Question about water spots / swirls

[shineseeker]

Hi there!

First of all, I would like to thank the fine people at Meguiar's and also everyone on the forums for providing a great place where a newbie like me can learn!

Anyways, I'm planning to get rid of some swirl marks & water spots on my 2 1/2 months old black Honda.

For your info, the car's a daily driver, stays outside (no garage - oh, I live in a tropical climate, so it's basically hard rain & hot sun). As much as I like to wash it every weekend, I mostly end up washing the car in an (almost) touch free car wash - foamed with car shampoo, water blasted, air dried, and then wiped the car for remaining water.

When I do wash my car at home, I have to be really sure that the sun's not shining, since the water's quite high in mineral deposits - made a mistake of not drying quick enough one cloudy day when the cloud suddenly parts, and the car got a full blast of the sun..

Since the water spots are there, for the time being I waxed the car with Meg's Cleaner Wax for protection until I have a weekend to do it properly.

I'm wondering, should I start with Swirl X or should I just go straight away to UC? I plan on getting the product(s) and have a go at it this coming weekend. I have an orbital buffer, and I think the Meg's Soft Buff pads should fit. Can I use the polishing pad for this, or should I go for the cutting pad instead?

Thanks again for taking time to read this, and I look forward to all your comments and suggestions!

Pierre

[greg0303]

Re: Question about water spots / swirls

Hi Pierre,

If you could wash your car early morning in the shadow, to make sure that your paint surface is cold, it would be ideal.

As I remember correctly Next Car Wash deals bettter with hard water and its minerals than other car washes. But of course don't expect a miracle unless you install water filters.

As for swirl/ water spot removal do a test spot with SwirlX first on yellow polishing pad. If you don't observe 100% swirl removal, but paint improvement is visible without inflicting new defects, you may need to do a second round. If however there's no obvious difference then Ultimate Compound would be a step up to get more aggressive.

You need some good protection/ wax for your vehicle. One or two applications of a synthetic wax like Next Tech Wax 2.0 or Ultimate Wax should keep your car well protected. Once Meguiar's launches Deep Crystal Coating (special product for Asian markets, protects against acid rains) maybe you could give it a try.

Any future plans for upgrade from orbital polisher to dual action (random orbital) version?

[Murr1525]

Re: Question about water spots / swirls

Can always wash in the rain as well....

I would certainly plan on using the polishing pad, cutting pads can add their own defects, so best as a last resort.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Question about water spots / swirls

While we never like making sweeping generalizations about paint hardness or softness, we've seen far too many Hondas recently with very delicate paint so we would recommend you start with something fairly mild. We've seen ColorX alone do wonders on some Honda paint while even Ultimate Compound was a bit too aggressive. How any product is used is going to have some impact on overall aggressiveness but in general we'd highly recommend against use of the cutting pad on this paint.

Do a test spot first with something mild and then take it from there.

[shineseeker]

Re: Question about water spots / swirls

Wow, I was waiting for my post to be approved, I even opened the site from my mobile phone, but it's worth the wait!

greg0303 > yes sir, that's actually the game plan I had in mind:
Wash: NXT Gen car wash (I don't have any grit guards yet, so I'll have to use 2 buckets to rinse, with the 3rd bucket as the shampoo water one...)
Prep: Clay + QD, then either Color X, Swirl X or (if necessary) UC - maybe I'll try Michael's suggestion and try the Color X first.
Polish: don't know yet, as Michael mentioned in his post about the 5-Step Paint Care Cycle, this is optional...
Protect: since I already have Meg's Cleaner Wax, can I use that first? Maybe top it with UQW? Does the NXT 2.0 Wax got more 'oomph' in terms of protection than the above combo?
Maintain: since I still got my QD, I think I'll stick with that first.
You mentioned Deep Crystal Coating that can withstand acid rain, what is that? When will it be available? It sure sounds awesome!
Oh, about the polisher, it's actually a DA, so no worries there!

Murr1525 > I thought about washing in the rain also, but the rain here's really unpredictable, it can rain, stop for a while, then rain again... is it okay to wash in the rain, wait for it to stop, then dry the car?
About the pads, I will be sure to remember that! If I have to apply anything with the word CUTTING in it, I'd rather let the pros at our local Meguiar's do it!


Michael S. > yes, that's what I was thinking too - I tried to be quite careful in drying / wiping, but yet the swirls still appear (I'm planning to get a leaf blower to do the drying, maybe it'll help in lessening the swirls somewhat). Maybe the paint is a tad delicate... I will try the Color X first then. I do hope it's DA friendly (the swirls & water spots covers most of the horizontal areas of the car, so applying & working the Color X by hand will be a LOONG process... )

From all the posts that I've read in the forums, I noticed that keeping a black colored car looking good can be a nightmare, and I always thought 'hmm, it can't be THAT hard'... apparently, it can.

Thank you soo much for the answers and suggestions, greatly appreciated! Can't wait to hear more!

[Murr1525]

Re: Question about water spots / swirls

I'll wash in the rain during the spring-time here. With all the pollen and rain, the car looks terrible 5 minutes after detailing it, so why spend a lot of time.

I just wash quickly when it is raining heavy, rinse off the soap, and let the rain rinse off the hose water. Seems to work well, but yeah, you want the rain heavy enough to be rinsing the surfaces.

[greg0303]

Re: Question about water spots / swirls

Sorry, Pierre, not too much info on Deep Crystal Coating as it won't be sold in the USA.

Think about it as really long lasting/ paint protecting synthetic wax which has to be hand applied very special way:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS4FM-Hd62o

[shineseeker]

Re: Question about water spots / swirls

Sorry, Pierre, not too much info on Deep Crystal Coating as it won't be sold in the USA.

Think about it as really long lasting/ paint protecting synthetic wax which has to be hand applied very special way:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS4FM-Hd62o

Thanks for the info greg0303, apparently they're not available in our local Meguiar's yet, probably will take about 3-4 months before the product's out.

Another question, if I'm using the Cleaner Wax, do I need to work it in like a cleaner product? (like Color X or Swirl X) If I'm using Color X as the prep, will the Cleaner Wax take it off?

[shineseeker]

Re: Question about water spots / swirls

Well, I decided to try out the Color X on my car. After a wash with NXT (with the 2 bucket method), I taped the hood a bit to see the difference.

Here's the hood...


Here's the untreated side...


Here's the side with one pass of Color X with a 6.5 in Soft Buff Polishing pad, speed two on my Bosch random orbit buffer, speed 2 (maybe about 4 on Meguiar's DA?)


Removed the tape, and continued to do the whole hood, but the water spots were still quite visible...


So I went for the second pass, looked a bit better... (wonder if my being in the picture got anything to do with that... )


But on a closer inspection, the major water spots were still there, although it looked a lot better (the white thingie in the picture is a filament from a flower, and the little white specks are dust - it's really hard doing this outdoor.. also some scratches which Color X didn't lift...)


So I tried a 3rd pass with the Color X, and it looked even better, and since the sun was setting, I just topped it off with UQW...


Oh, almost forgot, the heroes of the day...


Overall the Color X did okay, it managed to clear up quite a bit of swirls and water spots, but perhaps I should try and change the variables - either use a higher setting on my buffer, or maybe switch to Swirl X... all comments and suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[Shawn T.]

Re: Question about water spots / swirls

There is that nice soft Honda paint. The fact that Colorx accomplished all of that really speaks volumes for paint softness. You did the right thing by using Colorx multiple times!

The paint looks a hundred times better. Now remember to use correct technique while washing and drying to maintain that finish. I have a black 2010 Honda Civic and I can tell you that it is really easy to instill swirls with even the finest microfiber towels.

But, the good thing is that the paint cleans up so nicely so easily.

[Murr1525]

Re: Question about water spots / swirls

SwirLX would be a reasonable next step.

Or just enjoy it, and when you detail in a few weeks with ColorX again, it can improve more.

[akimel]

Re: Question about water spots / swirls

I have given up trying to maintain a swirl-free finish on my black Honda. No matter what I do, no matter how hard I try to wash and maintain the finish properly, within six months (or less) the swirls and water spots are back. And my car is garaged and not driven every day. And so each spring (at least as long as my back holds out), I will polish the paint and try to make it look better, knowing that I'll be doing the same thing one year later. I no longer look for "perfection." I just want it to look good from three feet away. Such is soft Honda paint.