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Hey everyone,
What you see here was the hood of my beloved 2003 Subaru Outback wagon. Now this was shocking to me, and made me cringe as I had not realized the extent to which I had neglected my poor baby after I switched to my miata.
Now that lack of reflection is gross enough, but lets have a close up!
AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHG!
This was my first car, and what I learned to detail on! Once beautiful and flawless swirl free paint, now reduced to a life of outdoor suffering, and battery inside from our two Huskies. I religiously wash my car every week and my parent's alternating every month, but this is sickening, I felt so guilty for forgetting about our loyal little Outback that carried me through many a lessons in detailing, and taught me that "rally-driving" is left to the pros.
Anyways, after a gut-wrenchingly gritty feeling wash, I clayed the entire car and removed the excess contaminants, and actually to my surprise encountered a very light amount of swirls. T
here were also these little spots on the hood and top part of the hatch that I assume are small sap etchings.
I then thought I would go over the car once with some D151 Paint Reconditioning Cream, but after a test spot on the hood, that proved to be ineffective at removing the spots.
So I stepped it up to a pretty aggressive combo of Menzerna FG400 and a light cutting pad from LC, this combo is very good for aggressive one step polishing on most cars. This was all I was willing and able to do in the short amount of time I had as it was a school night, but it leveled the hood to a very high shine, but in incandescent light, you can still see the spots!
This is a picture that makes it look worse than it actually is, the spots are almost impossible to see with my LED light on camera and this angle make it look like the hood has a skin condition, but you get the point. Its nice, but a long ways from perfect.
Now how would I go about fixing these spots. I could try a heavy compound/microfiber cutting disc combo or would wet-sanding most likely be required. (As FG400 put no dent in most of these spots)
I ask as I do not know how to wet sand at this moment, well, I don't feel comfortable wet-sanding any car's paint at the moment. I always could try and ask the "pro" detailer up north a way from me if I could learn from him, I just learned of his business and am eager to learn from someone who has lots of experience! One thing though, he's an Adam's die hard... It has led to interesting confrontations at car shows when we show other what we use! We do have a big Griot's guy in there occasionally. Always some fun in a detail war!
But when the cars are clean we all win!
Thanks everybody,
Griffith Hawk
What you see here was the hood of my beloved 2003 Subaru Outback wagon. Now this was shocking to me, and made me cringe as I had not realized the extent to which I had neglected my poor baby after I switched to my miata.
Now that lack of reflection is gross enough, but lets have a close up!
AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHG!
This was my first car, and what I learned to detail on! Once beautiful and flawless swirl free paint, now reduced to a life of outdoor suffering, and battery inside from our two Huskies. I religiously wash my car every week and my parent's alternating every month, but this is sickening, I felt so guilty for forgetting about our loyal little Outback that carried me through many a lessons in detailing, and taught me that "rally-driving" is left to the pros.
Anyways, after a gut-wrenchingly gritty feeling wash, I clayed the entire car and removed the excess contaminants, and actually to my surprise encountered a very light amount of swirls. T
here were also these little spots on the hood and top part of the hatch that I assume are small sap etchings.
I then thought I would go over the car once with some D151 Paint Reconditioning Cream, but after a test spot on the hood, that proved to be ineffective at removing the spots.
So I stepped it up to a pretty aggressive combo of Menzerna FG400 and a light cutting pad from LC, this combo is very good for aggressive one step polishing on most cars. This was all I was willing and able to do in the short amount of time I had as it was a school night, but it leveled the hood to a very high shine, but in incandescent light, you can still see the spots!
This is a picture that makes it look worse than it actually is, the spots are almost impossible to see with my LED light on camera and this angle make it look like the hood has a skin condition, but you get the point. Its nice, but a long ways from perfect.
Now how would I go about fixing these spots. I could try a heavy compound/microfiber cutting disc combo or would wet-sanding most likely be required. (As FG400 put no dent in most of these spots)
I ask as I do not know how to wet sand at this moment, well, I don't feel comfortable wet-sanding any car's paint at the moment. I always could try and ask the "pro" detailer up north a way from me if I could learn from him, I just learned of his business and am eager to learn from someone who has lots of experience! One thing though, he's an Adam's die hard... It has led to interesting confrontations at car shows when we show other what we use! We do have a big Griot's guy in there occasionally. Always some fun in a detail war!
But when the cars are clean we all win!Thanks everybody,
Griffith Hawk
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