Paint correction – the hard way!

[FAsnakes]

So i pick up my new BLACK car about 3 months ago. In this time it’s seen:

• Santa Barbara
• Vegas
• Arizona
• Joshua Tree
• San Francisco
• San Diego

Also, most weekends alternating between Mulholland HWY, Ortega or Lancaster twisties.. I put 7000 miles on her in 3 months. I’ve also seen a couple of drive up hand carwashes..

Here's the paint before i got on it:

So here’s where it gets great.. I dust off the porter cable, slap on a pad, grab some swirl remover and go to work.. Problem is, I didn’t clean the pad and I marred the **** out of the car..
Looked like this:

Also, every time I’d wipe off the swirl remover with my microfiber towel i noticed more scratches.. I pull another 'freshly washed' microfiber towel and the same thing - more scratches

So, i threw up my hands and said **** it.. I'll just call a detailer over and be done with it! I started pulling up some detailing forums and they were talking about 'micro-marring' by reusing pads without cleaning them. . So, i cleaned my pad with all-purpose cleaner and took a couple more passes:

I’m happy with the results.. I think I'm going to stick with the PC vs. the Flex since I’m just starting out. .
I just need to figure out how to reuse microfiber towels without having them scratch the **** out of my car..

Black some times looses

 

[straightliner1]

Luckily you didn't cut through the clear coat. I've been in your shoes and have learned a lot. I always wash my pads in the clothes washer on HOT water (to help dissolve the compound) and only with liquid soap, never the granules.

 

[PWORLDSTANG]

Wow your microfiber towels did WORK on your paint! Do you wash them alone or with other cotton laundry? If you wash them alone then you should look into some better quality towels.

 

[bullitt1672]

Looks great! What polish and pad combo did you use?

 

[TransAxle]

Thats not the worse case of micro-marring I have seen. But its always casued by improper use of a wool pad or an extremely dirty foam pad...as you yourself saw first hand. The towels though, is called towel-marring.. lol. Its a pretty common thing. Generally means either your microfiber towels are not soft enough, to thin or have been used so much to the point that they have degraded and are not worth using on paint anymore.

For referrence, I had a customer contact me saying he has his car detailed by a "professional" and this is what he was left with...

Quarter Before and After:

Thats why its always best to make sure to keep your buffing pads clean. Once one has been used across multiple panels or filled with polishes or compounds set it aside or clean it. Best to have a bucket filled with a pad washing chemical sitting around to stick them as a type of pre-soak before the polishes/compounds dry into the pad. Will help you prevent things like that happening again.

 

[ruthless]

"So here’s where it gets great.. I dust off the porter cable, slap on a pad, grab some swirl remover and go to work.. Problem is, I didn’t clean the pad and I marred the **** out of the car.. "

Did the pad you slapped on say SOS on it?

 

[thomas91169]

Yeah its almost worth it with the price of mf towels at autozone to just buy a new pack each time. Once they hit the ground theyll pick up whatever dirt/debris and usually it doesnt come out even with wash.

Pads are another story. Ive done just that, hit up an area with a pad that must have had some shit on it and ended up doing more harm than good. I make sure to pass my hand over the pads now before applying to check if theres anything on the pad that will harm paint.

 

[03' White Snake]

I never re-use my microfiber towels. I buy a 5 pack for like 6 bucks, I just throw them away afterwards. Its not worth it to me. I use microfiber bonnets on my polisher and same thing, 1 time use only. Hope you learned your lesson. :beer:

 

[01trublue cobra]

Thats not the worse case of micro-marring I have seen. But its always casued by improper use of a wool pad or an extremely dirty foam pad...as you yourself saw first hand. The towels though, is called towel-marring.. lol. Its a pretty common thing. Generally means either your microfiber towels are not soft enough, to thin or have been used so much to the point that they have degraded and are not worth using on paint anymore.

For referrence, I had a customer contact me saying he has his car detailed by a "professional" and this is what he was left with...

Quarter Before and After:

Thats why its always best to make sure to keep your buffing pads clean. Once one has been used across multiple panels or filled with polishes or compounds set it aside or clean it. Best to have a bucket filled with a pad washing chemical sitting around to stick them as a type of pre-soak before the polishes/compounds dry into the pad. Will help you prevent things like that happening again.

What products did you use? Also OP what did you use also?