Cobalt with problems

[wifpd4]

I put this in "Show Off", but had more questions than successful results, so perhaps this belongs in "101".

Once again, those of you who do this professionally have my respect and admiration for both the hard work and the great end results you get and also thanks for your hanging around here helping folks like me.

One of my neighbors was kind enough to allow me to clean up the exterior of his black Chevy Cobalt. We walked around the car and looked at somethings I knew I would not be able to improve or remove and then he allowed me to keep the car for two days. Day one was a 10 hour day of wash, correct, clean and 1st coat of wax.

After washing the car twice with Gold Class, I discovered more swirls than I had seen in the initial walk through. Many, many more swirls than I anticipated and the car was not that dirty and has been well taken care of. Again the real condition of the finish would have been something you pros would have easily seen before starting.

The car was clayed with Meguiar's clay and Quik Detailer.

The wheels presented a problem for me and seemed to be pitted and I didn't have a product that cleaned them. So some advice is required.

The exhaust tip was scorched, but shined up marginally well with Mother's chrome polish.

Swirls were challenging for me and I removed most to all. I started with 205 hoping the least harsh product would do the trick, but had to move up to Ultimate Compound with a yellow Mequiar's pad.

Following Murr's often stated recommendation for ColorX, I followed UC with ColorX on a black pad and then finished the project up with two coats of NXT Tech 2.0 separated by 12 hours. First using a 4" black Lake Country on a PC and the second coat by hand with a foam pad after a full wipe down with Quik Detailer.

I had numerous problems, but have a couple of specific questions following the pictures.


Surface condition following wash.



Starting the claying process. More swirls on surface.



The car is a daily driver often garaged. Due to local environmental conditions,
I expected the clay to be much more contaminated. This is after the hood.



Exhaust tip prior to cleaning with a Mother's product.



Exhaust tip cleaned, but scorched around the leaving edge.



Wheel after brush cleaning with NXT wash and using a Power Cone and a Mother's product.



The hood had obvious rock chips in addition to what I'm calling "pin holes" for the lack of the proper term.



Here is the completed hood following two coats of wax with NXT Tech 2.0.



Here are the "pin holes" I had problems with.



I didn't have the correct product to properly clean the wheels. Product suggestions would be appreciated.

I really need advice with the "pin holes" in the hood and some other parts of the car. I was afraid to get too aggressive with "pin holes". I had already done two passes with UC. The first pass medium pressure, speed 4, and fairly slow. The second pass was more passionate pressure, 5 1/2 speed and rather slow.

The "pin holes" were not obvious to the touch after claying. There were more "pin holes" towards the front of the hood, become less numerous towards the windshield. Making it seem to me like impact blemishes.

So what do you recommend for the "pin holes"?

Thanks for viewing or any advice you may offer.

[Shawn T.]

Re: Cobalt with problems

Great job. All of the swirls from the hood look to be gone.

Those are actually rock chips. Only through wetsanding can they be eliminated and often times, they are far too deep into the clear to remove. Those are just the result of the car being a daily driver. There are several kits available for masking them but I would just wax the car like you usually would.

Remember that because this is a daily driver, sometimes greatly improving the vehicle is better than making it show car perfect. Since it is driven daily, it will take a beating. That is why a great recommendation for daily drivers is to Colorx them once a month or every other month. As you know, Colorx is a fairly strong cleaner/wax and when used regularly will help knock down the swirls that come about. It will also keep the paint clean from dirt.

Great job though. Try some Meguiars Chrome Polish on that exhaust tip.

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: Cobalt with problems

Not much you can do about the "pinholes". Unless you are very proficient wet sanding and using a rotary Buffer.

I like using All Purpose Cleaner at a 10:1 ratio for cleaning the wheels, tires. If it is particularly stubborn stains, You can adjust the strength all the wat to a 4:1 ratio.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Cobalt with problems

It looks like you did an outstanding job overall on this Cobalt so there really isn't much to critique that we can see. Those pinholes are indeed tiny impact points and you really can't do much of anything for them without getting into some very advanced processes like the wetsanding/rotary buffing already mentioned.

Really about the only thing we see that we'd recommend you change is how you're using that Brinkmann dual xenon lamp. Hold it further away from the paint and shine the light so that it reflects directly into your eyes. Up close like you show here doesn't always give the full view of the paint surface.

When all we can do is nitpick about how someone is holding a swirl finder light, that's a pretty good sign you're doing things really, really well!

[wifpd4]

Re: Cobalt with problems

...
Really about the only thing we see that we'd recommend you change is how you're using that Brinkmann dual xenon lamp. Hold it further away from the paint and shine the light so that it reflects directly into your eyes. Up close like you show here doesn't always give the full view of the paint surface.
...

Gosh I've been so concentrating on improving my rating on the Stoops Scale of Buffing, my other techniques have suffered!!

Thanks all for your comments and suggestions.