I received my M105 DA safe from ADS this week, so today I headed back to the SLK, to work on it again.

1) M105 didn't hurt my paint on the yellow 2.0 pad with G110, not at all ( at leaset from what I can tell), so that is good.

2)Paint looked perfectly ready for wax after M105 on this black Mercedes paint, so I didn't bother following with M205 this time.

3) The little dots all over the hood are still there. I just did the hood and front bumper, since the dots were remaining.

4) I did find that M105 removed light swirls/scratches from the front bumper I had put in cleaning off bugs.

5) Not a bad day. At least I found that with M105 DA safe I can remove light scratches and swirls, since I couldn't even do that before. The dots I guess will forever be in my paint. Maybe they came in it from the factory. However, I think most people would never see them, maybe some of the Meguiar's community wouldn't even catch them especially since you have to mainly look at it at night under particular lighting at an angle.

So I'm pretty happy. I'm happy I at least found M105 DA safe, to remove light scratches and swirls, though I didn't have anything too serious to try it out on (besides the dots that cover my entire car that weren't touched), but it removed the very small marks in front bumper. Hopefully it will continue to be helpful in the future, but it was fairly dusty.

Just wanted to update everyone.