Big Mistake

[NorthTexas]

Hello Everyone,

I just purchased a 1-year old vehicle from a Lease return. I made the mistake of using the Meguiar's clay bar and detail spray on the hood of the vehicle, not realizing it has never been polished/waxed for the past year and beyond. Now my hood has "tons of swirls" all over the white paint/clearcoat. I used Meguiar's Gold Wax and it did not remove the multitiude of swirls on the hood. Do you all recommend the Meguiar's "ultimate compound" or "polish" or "other method" to remove the multitude of swirls on the hood?

Thanks for any answers!

[maxepr1]

Re: Big Mistake

Have any pictures? Do you own a buffer?

[davey g-force]

Re: Big Mistake

I'm not sure why you're saying that claying was a mistake.

Do you think that the claying inflicted the swirls? It certainly shouldn't if you use the right technique.

Anyway, don't worry too much as the swirls can be removed with some guidance. Are you working by machine or hand? What products (if any) do you already have at your disposal? Are the swirls on the hood only or the entire car?

[AndrewR/T]

Re: Big Mistake

Clay won't scratch your paint unless you dropped it and used it again. Try some Ulimate compound by hand or machine.

[maxepr1]

Re: Big Mistake

If using the wrong clay bar and method of claying you sure can induce marring! Agressive clay bars will remove hard contaminates but at a cost, usually marring! Depending on the softness of the paint this will happen more times then not.

[fzr confused]

Re: Big Mistake

Did you wash it good before claying? Also the claying might have removed
the wax that the dealer probably used when you bought it. The dealers waxes a lot of times have a ton of fillers in it to make things appear to be nicer than they are. The swirls were more than likely already there. Now is the time to fix it

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: Big Mistake

Did you wash it good before claying? Also the claying might have removed
the wax that the dealer probably used when you bought it. The dealers waxes a lot of times have a ton of fillers in it to make things appear to be nicer than they are. The swirls were more than likely already there. Now is the time to fix it

I agree. Undoubtedly the swirls were there. Just covered by the dealers wax. Try a test spot with some swirl-x. See if that works.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Big Mistake

If using the wrong clay bar and method of claying you sure can induce marring! Agressive clay bars will remove hard contaminates but at a cost, usually marring! Depending on the softness of the paint this will happen more times then not.

Very true, but he was using any of the readily available consumer clay systems (Meguiar's, Mother's, etc) then the odds of them creating the situation he's describing are extremely slim, if not impossible.

It does sound more like the dealer used some wonderful product that does an excellent job of hiding this sort of problem.... until someone comes along and clays the paint, or uses a mild paint cleaner, or something other process that removes the filling product.

What kind of car are we talking about here? Ultimate Compound is probably your best bet, unless you've got a care with extremely delicate clear coat. This is actually a bit rare, but it can pose some unique challenges. The really smart thing to do is to use UC in an isolated test spot on the hood so that you can evaluate it under direct sunlight and compare it to the untreated (ie, heavily swirled) area next to it. If it looks like it's removing these defects, and most likely it will, then pull the car back into the shade and have at it. It's going to be a lot of work if you're doing everything by hand, but it can be done.

You might want to read through the 5 Step Paint Care Cycle first to get some pointers on proper technique, etc.