Professionally Marred Car :(

[PerfectCreature]

Okay, so I recently had my car repainted after an auto collision. Long story short, he painted it well enough (mirror needs to be repainted, the rest appears fine) and he told me he would bring it back to a good shine. He said he would remove all the swirl marks and make it look brand new again. I believed him, and waited anxiously. The day before I brought it home I saw it under some fluorescent lights, and had a sinking suspicion that he had used a glaze on the finish and I think I was right. Here are what it looks like after 3 weeks waiting for the paint to full cure. I believe the shop to have used a wool buffing pad, and tons glaze.
This vehicle is a 2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse. The only paint correction done is applying Ultimate Compound by hand, half-heatedly last summer, and then the shop beating the paint with a wool pad.
All of the spots are water marks from the spray down I did an hour before I took the photos. Pay attention to scratches/swirl marks. The above are just two of the many photographs I took. As you can see, the damage is pretty bad. There are deep semi-deep scratches in the paint in several areas. Mostly on the hood, and one on the rear hatch. They offered to fix this for me, but I think I will walk away and do it myself, the correct way.
So, this is my game plan. Does anyone disagree?
I do not have a hose at my house, so I will be forced to wash it at a local car wash
Porter Cable XP 7424 Meguiars W8006 Pad x2 (To be used with Meguiars Ultimate Compound as I think it will remove most of the moderate to severe imperfections)
Meguiars 9207 Pad x2 (To be used with Chemicals Guys EZ Creme Glaze w/ Acrylic Shine II.
Atsro Pnuematics Backing Plate 4607
Chemical Guys JetSeal109 and 50/50 Wax (To protect all this hard effort-this will be applied by hand, 2 coats of JetSeal as directed, and 1 coat of 50/50)
I am hoping this should give great results. What are your opinions on this? Should I switch up the pads, more pads? I am open to discussion. I plan to order these this weekend, early next week. By that time, a month will have gone my and it should be all set. They are set to repaint the mirror (they botched it up) , so I will not be doing my drivers side mirror. All else is fair game. Thanks. If you would like more photos, I can certainly provide them to you.

[thepanchmx]

Well first of all wool pad is not made for DA, so forget it.

Second if fillers could hide that i guess m105 and a polishing pad on the da will work to remove that.

And third those scratches you will need to sand wool or mf sustem them in order to dissapear, but dont trust me ask a pro here like mario or michael.

[PerfectCreature]

Re: Professionally Marred Car

Well, that is what the shop told me they had used when I confronted them about the swirls. The owner of the shop said they had used wool pad because of its "polishing" properties and used a glaze to "bring the paint to life". Whether their detail guy used this combo or not, I am not 100% sure.
This is what they said, not what I assumed.
I did test the Ultimate Compound on a small area of the car, near the trunk, and it removed a fair around of the swirls by hand after some pressure and time.
After reading around, the UC was pretty light on the scale of abrasiveness, so I can always step up if I must.
Open to all opinions though.

[Detailing by M]

Re: Professionally Marred Car

I love these "details", stupid body shops.
This is an easy fix. You need to get the MF System. that will take out 90% of those scratches with ease.
Foam pads won't fix this, well a little but not enough. You can try but I'm thinking you won't be happy. And Ultimate Compound is a "light" compound. It's derived from M105 and it's very aggressive.

[Chris Thompson]

Re: Professionally Marred Car

Definitely want to leave the wool pad out on this one. Some of the deeper scratches could be removed with wool but will require a rotary instead of a DA. UC will give you some noticable results but will require a lot of elbow grease and possibly multiple applications depending on how much correction you are going for (50%, 90%, etc). It's a labor of love, man. Be sure to put up some after pics!

[PerfectCreature]

Re: Professionally Marred Car

Okay well. I ordered this.
For the orbital, I picked up a Porter Cable 7424XP.
I grabbed the Astro Pneumatic 5 inch backing plate for the pads.
I plan to use the Meguiars W8006 yellow polishing pad paired with Meguiars Ultimate compound to remove the majority of the swirl marks. I will tend to the larger ones by hand if I must.
I will use a SmartWax Red Pad to apply Chemical Guys EZ Creme Acrylic II Glaze to cover what the Ultimate Compound can't get.
I plan to protect it with Cehmical Guys JetSeal 109 and use thier 50/50 Paste wax.


Is that yellow pad enough, or should I get the burgandy pad? I don't want to cut the paint to much, as it was corrected by hand once in the summer, and I am not sure how much the shop took off with their buffer.
I want to be on the safe side. I think the glaze should do a decent job to fill in the swirls that are not fixed. The jetseal should keep them from surfacing for a decent amount of time. It will be easier to continue to glaze, then to take too much paint off.
Just what I gathered from reading other posts.

[s word]

Re: Professionally Marred Car

Okay well. I ordered this.
For the orbital, I picked up a Porter Cable 7424XP.
I grabbed the Astro Pneumatic 5 inch backing plate for the pads.
I plan to use the Meguiars W8006 yellow polishing pad paired with Meguiars Ultimate compound to remove the majority of the swirl marks. I will tend to the larger ones by hand if I must.
I will use a SmartWax Red Pad to apply Chemical Guys EZ Creme Acrylic II Glaze to cover what the Ultimate Compound can't get.
I plan to protect it with Cehmical Guys JetSeal 109 and use thier 50/50 Paste wax.


Is that yellow pad enough, or should I get the burgandy pad? I don't want to cut the paint to much, as it was corrected by hand once in the summer, and I am not sure how much the shop took off with their buffer.
I want to be on the safe side. I think the glaze should do a decent job to fill in the swirls that are not fixed. The jetseal should keep them from surfacing for a decent amount of time. It will be easier to continue to glaze, then to take too much paint off.
Just what I gathered from reading other posts.

i think the DAMF pads suggested would do this job much better than a burgundy pad. The 5" backingplate should work with DAMF 5" pads but I have never heard of that backing plate. You can try UC on yellow pad but if you have extra bucks for DAMF kit spend it. Although I use some CG items I haven't used those. I always try to fix scratches not fill them. DAMF kit can be sold with cutting pad, compound, finishing pad, and wax/polish. You could achieve a lot of actual correction for not that much more. If you already own or bought the stuff please try it your way and let us know what happens.

None of us will be able to know paint thickness but DAMF kit is not removing huge amounts of paint when used right. That and hopefully your reprint was done well. If the same guy that painted it called this polished...maybe question it. There are paint thickness gauges. But they re costly.

take your time work slow, share your end result

honestly this is a real hack job, similar to what the dealership did to my wife's car before I knew better. I wish you weren't on opposite side of country because I wouldn't mind donating time to revive this. But you seem knowledgable and eager so give it a shot.

[PerfectCreature]

Re: Professionally Marred Car

Okay, a quick search on Amazon netted me a 2 pack of 5 inch (Meguiars) DA Microfiber Cutting Pad, for $24. Which is about $12 each, same price as the W8006. You are suggesting I try that with the Ultimate Compound?
Thanks.
I want this done right, which is why I am going to do it. Plus, I miss a shiny deep gloss looking car, and these swirls and scratched really detract from that.

[veeedub]

Re: Professionally Marred Car

Man that ***** buddy...I feel ya pain.
I had my new ILX just polished and waxed. I was 90% done with the car, and suddenly something came up..I had only the roof left and I think I did somewhat a sloppy job. The whole car looks great. Shiny, glossy and feels like it has another protective layer on it. I used UP and UQW (I ran out of time before I could NXT 2.0) It's a white car and it looked great in the sun. I looked through every nook and cranny and saw no imperfections. Then I got home and parked my car in the garage and noticed on the roof. Slight scratches that you can barely see with the PERFECT angle. It feels fine though. Im not sure how I should approach this problem.

[PerfectCreature]

Re: Professionally Marred Car

The NXT will more then likely fill in those remaining scratches.
Anyway, the Microfiber pad, are those specifically for use with the system compound? Could I try with the Ultimate Compound. I have the W8006 on the way, set to arrive on Tuesday.
Hopefully it will work well. I can get the microfiber pad too, just in case.

[PerfectCreature]

Re: Professionally Marred Car

I get the stuff in today, I will snap a photo of everything all together, and hopefully this week I will get to it. The weather is kind of dull and bleak at the moment with the rain, so I may have to wait anxiously.

[PerfectCreature]

Re: Professionally Marred Car



Okay, so here is the update.
I decided I had a decent window of time to get the process started.
I was able to wash the car, and get UC on the car and apply a coat of the Ez Creme glaze before I got rained out.
So, I washed it with dawn dish soap, then with Turtle Ice to make sure it was clean enough. I did not do the wheels, which I should have, but I can wash those tomorrow morning.
I put a clay bar to the paint, which was still in great shape, as it went over smooth as glass from the last time I did the clay bar.
Now to the actual event. I took the yellow pad and the UC and went over the entire car on speed 5. I didn't use any prep stuff, I just rubbed some UC on the pad to moisten it up. I placed about 3 dime size amounts for each panel. I did the hood in 2 parts, the roof in 2 parts, then each quarter panel and each door as a separate panel. I did 3 passes each way, up and down, then side to side.
I was not able to remove every single scratch and swirl mark, but it got almost all of them out. I am very satisfied with the results based on the effort, and a comparison of doing it by hand last year. I must say the results are night and day between hand application and machine.
It took the car from a dull sheen to a vibrant shine. You can still see some swirls and some scratches here and there, but for the most part the abundance of swirls is gone. You would have to get very close to see them on the car.
I think if I were to have used the Microfiber system instead, I am sure it would have taken them all out. In any event, I really have no complaints for the 2.5 hours it took to run the buffer over the car. I am sure if I would have allowed myself more time, and used more pressure and passes I could have removed nearly all of them, but my main concern was taken care of. Granted, I did the check with a halogen work light at night time, I am sure the results will be the same.
On to the glaze.
The Ez Creme glaze is pretty good stuff, I find it well worth the price. At almost $1 an ounce, I think it is well worth it.
Went on easy, even through the sprinkling rain. I was able to get a light coat on and wipe it off through the rain drops before I had to stop. Wipe is the key word, there is no buffing involved, it really just wipes off.
I went outside an hour later to pick up my cords and bucket, and the beading from the Glaze alone was fantastic. I was surprised.
I am sure with the JetSeal and the 50/50 paste wax, you will be hard pressed to find as many swirls as you did before.

I plan to wake up around 7-8am tomorrow and put a final coat of the glaze on to maybe fill in some stuff I wasn't able too, then do the jetseal, and the 50/50 paste wax.
I will post photos then.

On the down side, I found TONS of pit marks in the paint from rocks and debres on my front lip, and near the rear tires. Hopefully the glaze could fill those in, but I doubt it.

[davey g-force]

Re: Professionally Marred Car

Sounds good.

Next time, shrink your work area down to about one third of what you did. i.e. do half the hood in about three sections (total hood in 6 sections). You'll find you'll get even better correction that way, as you're concentrating your efforts in a smaller area.

Good work nonetheless!

[PerfectCreature]

Re: Professionally Marred Car

Here are the photos: More to come shortly as I am still doing the detail.
This is the beading from the EX-Glaze alone. No other product was applied.


Washing the tires, since I forgot to do it first thing. Ha.


Second coat of EZ-Glaze


Ez-Glaze wiped off.



Application 1 of JetSeal



Wipe off of JetSeal (Application 1)



Next will be application of wax, after last application of JetSeal, and the final buff off of wax.

Additional products used were ArmourAll Wheel Protectant, and Meguiars Endurance Tire Spray (I like the gel FAR better then the spray)
I plan to get the black trip after the last application of JetSeal with Mothers Back to Black.

[davey g-force]

Re: Professionally Marred Car

Looking great!

The conditions you're detailing in (muddy ground) aren't ideal. Do you have nowhere else to do it?