2007 Mustang GT - Black Paint Help Needed

[TruckGuy24]

2007 Mustang GT - Black Paint Help Needed

Hey everyone,

I have learned a lot over the years from reading here as a lurker, but today I really could use some help.

I have a 2007 Mustang GT I purchased a few month ago. Clean car but the paint was swirled bad in direct sunlight.

So having been a hobbyist for the past 10 years or so, I figured I could tackle it and prepare it for a nice Ceramic Coating.

My process was:

- 2 Bucket Method (always do this)
- Meguiars Mild Clay
- Iso wipe down
- Ultimate compound on Adam's Polishes Blue Pad
- Ultimate polish on Adam's White Pad

My DA is a Meguiars 110V2 and I have been suspicious of it having some issues with speed. Well we confirmed it is not working properly and would struggle spinning with basic hand pressure.

I am now left with what I believe is micro marring and buffer trails.

The paint doesn't have the spider swirls anymore and is much cleaner, but the scratches are everywhere and I am so disappointed and really hoping I can fix this.

My LED shop lights and flashlight appeared to not show the marring, but I was wrong as soon as soon as I pulled it outside in the bright sun.

I frequently clean my pads just an as fyi.

I have a Griots Garage G9 on the way along with regular 5.5" AND 3.5" LC orange, white, black and yellow foam pads. I use a 5" and 3" backing plate

I have Ultimate compound, ultimate polish and Meguiars 105/205 on hand. I have an older bottle of Meg's Color X. D300, and Swirl X as well.

I do have Meguiars Microfiber System Compound and Polishing Pads on hand as well as older but clean, Soft Buff 2.0 4" and 7" Black Finishing and Yellow Polishing Pads. I got away from using these as I found them too large for the G110V2. I still have some of the black and Burgundy Microfiber System pads.

I have some Orange Hex pads and white Pads from Chemical Guys.

My buddy works for a detailing company and loaned me his Adam's Swirl Eraser DA with 5.5" backing plate for the time being.

Today I did try M205 on the white Pad and after buffing with clean Adam's towels, the marring was gone. However once I wiped with Iso/water, they reappeared.

This is my first black vehicle and on other colors I have felt my results are good, but this is a different story. Black show everything.

After Wash and Clay


Test Panel - seemed decent after Ultimate Compound. Bottom is where I had corrected



After Ultimate Polish



Sun showing Marring



Hood after trying M205 on White Pad. I had the same results with M205 on an Orange Pad as well as Ultimate Compound.


Any help would be appreciated - especially with trying to use what I have on hand/coming.

[TruckGuy24]

Re: 2007 Mustang GT - Black Paint Help Needed

So I have an update.

I tried Chemical guys V36 on a white pad. On parts of the hood it cleaned up nicely.

I then tried it on the door and it had all the DA tick marks.

I took a clean white foam pad and hit the same spot with Ultimate Polish. It removed the tick marks but still has the fine scratches like holograms.

Is my black paint just incredibly soft and needs and even softer pad then a white foam? Say a black or even blue from Lake country?

This car is killing me and I'd sincerely appreciate any help.

[drumdan]

Re: 2007 Mustang GT - Black Paint Help Needed

How are your microfiber towels?

The shop where I help out has the Costco towels.

A couple months ago I did a 1966 Caddilac limo that had soft single stage paint. The towels were marring the daylights out of the finish.

I had to run home and bring my 70/30 blend towels to do that job. Supreme Shines would have worked as well.

What speed are you finishing on? How many passes? How much pressure? Usually the smaller orbit tools will deliver a better finish.

In also find that using Ultimate Polish or M205 I can get away with lower tool speed, even pressure, faster arm speed, and less passes to get a better finish.

It also sounds like M210 would solve all your issues, possibly M09 Swirl Remover 2.0 as well.

And yes, a finishing pad like the black Meguiar's disc may also be in order.

At that shop I had a dreaded black Tesla come in - famous for it's difficult to finish paint. It was beat up, and needed correction. The cutting process left a lot of haze, and I had to use what was there to finish out. A lot of the finishing polishes weren't pulling out the da haze. The one thing that worked was Rupes Quarz, which is a medium cut (green cap, discontinued).

Last week I had a 1995 black Porsche 911. Another pretty challenging correction due to the heavy swirling, scratching and oxidation. When I was doing the cutting with M110, the marring showed up under the scangrip lights, but to the people visiting the shop, they were amazed. I wish I had been able to try the M210 to finish it, because it was really finicky. I did use Ultimate Polish on parts of it with Blue Hex Logic / Buff and Shine grip pads, and it finished out no problem.

[The Guz]

Re: 2007 Mustang GT - Black Paint Help Needed

Soft paint can drive one crazy. It sounds like a few things causing the marring. The first is the tool. Wait until you get your new polisher and report back your results. The second is the used of IPA. That does not have the best lubrication and it can cause marring. Then there is the towels. Cheap towels can cause it as well. Then there is the issue of M205 and on occasion UP not being able to finish well on softer paints. Thus M210 on a polishing pad will in most cases finish out nicely on soft paints.

You may want to consider researching the different techniques with polishing out soft paint using M205 if you choose to keep using that. Blowing out your pads more frequently and even shorting up the number of passes.

[TruckGuy24]

Re: 2007 Mustang GT - Black Paint Help Needed

How are your microfiber towels?

The shop where I help out has the Costco towels.

A couple months ago I did a 1966 Caddilac limo that had soft single stage paint. The towels were marring the daylights out of the finish.

I had to run home and bring my 70/30 blend towels to do that job. Supreme Shines would have worked as well.

What speed are you finishing on? How many passes? How much pressure? Usually the smaller orbit tools will deliver a better finish.

In also find that using Ultimate Polish or M205 I can get away with lower tool speed, even pressure, faster arm speed, and less passes to get a better finish.

It also sounds like M210 would solve all your issues, possibly M09 Swirl Remover 2.0 as well.

And yes, a finishing pad like the black Meguiar's disc may also be in order.

At that shop I had a dreaded black Tesla come in - famous for it's difficult to finish paint. It was beat up, and needed correction. The cutting process left a lot of haze, and I had to use what was there to finish out. A lot of the finishing polishes weren't pulling out the da haze. The one thing that worked was Rupes Quarz, which is a medium cut (green cap, discontinued).

Last week I had a 1995 black Porsche 911. Another pretty challenging correction due to the heavy swirling, scratching and oxidation. When I was doing the cutting with M110, the marring showed up under the scangrip lights, but to the people visiting the shop, they were amazed. I wish I had been able to try the M210 to finish it, because it was really finicky. I did use Ultimate Polish on parts of it with Blue Hex Logic / Buff and Shine grip pads, and it finished out no problem.

Soft paint can drive one crazy. It sounds like a few things causing the marring. The first is the tool. Wait until you get your new polisher and report back your results. The second is the used of IPA. That does not have the best lubrication and it can cause marring. Then there is the towels. Cheap towels can cause it as well. Then there is the issue of M205 and on occasion UP not being able to finish well on softer paints. Thus M210 on a polishing pad will in most cases finish out nicely on soft paints.

You may want to consider researching the different techniques with polishing out soft paint using M205 if you choose to keep using that. Blowing out your pads more frequently and even shorting up the number of passes.

Thank you both for the insight, I appreciate it!

I have to wait for my black pads to arrive and then I can try them on my buddies DA that he is loaning me since mine crapped out.

My microfibers are Chemical guys and also soft ones from Adam's Polishes. They do not seem to be marring the paint from what I can tell. They are all new microfibers.

I tried two smaller areas with Ultimate Polish and my failing meguiars DA polisher on 4 black" foam pads on max speed pushing down, and even though the polisher obviously isn't working correctly, man did those light swirls go away quite a bit.

When my pads arrive I have my buddies Adams Swirl killer so I can use my new 5.5" black polishing pads on there when they arrive and see if it makes a difference. Seems like black could do the trick or possibly one step lower if there's still some light swirling.

I have some Black Hex logic pads that SHOULD arrive today, so I'll give that a go with my buddies Adams DA and report back.

If that doesn't refine it enough, I may need an even finer polish like you say. I will say though, even with my crapped out DA, the black pad with ultimate polish made the paint very very clear, just some fine scratches left. That gives me hope.

[TruckGuy24]

Re: 2007 Mustang GT - Black Paint Help Needed

At this point I'm beyond frustrated and need a break. I ordered Poorboy's black Hole. 3 weeks full of this all weekend. I'm just beyond burnt out.

The paint looks phenomenal under my shop lighting and LED phone light. The halogen shop light reveals the scratches under the right angle. You can see the shop light clear as day looking straight on. There are microscratches I cannot get out as you can see in the pictures.

For now I just need to drive my car - this was supposed to be a daily driver for me - not a mental breakdown LOL!

I'll just seal it up with my trusty Collinite 845 Insulator Wax.

I have tried: Orange pad M205/ White Pad M205/ Black Pad M205

Orange pad Ultimate Polish/ White Pad Ultimate Polish/ Black Pad Ultimate Polish

Same result - super clear paint once cleaned up with 4-5 passes and medium to light pressure on 4-5 speed. Just will not remove those fine swirls.

The Iso wipedown appears to have been scratching my paint I noticed. I went and used the Adam's surface prep from my ceramic kit and additional scratches were not added.

[The Guz]

Re: 2007 Mustang GT - Black Paint Help Needed

As I mentioned M205 is not the best polish to finish out on soft paint. Ultimate Polish is derived from M205 and UP can sometimes not finish well on soft paint as well. I would recommend using M210 with a polishing pad and to shorten your number of passes to 2-3. It sounds counter intuitive but soft paints like a stiffer pad.

I don't know what coating you are going with but you may want to consider a primer polish. They do well on soft paints.

[TruckGuy24]

Re: 2007 Mustang GT - Black Paint Help Needed

Thank you for that. I have M210 and Menzerna SF 3500 on the way. I will test it out when it arrives.

I have black hole enroute if I can't get it where I want. But maybe these two polishes can get me a marr free finish.

I have Lake country pads and their tangerine coming too.

[TruckGuy24]

Re: 2007 Mustang GT - Black Paint Help Needed

M-210 did not work in my case, but rather Menzerna SF-3500. Finished beautifully.

Looking forward to M-210 on my truck. I have a feeling that will work nicely on it. Another tool in the toolbox.

[The Guz]

Re: 2007 Mustang GT - Black Paint Help Needed

How were you using M210? Type of pad? Number of passes? Only thing about Menzerna polishes is that they are oil heavy.

[TruckGuy24]

Re: 2007 Mustang GT - Black Paint Help Needed

I tried black, white, and orange pads. I tried 2 passes and as much at 4-5. It was an improvement but just would not finish out.

I used car pro eraser to remove the oils and lubricate wipedowns. Worked well.

[drumdan]

Re: 2007 Mustang GT - Black Paint Help Needed

M-210 did not work in my case, but rather Menzerna SF-3500. Finished beautifully.

Looking forward to M-210 on my truck. I have a feeling that will work nicely on it. Another tool in the toolbox.

I have a couple non Megs polishes that I use on occasion, and SF3500 is one of them.