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[1970judge]

SO after a few long months of dirt and grime I decided to gice the car a basic rinse off, basically so I could reveal what will be in store for my yearly all out detail...and it is sickening. My car has it all, shopping cart scratches, body shope swirls, oxidation[i think], RDS, cob webs, and rock chips. Everything you can think of. My ONLY goal for today was to just reveal what tasks needed to be addressed and to replenish my product selection accordingly. As you can understand, this car will be receiving a full makeover when it warms up a tad around here.

Here is how it started out.



Overall shot of the sickness


Light scratches on driver rear qp


Scratches near rear window/glass spots


light/deep scratches on rear bumper...



Shopping cart


rockchips! Yes all of those spots are chips



Let us not forget the swirls inflicted by my recent body shop adventure.


What I believe to be oxidation??



and this, I have no clue. It is an obvious difference in paint, it feels almost like the body shop burned my paint.



Scratches along passenger fender.


The End. Assuming you are still here and not hurling somewhere away from your desk, let me say...I know what you are thinking and yes...I am embarrassed. I take great pride in my vehicles, I always have but around here it is tough. And I no longer have a pickup truck so this truck has to do the duty of one, like it or not. Some of those are my fault, some of those other peoples fault..

Does that look like a rotary buffer burn to you guys? And does that look like oxidation to you? My car sickens me now, and I cannot wait to get after it with the PC..im thinking M105 at a MINIMUM!

[MDetail]

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I don't know what would be worse. Trying to keep that thing constantly clean, or just letting it get dirty as pictured, and doing one big job.

[speed3blackmica]

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M105 is a good start LOL

but on a serious note...to get those swirls out, its nothing M105 and the highest speed on your PC cant take out

[Tuck91]

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Thats why I will never own a black vechile.

[Murr1525]

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Clear Coat paint doesnt usually oxidize. Hopefully it isnt something worse, like failure or burn through.

[J. A. Michaels]

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Looks like a big job ahead of you. Can't wait to see the after pics.

[1970judge]

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Clear Coat paint doesnt usually oxidize. Hopefully it isnt something worse, like failure or burn through.

That's what has me worried.

[RGP]

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Your goal is an admirable one and I applaud your enthusiasm. However, I feel best when my garage queen is nicely stowed away and the family has a very nice looking, late model, mechanically sound and reliable "beater" to take the onslaught of daily use.

I humbly suggest you fall into this category as well. I find it makes life a lot easier...

[1970judge]

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When I was in HS and no responsibility and had a good paying job, my Z28 was the garage queen and I had a beater. Now I can't afford one since engineering school takes my money.

[RGP]

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Good for you! Keep your eye on the larger picture. My daughter's nearly got her PhD. and she drives a ten year old Civic with peeling paint over the entire car. Got hit by a Florida hail storm and trashed the entire car.

Your Ferrari Enzo will arrive in due time!!!

[1970judge]

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Good for you! Keep your eye on the larger picture. My daughter's nearly got her PhD. and she drives a ten year old Civic with peeling paint over the entire car. Got hit by a Florida hail storm and trashed the entire car.

Your Ferrari Enzo will arrive in due time!!!

I would be happy just to finish my Camaro!

[Michael Stoops]

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Wow.


You've got your work cut out for you on this one!!

The areas that look like oxidation also look like typical clear coat failure, but something seems a bit strange about them. Look at the image below; see how suddenly the dull area cuts off? Is this adjacent to where the body shop did their work? Any chance it's just some really heavy overspray? Does it feel rough to the touch? Burn through from a buffer wouldn't look like that, and clear coat failure shouldn't cut off so abruptly.



If the lighter colored areas feel rough then pick up some clay (probably the C2001 Mild blue pro clay) and work on that before machine polishing.

Have you worked on this paint previously? Do you have a feel for how workable it is - easy to correct, really hard, etc? That will ultimately determine how aggressive a liquid you'll need but, yeah, we wouldn't blame you if you just jumped in with M105. Still, if you have Ultimate Compound, give it a shot first.

[1970judge]

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Thanks for the info Mr. Stoops! Those spots are semi rough and yes, that door is the same side where I have had work done both times but, it was never on that door. It was the rear passenger door and the passenger front fender, never the passenger door up front. The defect by the handle feels wavy and feels like it dips down, which left me to believe it was burnt. I have worked the car before and it seems like it harder to correct than my past vehicles, but then again I have been working by hand up until now. Doing a test spot by hand last time I got the car back with the terrible swirls Swirlx did nothing, and UC got about 75-80% of the defects out. That is why I was going to bump my process up to M105 after some Megs Blue mild clay.

[Michael Stoops]

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If you were able to remove nearly 80% of the defects by hand using UC, then with a D/A you should be able to get them all with the same liquid. If you don't have access to a D/A then M105 would be your logical choice for defect removal by hand.

If any of those areas feel rough then hopefully it really is just overspray, heavy though it may be. We did have an MOL member here in SoCal who experienced quite a bit of clear coat failure on a black Chevy Cobalt that was quite new, so unfortunately it isn't unheard of, even with relatively new vehicles such as your HHR. Then again, you generally see early clear coat failure on the horizontal surfaces as these are always subject to more direct UV exposure. On a side panel, and ONLY a side panel, clear coat failure would be quite rare.

[1970judge]

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Man I hope it isn't clear coat related and just over spray. I definately learned my lesson with this particular body shop. I was trying to support local homegrown business and put some money in the pocket of the little man. But it got me this. Lesson learned! Thank you for the info Mr. Stoops, I will give an extremely detailed thread of the correction when it finally warms up!