First polish/wax attempt was a disaster. Terrible results. Postmortem.

[LastStep]

Polish & wax job turned out to be a disaster.
I think a few things went wrong.

I used the classic #7 polishing compound and Mother's synthetic wax.
I used that small foam ball with drill on MAX speed.

I removed all the polish, and then waxed. Wipe on, wipe off.
Car looks great! Shiny.

Then, it rained 5 hours after.
The only stuff that remained was a little white here and there in the cracks.
Well, in the rain, it all washed out and smeared everywhere.
Like 10 birds crapped on it. Car was a complete mess.
It's impossible not to get some product in a few cracks, and if this is what happens when it rains, I am never polish/waxing my car again.

After rain, white residue was also splashed onto every piece of black trim.
The rain seemed to have splashed it all over the trim.
Car looks like it has mold all over it.
It wasn’t like this when I was done waxing on the car.
It doesn’t come off by simply wiping like on the sheet metal.
I bought "Back to Black" and scrubbed it hard, and the trim looks a lot better.

I'm not sure if the white stuff was the wax or the polish. But, now I am guessing it's the polish.
I was able to easily wipe it off the sheet metal, but there is white splattered **** in every nook of the car. (weather seals, door seams you can reach, etc)

First, I think I used way too much polish.
I just smeared some onto the panel, used the foam ball to spread it around, and then swirled until mostly dry haze.
But, I think it got jammed into every crevice, and I must not have removed it from crevice like under the trim, weather stripping, etc.

Looking back, I think it was a mistake to smear up the entire panel before polishing.
After I while I noticed the drill attachment would create white haze even without adding polish, b/c the attachment was now partly damp with polish.
Is it safe to just go over new dry paint without adding explicit polish if the drill attachment has enough polish loaded to automatically haze up the paint?
This seems much cleaner, uses less product, and makes less mess also.

I also swirled the hell out of the paint.
I thought you could only get swirls from compound, not polish. Wrong.
Went in both directions, but it might have been spinning too fast.
No idea how fast you’re supposed to do it.
No idea how fast the DA polisher goes.
I think another case of using the wrong tool.
I used the DeWalt drill at maximum speed, once the polish was hazy.
Regardless, entire car has buffing stripes all over it now, in the proper reflection.

Not sure of next steps.
I will try to compound out a section by hand, and see if it works.
This was a huge disappointment and the car is worse off than before I did anything.

[LastStep]

Re: First polish/wax attempt was a disaster. Terrible results. Postmortem.

(merged)

[davey g-force]

Re: First polish/wax attempt was a disaster. Terrible results. Postmortem.

Wow.

Ok, firstly don't panic - this should be fixable.

Secondly - do you have any pics you can post up?

[The Guz]

Re: First polish/wax attempt was a disaster. Terrible results. Postmortem.

I see you made it over here. My advice is still what I posted over at wax forum. Now I am getting more of the story. M7 has no correcting ability. It is a pure polish. M7 is typically used on single stage paint to rehydrate it. You can still use it on a car that has clear coat but you want to apply it thin. If you apply too much then there is a chance that it was still left on the paint. M7 requires multiple passes to be completely removed if you do so. If you apply it thin then it's fairly easy to remove. Also you don't want to let M7 haze.

You said you swirled the paint but are you sure that the swirls were not already on the car? I ask because again M7 has no correcting ability. It's a polish that fills in those imperfections. You also mentioned that you used a household sponge as an applicator. That could have caused even more swirling.

Since you are on a Meguiar's forum I'm going to recommend the following Meguiar's products.

Wash the car

Clay if the car needs it. You can use the baggie test. Search on here or on google and you will understand what it is.

You have two options here. Invest in some ultimate polish and use that to clean your paint. It will offer some correction if you use it with a DA polisher. Or you can invest in a cleaner wax (white wax, black wax, A21 maroon bottle) and use that after you wash and/or clay.

Get some all purpose cleaner. That should clean up the trim


My other piece of advice is to invest in some good microfiber towels, good foam applicators. Don't cheap out because you will make more work for yourself.

[LastStep]

Re: First polish/wax attempt was a disaster. Terrible results. Postmortem.

I'm 100% sure the #7 caused the swirling b/c those swirls all over the car were not there before. Trust me on that.
Plus, I used a deWalt drill at MAX speed for a pretty long time, until the #7 was dry. I'm pretty sure that's what did it.

I watched a few videos of someone using a DA to polish.
I was SHOCKED to see how slow the thing was moving.
It seemed like a slow record player. I could buff faster by hand.
Meanwhile, my drill was going at the speed of lightning. Jesus how could I be so stupid?
I had to go at MAX speed to polish out my plastic headlights, so I thought clear coat would be the same.

So, Ultimate Polish will do some swirl correction, but #7 will not?
For swirl correction, I don't need to use compound?

Do I need to wash off all the existing wax before claying?
Or did it all wash off in the rain?
How do I know if wax is still on the car?
Is the swirling underneath the wax?

[davey g-force]

Re: First polish/wax attempt was a disaster. Terrible results. Postmortem.

So, Ultimate Polish will do some swirl correction, but #7 will not?

That's correct.

For swirl correction, I don't need to use compound?

Maybe you do, or maybe not. It all depends how hard your paint is and how severe the swirls are. You need to do a test spot first with the least agressive product to determine that. It won't hurt to have some Ultimate Compound on hand if you can afford to get some.

Do I need to wash off all the existing wax before claying?

Not really. The clay will take off any remaining wax. To add to Guz's good advice above, I suggest you do the initial wash with dish soap or even a bit of APC. This will help to remove any wax, any caked on M7 that might be on there and also help to clean up your plastic trims.

How do I know if wax is still on the car?

There's a thing called the 'squeak test' if you would like to look it up, but I wouldn't worry. If you follow the steps above, the wax will be gone.

Is the swirling underneath the wax?

Yes.

[The Guz]

Re: First polish/wax attempt was a disaster. Terrible results. Postmortem.

^^^ Couldn't have said it better myself.

I'm starting to think that there was something that got into the polishing ball attachment and that caused the defects. I hate to be the one to tell you this but it's always important to read the directions on the bottle. That's a lessons learned. The benefit is that ultimate compound and ultimate polish are available by hand. I will also remind you that a DA will always give better results than doing it by hand. So don't blame the product for doing it's job if you don't get the results doing it by hand.

The good news is that this is fixable. It's not the end of the world. As I told you on the other forum you need to dial in your technique. Practice makes perfect.

I'm also going to have you read this article.

http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?56576-Avoiding-quot-cheetah-spots-quot-or-quot-Look-what-this-compound-did-to-my-paint!-quot

[LastStep]

Re: First polish/wax attempt was a disaster. Terrible results. Postmortem.

The directions on the bottle basically said "wipe on, wipe off".

Hmm, how often are you supposed to clean the foam ball while you're polishing?
I used the same foam ball to apply polish on the entire car.
I read for 3 days, and watched 50 videos, and never saw one mention to keep washing off the applicator in the middle of polishing.
After washing the car, I went start to finish with the same foam ball. After I was done, I rinsed it and black water came out.

[C8N]

Re: First polish/wax attempt was a disaster. Terrible results. Postmortem.

I don't mean to offend and I will apologize if it comes off that way but you didn't do enough research.
At one point, you should have come upon the term, "cleaning pads on the fly" at some point.

http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?21413-Cleaning-Your-Pad-On-The-Fly

As already mentioned, M7 has no cut and I am not sure what pad you have used but the key is to work clean. Sounds like you used the same pad without cleaning and I want to guess that the pad probably picked some contaminants and got dirty... or it is even possible that it may have overheated and created some burnt spots. I have seen this happen on foam pads when I get crazy aggressive with pressure and I mention this since you said that your tool was on MAX speed. My guess is that it was the dirty pad or burnt spots on the pad that caused the swirls.

There has been some comments that M07 can be bit of a PITA to remove. Perhaps M07 was not completely removed in the process.

Nonetheless, as already mentioned, you should be able to correct this. Not sure what you mean by "foam ball" but the first thing you should do is get all the correct tools and supplies.
Would recommend a DA or at least the DA Power System with the appropriate pads along with Ultimate Compound/M105 and Ultimate Polish/M205. Both chemicals have correction ability and UC/M105 being the more aggressive.
Do a test spot with the least aggressive method first and move on from there. Once you dial in your process that works on your paint, use that same process on the rest of the car.

[LastStep]

Re: First polish/wax attempt was a disaster. Terrible results. Postmortem.

I read the link. I'm not sure where to go from here.

I can just buy the DA and compound and polish, and figure it out.
I just don't want to wear out my clear coat.

I prefer to get the right tool.
I considered the Mother's Powerball4 paint, but I am starting to think this is a hack, and I am afraid of rotary now.
So, my options are the $50 HF DA tool and better foam disks and backing plate. or the DA Power System.
The DA Power System is going to cost me $50 anyway, and also seems like a hack.
Is it better to just get the HF DA for $50 instead of using the Power System with my drill? Is one way better?

[The Guz]

Re: First polish/wax attempt was a disaster. Terrible results. Postmortem.

I read the link. I'm not sure where to go from here.

I posted that link so you can understand how to compound by hand and not to use too much pressure.

I can just buy the DA and compound and polish, and figure it out.
I just don't want to wear out my clear coat.

I prefer to get the right tool.
I considered the Mother's Powerball4 paint, but I am starting to think this is a hack, and I am afraid of rotary now.
So, my options are the $50 HF DA tool and better foam disks and backing plate. or the DA Power System.
The DA Power System is going to cost me $50 anyway, and also seems like a hack.
Is it better to just get the HF DA for $50 instead of using the Power System with my drill? Is one way better?

All these tools are not hacks when used properly. They all do different things. A DA polisher will give the best results followed by the power system and the Mother's powerball. If you really want to get into this detailing thing then get the right tools being a DA polisher. If you don't have the time to invest I highly recommend you find a reputable detailer to fix your mistakes.

[C8N]

Re: First polish/wax attempt was a disaster. Terrible results. Postmortem.

I have seen fantastic results from other people using the DA Power System.

HF DA is a more expensive option when said and done.
I say this because I would recommend to replace the back plate and you will need to buy pads.
The 5.5" or 6.5" pads are more expensive than the smaller DA Power System pads.

But the choice is yours.

[Eldorado2k]

Pix or it didn't happen...

[LastStep]

Re: First polish/wax attempt was a disaster. Terrible results. Postmortem.

Ok, so I got the same #7 polish and did it by hand.



The lesson learned is that no one should use a machine until they do it by hand.
When doing by hand, it

[Selectchoice]

Re: First polish/wax attempt was a disaster. Terrible results. Postmortem.

I don't know anything about the Mothers Powerball for paint. The only ones I've seen have been for uncoated metal surfaces.

One thing to strongly suggest is to always do a smaller, say 12" x 12", test spot first before doing the whole car. Work out a product/pad/tool speed combo that works in that particular area first, and avoid having this problem all over your car. A test spot is the perfect starting place regardless of the tool or pad choice. Even if you're doing the work by hand.

FYI, the drill is a direct drive tool. Basically this means all the force of the tool (in this case at maximum speed) is directed through the pad to the paint. Regardless of the polishing product used, the unsatisfactory results you were disappointed with were all but a given using the tool at that speed and pressure. A DA polisher is much safer to use in that it oscillates as well as spins and makes the tool much, much safer- even in the hands of a novice.