Light scratches/Water Spots

[Nick1994]

I haven't taken very good care of the paint on my Sonata. I bought it used 2/2017 used, it was a rental car for a while and had another owner before me. Last year at some point I used a clay bar and waxed it with some Meguiars. Other than that I washed it by hand last year, this year mostly with a touch less car wash but have taken it through the swirl-o-matic a couple times.

It's had water spots dried into the paint for a long time, and have no idea how to get rid of them. I don't think clay helped all that much. They're only visible usually at dark in the right angle with a light, but also in the day time if you're looking for them. It also has scratches from neglect and who knows what the previous care was before me.

Was thinking of getting a DA polisher from Harbor Freight. I'm new to detailing stuff, I've clayed and hand waxed but definitely nowhere close to an expert.

What would you guys recommend? Just looking for an improvement, I'm not a perfectionist whatsoever.

Thanks.

Below is a terrible picture I took a few weeks ago at night in the parking garage at work, with the reflection as a light on the ceiling.

 

[RooflessVW]

I'd pick up a decent polisher and some Griot's One Step.

Should take care of those defects easily and leave the paint protected.

 

[SirTanon]

You know....

.. back in 2015, I got tired of the spider web swirling, scratches, etc.. in the paint of my Fusion, put there by its previous owner, and decided to do something about it. I picked up a HF DA, tons of Meguiars polishes, compounds, waxes, etc.. and went to work. Turned out great, but of course, I'm so careful with the car, that I have not yet had to do any follow-up on it. I still have the DA and all the Megs stuff, and I've even purchased some (much) better pads for the DA, as well as a Griot's DA for finer work.

Just a suggestion, but perhaps you could swing by my place some weekend, and we can take a crack at that paint. Might as well put my stuff to use. Just a thought.

 

[RayCJ]

Originally Posted by SirTanon
You know....

.. back in 2015, I got tired of the spider web swirling, scratches, etc.. in the paint of my Fusion, put there by its previous owner, and decided to do something about it. I picked up a HF DA, tons of Meguiars polishes, compounds, waxes, etc.. and went to work. Turned out great, but of course, I'm so careful with the car, that I have not yet had to do any follow-up on it. I still have the DA and all the Megs stuff, and I've even purchased some (much) better pads for the DA, as well as a Griot's DA for finer work.

Just a suggestion, but perhaps you could swing by my place some weekend, and we can take a crack at that paint. Might as well put my stuff to use. Just a thought.


That's a great offer to Nick1994. I hope you get the chance to put your polisher to good use. Those scratches and water marks will be easy to fix. Take pictures afterward if you guys sync-up.


Ray

 

[Rolla07]

Originally Posted by RayCJ
Originally Posted by SirTanon
You know....

.. back in 2015, I got tired of the spider web swirling, scratches, etc.. in the paint of my Fusion, put there by its previous owner, and decided to do something about it. I picked up a HF DA, tons of Meguiars polishes, compounds, waxes, etc.. and went to work. Turned out great, but of course, I'm so careful with the car, that I have not yet had to do any follow-up on it. I still have the DA and all the Megs stuff, and I've even purchased some (much) better pads for the DA, as well as a Griot's DA for finer work.

Just a suggestion, but perhaps you could swing by my place some weekend, and we can take a crack at that paint. Might as well put my stuff to use. Just a thought.


That's a great offer to Nick1994. I hope you get the chance to put your polisher to good use. Those scratches and water marks will be easy to fix. Take pictures afterward if you guys sync-up.


Ray



Agreed, wicked cool!

 

[Nick1994]

Originally Posted by SirTanon
You know....

.. back in 2015, I got tired of the spider web swirling, scratches, etc.. in the paint of my Fusion, put there by its previous owner, and decided to do something about it. I picked up a HF DA, tons of Meguiars polishes, compounds, waxes, etc.. and went to work. Turned out great, but of course, I'm so careful with the car, that I have not yet had to do any follow-up on it. I still have the DA and all the Megs stuff, and I've even purchased some (much) better pads for the DA, as well as a Griot's DA for finer work.

Just a suggestion, but perhaps you could swing by my place some weekend, and we can take a crack at that paint. Might as well put my stuff to use. Just a thought.

That's a good idea! Might be some time before I'm able to coordinate it. If I end up liking it then I'll know, and will pick one up for use on some other cars too.

I've always worried about using one, but I guess a DA isn't supposed to be so dangerous to the paint?

 

[RooflessVW]

You can do damage with a DA, but that would have to be your aim.

 

[RayCJ]

Originally Posted by Nick1994
Originally Posted by SirTanon
You know....

.. back in 2015, I got tired of the spider web swirling, scratches, etc.. in the paint of my Fusion, put there by its previous owner, and decided to do something about it. I picked up a HF DA, tons of Meguiars polishes, compounds, waxes, etc.. and went to work. Turned out great, but of course, I'm so careful with the car, that I have not yet had to do any follow-up on it. I still have the DA and all the Megs stuff, and I've even purchased some (much) better pads for the DA, as well as a Griot's DA for finer work.

Just a suggestion, but perhaps you could swing by my place some weekend, and we can take a crack at that paint. Might as well put my stuff to use. Just a thought.

That's a good idea! Might be some time before I'm able to coordinate it. If I end up liking it then I'll know, and will pick one up for use on some other cars too.

I've always worried about using one, but I guess a DA isn't supposed to be so dangerous to the paint?



Originally Posted by rooflessVW
You can do damage with a DA, but that would have to be your aim.


^^^^^ What he said. Also, there's a million videos on YouTube on how to detail. Lookup some how-to videos from "Dallas Paint Correction" or "NYC AMMO". It is not hard to do at all. Light pressure (5-7 lbs or so) move steadily and use the right pads for the right tasks and you'll be fine. I used buffers before just to polish but did my first paint correction on a car in worse condition than yours, and it came out great.

Ray

 

[BlackBowtie63]

Start with the least aggressive pad and polish testing a 2'x2' area using a crosshatch pattern with your polisher. It is always easier to go up in pad and polish as to not remove more clear coat then needed.

 

[SirTanon]

Originally Posted by Nick1994
Originally Posted by SirTanon
You know....

.. back in 2015, I got tired of the spider web swirling, scratches, etc.. in the paint of my Fusion, put there by its previous owner, and decided to do something about it. I picked up a HF DA, tons of Meguiars polishes, compounds, waxes, etc.. and went to work. Turned out great, but of course, I'm so careful with the car, that I have not yet had to do any follow-up on it. I still have the DA and all the Megs stuff, and I've even purchased some (much) better pads for the DA, as well as a Griot's DA for finer work.

Just a suggestion, but perhaps you could swing by my place some weekend, and we can take a crack at that paint. Might as well put my stuff to use. Just a thought.

That's a good idea! Might be some time before I'm able to coordinate it. If I end up liking it then I'll know, and will pick one up for use on some other cars too.

I've always worried about using one, but I guess a DA isn't supposed to be so dangerous to the paint?


It IS possible to damage the paint with a DA, but it's difficult. The DA action pretty much eliminates the potential to 'burn' the paint in the way a rotary would, but you can still imbue scratches if you get dirt or other foreign material on the pad or in the polish, etc.. but if you're diligent and careful, this is easy to avoid. Proper technique covers about 95% of the rest.

I'll put it this way - The first time I ever tried my hand at paint correction, I had never used a DA before, and never really done a paint correction on any car. I watched tons of videos, read up on Autogeek.com, and gave it a shot, and the results were outstanding.

 

[SatinSilver]

Nick,

What color is the car? I thought it was a medium blue for some reason. If you're too aggressive with the paint it might start losing the clear coat like the red Camry you have. Keeping a good quality sealant on it should help quite a bit.

 

[Nick1994]

Originally Posted by SatinSilver
Nick,

What color is the car? I thought it was a medium blue for some reason. If you're too aggressive with the paint it might start losing the clear coat like the red Camry you have. Keeping a good quality sealant on it should help quite a bit.

It's nouveau blue. Here's a picture from after I bought it

 

[SatinSilver]

Even the cheapie $20 polisher at WM will be an upgrade over doing it by hand. It comes with an MF bonnet and a foam one. Put some Megs Scratch-X or Megs Ultimate Compound(or even an all-in-one product or a swirl remover) on the MF bonnet and see how it does. Wipe with rubbing alcohol to remove polishing oils afterwards then top with a good quality sealant. The polisher isn't as good as the HF one but you can always step up to that one later if you wish. I also bought an extra two pack of MF bonnets at WM for $4. So you can change them out after each section.

You can even upgrade the Wax Spreader as seen here.

Esp since the HF one needs some mods.

HF Palm Polisher

 

[grampi]

Originally Posted by BlackBowtie63
Start with the least aggressive pad and polish testing a 2'x2' area using a crosshatch pattern with your polisher. It is always easier to go up in pad and polish as to not remove more clear coat then needed.


Very, very good advice! If there was only one rule to follow when it comes to polishing, I'd say it's always start with the least aggressive polish and pad and work your way up from there...

 

[SirTanon]

Realistically, based on the close-up photo, I'd say that you could start with a black pad (softer, but not softest), and something like Megs Ultimate Polish, light-to-medium pressure.. will probably get most of that out, if not all of it.

Of course, I don't know how soft/hard the paint is on that Hyundai, so I'd start with the lightest pressure possible and go from there.


... and honestly, going with something like Megs Cleaner Wax could probably get the water spots out pretty quick.. just not sure how it would do on the scratches. Those would almost certainly need something with a bit more bite.

 

[RooflessVW]

When I bought my Volvo it needed a full correction. Took me more than 10 hours.

After a year of being parked outside and getting not much more than spray wax, it looked just like Nick's photo.

Two passes with Griot's One-Step Sealant and it came out like this:

 

[Nick1994]

So would the process be something like, use a DA with Meguiars polish, then use wax (by hand?), then a sealant?

Or??

 

[RayCJ]

Originally Posted by Nick1994
So would the process be something like, use a DA with Meguiars polish, then use wax (by hand?), then a sealant?

Or??


1) Touchless wash.
2) Hand wash.
3) Claybar.
4) Wash again.
5) DA Polish (I would use Meguires 105 or 205 with a medium foam pad. Would test with 205 and move up to 105 if needed).
6) Wipe down with isopropyl or, just give a thorough detergent wash.
7) Sealant (I personally don't use sealants but they're fine too).
8) Wax (Wax always goes on after sealant if you use sealants. If you use sealant, wax is optional).


Ray


PS. Since your clearcoat is already scratched-up, you can probably skip the touchless wash in step 1. A touchless wash loosens the dust and grit so it does not get ground-in when you do the hand wash.

 

[RayCJ]

One additional thought re: step 7 & 8...

If you do both sealant and wax, wait 24-48 hours before putting the wax on. All coatings need some time for their solvent base to fully evaporate and let the coating set up. If you apply wax too soon, the solvent carrier in the wax product will just rub off the previous layer of whatever product you applied. Finally, the car needs to be washed before putting the wax on if you waited 1-2 days between step 7 & 8.

Ray

 

[grampi]

Originally Posted by RayCJ
Originally Posted by Nick1994
So would the process be something like, use a DA with Meguiars polish, then use wax (by hand?), then a sealant?

Or??


1) Touchless wash.
2) Hand wash.
3) Claybar.
4) Wash again.
5) DA Polish (I would use Meguires 105 or 205 with a medium foam pad. Would test with 205 and move up to 105 if needed).
6) Wipe down with isopropyl or, just give a thorough detergent wash.
7) Sealant (I personally don't use sealants but they're fine too).
8) Wax (Wax always goes on after sealant if you use sealants. If you use sealant, wax is optional).


Ray


PS. Since your clearcoat is already scratched-up, you can probably skip the touchless wash in step 1. A touchless wash loosens the dust and grit so it does not get ground-in when you do the hand wash.


I agree with everything you posted except for #5. I would start with Meguiar's M03, as it's even less aggressive than the 205, then move to the more aggressive stuff if necessary...