New to detailing, how do I get this paint looking good? (LARGE pic)

S

Sad little man

New member
Hello, I'm fairly new to detailing, and my car looks decent at the moment, but it still has a lot of underlying... crap... that needs polished out. Here's a close-up of just about the worst part, the hood.



Paintcloseup.txt




Mainly the worst part is those odd white specks. I have no clue what they are, and clay doesn't even touch them. Are they chips? The car feels very smooth to the touch. I've gone over the whole car with Meguiars #9 swirl remover with an orbital buffer and foam pads, but the specs stay, and the swirls are still there, just not as bad as before, even after spending hours alone on the hood. I've got Zaino on the car right now, and overall it looks decent, even pretty good, but it still has imperfections, and it just doesn't really jump out like I want it to. And it should being bright red. ;) So, what products and application methods should I use for it?
 
I am no expert but if you can't feel the specks and nothing has touched them, they may be the first signs of clear coat failure.



As for the swirls, step up to something more agressive like DACP or the like and a yellow cutting pad. #9 is very mild and probably is not going to get rid of them. Plus #9 has some fillers that will cause problems with your zaino unless they are removed prior to the Z application.



I am sure you will get some more advice from the pros here also.
 
DACP is Meguiar's Dual Action Cleaning Polish (#83)



You can find a good list of all the acronyms used here (until someone makes up a new one :) ) at http://www.autopia.org/display.php?file=acronyms.htm



If you find something that works, let everyone know, I'm starting to do the same (but I don't have the spots) on my Jeep.



What type of car do you have? White spots always there? or just noticed them recently?
 
Is #80 Professional Speed Glaze ok too? I've got a whole 32oz of that setting around. It's "cut" number on the little meguair's scale is 4. BTW, sorry about the broken pic, awful free account. It'll be up later, and the pic has been resized to use less bandwidth.
 
#83 is 5 or 6 on their scale I believe... if you find a pic of the bottle you can usually see it pretty clearly.



I'm off to a bachelor party... scary when people my age (22) are getting married and I haven't even thought about it yet
 
Has the hood ever been repainted? Have you owned the car since it was new? The texture of those uneven spots on the car looks a bit like a poor paint job that wasn't properly sanded and compounded.
 
Heh... It's 8 years old.



Detailing history:



1995-early 2003: Car wash, what's that?

early 2003-present: Polishing, claybar, and zaino, everything. Never allowed to get dirty. Zainoed weekly, maybe more.



Yeah, I guess being neglected for most of its life made it this way, and that's probably how it's going to stay after this long. Don't look at me, my father never washed it when it was his. Oh well, out of direct light it looks stunning.
 
I've got some DACP that's been transfered from a gallon container to 8-9 oz bottles. . .$8 plus shippping. . .let me know and :welcome



david
 
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