help: assess my paint

[mambuking]

hi guys,
i need your help in assessing what kind of product to use on my swirled/scratched paint.

here's the story so far... i'm a newbie in detailing so i tried to read as much as i can and decided to purchase the following, clay bar kit and a bottle of deep crystal carnuba wax. after claying i did noticed that there were still water spots/marks on the hood, roof and trunk area of the car. but still continued to use the cleaner wax included in the clay bar kit, but even after using the cleaner wax the water spots were still there. decided the next day to clay the hood to remove the existing wax and then used a turtle wax rubbing compound, it did remove most of the water spots but it also left nasty scratch/ swirl marks (see photo)


to cut the long story short, i need to decide what product to use next, would it be the ultimate compound or swirlx ? btw, i'm doing everything by hand.
TIA!

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: help: assess my paint

Since you used a rubbing compound. I would go with the ultimate compound. By hand it may require more then one pass. If you are using a foam applicator and you are not getting the results you want. Try a terry cloth towel to apply the product. The terry towel has more bite.

Good luck.

[Murr1525]

Re: help: assess my paint

You'll probably want to pick up both UC and SwirlX at the store.

You can try a test spot with SwirLX, but looks like you'll be jumping to UC from those pics.

Then UC may need followed up with SwirlX, And SwirLX would be the milder cleaner for future details.

[Calais]

Re: help: assess my paint

Go with UC, in my experience it has always left paint LSP ready. More pics may help.

[mambuking]

Re: help: assess my paint

thanks for the fast response guys. i'm currently looking for the UC in local stores here in manila but i guess its not that common here. wish me luck!
as for the photos, i can post more of them but i cant seem to get the angle to let the scratches/swirls appear. any tips?
thanks again!

[Murr1525]

Re: help: assess my paint

Try to see/write down what other products you come across at least.

[mambuking]

Re: help: assess my paint

Murr1525 - sorry i was not able to write down the other products that i saw, but the good news is i did find me a bottle of UC, yipee! saw some imperial hand glaze from 3m, a lot of formula1 products(step 1 to 3), DC polishing - i think this is step 2, NXT tech 2.0, mirror glaze swirl remover at alot more but no swirlx.
when i got home, prepped the hood again by claying, then applying the UC with the foam applicator = darker finish (color) and lot less of the light/fine scratches caused by the rubbing compound (nice). but it still is not flawless, there are still scratches on the hood, looks deep but cant be felt by my fingers or nails.
then second pass, i used a terry cloth, same results.

yesterday...


after UC...


from an angle you wont notice the scratches left...


am i getting the correct results?
again thanks!

[mambuking]

Re: help: assess my paint

Murr1525 - sorry i was not able to write down the other products that i saw, but the good news is i did find me a bottle of UC, yipee! saw some imperial hand glaze from 3m, a lot of formula1 products(step 1 to 3), DC polishing - i think this is step 2, NXT tech 2.0, mirror glaze swirl remover at alot more but no swirlx.
when i got home, prepped the hood again by claying, then applying the UC with the foam applicator = darker finish (color) and lot less of the light/fine scratches caused by the rubbing compound (nice). but it still is not flawless, there are still scratches on the hood, looks deep but cant be felt by my fingers or nails.
then second pass, i used a terry cloth, same results.

am i getting the correct results?
again thanks!

[Michael Stoops]

Re: help: assess my paint

Mambuking, we corrected your images because you were linking to them rather than embedding them in the thread.

Next time you want to add images to a thread you should click on the image rather than the and add your link to the resulting dialog box. That will place the image in the thread rather than just link to it. This places the URL information inside of [IMG][/IMG] tags rather than [url ][/url ] tags.

Hope that helps you out.

[Murr1525]

Re: help: assess my paint

Murr1525 - sorry i was not able to write down the other products that i saw, but the good news is i did find me a bottle of UC, yipee! saw some imperial hand glaze from 3m, a lot of formula1 products(step 1 to 3), DC polishing - i think this is step 2, NXT tech 2.0, mirror glaze swirl remover at alot more but no swirlx.

Thats ok.. it was more for just in case you couldnt find UC. SwirLX would be handy in the future, so you can keep an eye out for it.

when i got home, prepped the hood again by claying, then applying the UC with the foam applicator = darker finish (color) and lot less of the light/fine scratches caused by the rubbing compound (nice).

You dont nessicerily have to clay every time, if you have just clayed recently and the paint still feels good.

but it still is not flawless, there are still scratches on the hood, looks deep but cant be felt by my fingers or nails.
then second pass, i used a terry cloth, same results.

am i getting the correct results?
again thanks!

Obviously the deeper scratches will be the hardest ones to remove.

It is possible that the UC may take a couple applications, though you dont want to overdo. How much passion (speed/pressure) were you applying the product with?

[mambuking]

Re: help: assess my paint

Next time you want to add images to a thread you should click on the image rather than the and add your link to the resulting dialog box. That will place the image in the thread rather than just link to it. This places the URL information inside of [IMG][/IMG] tags rather than [url ][/url ] tags.

Hope that helps you out.

-sorry, will try it the next time.

-i watched the video (youtube) of mr. pennington and copied his proceedure in applying the UC. did not apply any pressure during the process. as for the speed, i'd say slow.

-regarding the claying part, i thought i have to do it before i use UC to get the previous wax off, i guess i makes sense that the UC would do it too.

again thanks a lot!

[mambuking]

Re: help: assess my paint

Done! looks like everything went well.

hood is done.


roof before:


roof after:


thanks so much!

[Michael Stoops]

Re: help: assess my paint

-i watched the video (youtube) of mr. pennington and copied his proceedure in applying the UC. did not apply any pressure during the process. as for the speed, i'd say slow.

Mike is applying a fair amount of pressure when using the product, even though it may not look like it in the video. If you're working it so hard that you can't talk while applying it, then you may well be working it too vigorously, but a bit of pressure does help speed the process.

Nonetheless, from the images you posted it appears as though you've corrected the issue created by the other rubbing compound you used previously. Nicely done!