Newbie Spring Detail (Pictures inside)

[MTLian]

I'm new to the Meguiar's online forum and fairly new at detailing so I thought I would "chronicle" my "spring detail" of my 2007 "Alabaster Silver Metallic" Honda Fit Sport. By spring detail, I mean the long list of cleaning, correcting a repairing I want to do on my car to help it recover from the abuse of a canadian winter. The paint job on the Honda Fit is notoriously cheap and so I've accumulated a good bunch of swirls, probably due in part to the winter hand washes it receives from the cheap car wash I use. My local NAPA is selling the Porter Cable at half price and after spending many weekends breaking my back with ineffective hand polishes/techniques I figure the machine was my calling and I had to move on to better polishes and more efficient techniques.


So for my first post I think it's best to evaluate the damage/state of the paint and then discuss some of the techniques/products I will be using for the first time to try and achieve my goals (a nice clean, shiny ride).

Here's a picture of the swirls. They are not all that visible probably due to the car being silver but still, in broad daylight, under certain angles the swirls are clearly visible. Swirl removal will be my #1 objective.

[MTLian]

Re: Newbie Spring Detail (Pictures inside)

Here are some cracks/scratches in the paint, most likely due to someone backing up and hitting my front bumper when parking. I have a few on my rear bumper that I had improved last year with Autoglym's super resin polish but the SRP's fillers are long gone since last summer and since it's not very abrasive, it has limited correction ability, especially by hand.

[MTLian]

Re: Newbie Spring Detail (Pictures inside)

Here's a better look of the car.

[MTLian]

Re: Newbie Spring Detail (Pictures inside)

Ok. So every time I post, it says I must wait for a mod to clear my post. It must be because I'm posting oversized pictures. Rather than keep posting pictures I'll go ahead and ask my questions. How does one go about doing a proper test area? I have a Porter Cable 7424xp and a orange cutting, white polishing and black finessing pad by lake country. I plan on using Klasse AIO but it states it is non abrasive so I'll have to use either M205 or Ultimate Compound to do the initial correcting of the swirls.

I planned on taping off a few sections and trying the following: m205 with white pad, m205 orange pad, UC with white pad and UC with orange pad. Of course, I'd stop once I've found the correct level of correction (least agressive means).

here are my main questions:
-which is best? A more agressive pad with a milder polish or a least agressive pad with a more agressive compound? Which is the most "normal" or recommended process. Keep in mind that my car has "soft" honda paint.

-supposing I find that UC with orange pad gives me the results I need. What should I do with the other test sections polished with either m205 or UC on a softer pad? Should I go over them again with the UC + orange pad combo? Couldn't that cause too much abrasion or visibly different "patches" of polished paint on the car?

thanks in advance for any advice. I'm a total porter Cable newbie and although it seems to be idiot proof, I think it's normal to have a little initial "buffer apprehension"

[The Guz]

Re: Newbie Spring Detail (Pictures inside)

Welcome to MOL.

This should be helpful on how to create a photo album. You may have to compress the size of the photo.

http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?60104-How-To-Inserting-Images-Creating-Photo-Albums

You always want to start with the least aggressive combination first.

M205 is a very versatile product. I would tape off a small are on the hood and do a test spot on a small area. I would start off with a M205 on the black pad. If the paint is truly soft then that combo should clean the paint up. If you need more correction then move to the white pad. If you need more then you could go with M205 on an orange pad or move to UC and an orange pad.

Compounding is usually followed by polishing as compound can sometimes leave some hazing. Polishing will clean up any hazing and overal it refines the finish.

Those scratches look pretty deep. If your finger nail catches the scratch then it's deep. They can be cleaned up to look better with UC and an orange pad.

This should help on a test spot.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/how-articles/50162-how-do-test-spot.html

This is a good video. Same concept with a porter cable. I like to use speed 5 with compounding, speed 4-5 with polishing and speed 3-4 with waxing (if I do it by machine). Are movement and moderate pressure is key to removing defects.

http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?42806-Meguiar-s-Quik-Tips-Video-Series-Using-the-G110v2-Dual-Action-Polisher

[MTLian]

Re: Newbie Spring Detail (Pictures inside)

Thanks! I'll definitely delve into those links. I was wondering also if there's any advantage to using UC by hand? It seems like overkill to use UC with the Porter Cable since I only have 5.5 inch pads and the damage is in a small area. With some scratches, I planned on wet sanding with 2000 grit and then going with UC to remove the sanding marks.

[MTLian]

Re: Newbie Spring Detail (Pictures inside)

Here is a close up of the front valence. I plan on probably going right to the UC with the orange pad since there are pretty severe chips in the clear. I wouldn't try and wetsand because I don't know how much clear is left from all the abuse. I'm not expecting perfection but if at least I can smooth it out it should look better. The bumper was repainted recently so it looks much nicer; even before the repaint, the valence looked in worse shape than the bumper cover.

[MTLian]

Re: Newbie Spring Detail (Pictures inside)

Here is a pic of the clear coated aluminum wheels. They have some nasty white lines which I have come to understand is corrosion. I'm wondering if I can wetsand, compound and polish clear coated aluminum wheels? Also, I'm not sure what material is used for the center cap. It might be unpainted metal? Usually centre caps are plastic with a layer of thin metal over the front. Also, I have a slight bit of rust on my lug nuts (again!) does anyone have any suggestions for cleaning the rust and preventing it from reappearing?

[MTLian]

Re: Newbie Spring Detail (Pictures inside)

When cleaning the interior of the car, I noticed rust bubbles in the door jamb. I hope it's not rust forming inside the door panel. It looks like it is only on the surface. I'm considering sanding down to the bare metal and reprinting that spot. I don't mind if the paint job is shoddy it's under the inside of the door. I'd like to prevent the rust from spreading.

[The Guz]

Re: Newbie Spring Detail (Pictures inside)

There is no problem using UC by hand on those scratches. That is why I have 4" pads for spot corrections about that size. Give UC a try on the wheels to see if that helps. I would not recommend wet sanding if you have never done it before.

[MTLian]

Re: Newbie Spring Detail (Pictures inside)

Thanks for the tips! I'm not that afraid of wet sanding, I'm pretty confident I'll be able to buff out the haze. I'll try the UC on the wheels but I'm afraid it won't get rid of that crusted on white corrosion.

What about the rust bubbles? I'm thinking of simply sanding that patch down to bare metal with 40 or 60 grit. Appearance is nit crucial since it's not a very visible spot but I want to prevent the rust from spreading.

[The Guz]

Re: Newbie Spring Detail (Pictures inside)

Do you have access to the new DUB wheel cleaner or something like ironx? Products like these are great for rust. The bubbles would need to be sanded since the defect appears to be underneath the wheel's coating.

[MTLian]

Re: Newbie Spring Detail (Pictures inside)

Do you have access to the new DUB wheel cleaner or something like ironx? Products like these are great for rust. The bubbles would need to be sanded since the defect appears to be underneath the wheel's coating.

Thanks for your comment! However, the rust bubbles are underneath the driver's side door (inside). I would sand that down to the metal. On the wheel, it's more like the white lightening bolt like lines that I think are corrosion. If the corrosion is on the surface, I might get away with some UC on a terry cloth.