Yesterday, I had the opportunity to visit with Ron K at the Valugard offices located in Cincinnati and I learned some interesting things about my 4 month old VW Jetta. My hope is that by reading this, a new car buyer or fellow newbie detailer might avoid issues I currently have.
A little background before I start rambling. I really started to follow this site about a month after having purchased my car. I dove right in and purchased the Klasse twins, Blitz, a bunch of MF towels, applicators, QD’s, 303 and all sorts of other fun stuff I read about on this site looking to get a stunning shine. I applied the products with care and detail and did get some great visual results BUT at the time I didn’t really understand/appreciate the importance of paint preparation and review.
As I read and learned more, I began studying my paint surfaces very closely under different variables and began to notice a prevalent issue across all of my horizontal body panels. I then stripped part of my trunk of all the wax, polymers, and other fillers and realized there was serious etching in the clear coat. The etching looked like small drops of acid had ‘splattered’ across my car. Immediately I’m thinking WHY DIDN�T I SEE THIS BEFORE I BOUGHT THE CAR???? I’m not sure exactly why, but I do know that at the time I wasn’t looking very closely at the finish (uneducated buyer) and the dealer probably had some type of filler/wax on the finish.
At this point, I went for professional advice. I’m lucky in that Ron’s business is only a few miles from where I live. After Ron reviewed a stripped portion of the paint under multiple lighting conditions and magnification, it was surmised that the damage was most likely caused by pollutants having settled on the new paint prior to the car being wrapped for shipment (Perhaps it was a dreaded Friday car…). The car was then wrapped, shipped to my dealer, unwrapped, washed with good ol water and parked out on the lot under the spring sunshine. The water and heat combined with the untreated pollutants and resulted in a caustic mixture that etched the clear.
So, I now know that I have a car that would need to be professionally cut to restore a more acceptable finish and its most likely been this way since the day I brought it home. For anyone that’s bothered to read all of this, here am what I’m getting at:
Learn about car paint. Learn about the issues your paint faces, how to identify those issues and how to determine proper methods of resolution. Don’t get caught up in BUYING every newest, latest, and greatest product that hits the market if you haven’t taken the time to understand the condition of your finish and treat problems at the root. I was caught up in trying to figure out what the coolest products were for my car when I really didn’t have a clue what was actually going on or how to diagnose a real problem. Unfortunately, my problem was likely there before I received the car but had I been more educated and focused I might not have bought the car at all or I might have been able to treat the problem early on to minimize damages.
Sorry about the long vent. Many thanks to Ron and his staff for taking time out of their day to give a fellow Autopian a hand. On a positive note, I do have a ton of samples of Valugard products to try out and review!
Steve
A little background before I start rambling. I really started to follow this site about a month after having purchased my car. I dove right in and purchased the Klasse twins, Blitz, a bunch of MF towels, applicators, QD’s, 303 and all sorts of other fun stuff I read about on this site looking to get a stunning shine. I applied the products with care and detail and did get some great visual results BUT at the time I didn’t really understand/appreciate the importance of paint preparation and review.
As I read and learned more, I began studying my paint surfaces very closely under different variables and began to notice a prevalent issue across all of my horizontal body panels. I then stripped part of my trunk of all the wax, polymers, and other fillers and realized there was serious etching in the clear coat. The etching looked like small drops of acid had ‘splattered’ across my car. Immediately I’m thinking WHY DIDN�T I SEE THIS BEFORE I BOUGHT THE CAR???? I’m not sure exactly why, but I do know that at the time I wasn’t looking very closely at the finish (uneducated buyer) and the dealer probably had some type of filler/wax on the finish.
At this point, I went for professional advice. I’m lucky in that Ron’s business is only a few miles from where I live. After Ron reviewed a stripped portion of the paint under multiple lighting conditions and magnification, it was surmised that the damage was most likely caused by pollutants having settled on the new paint prior to the car being wrapped for shipment (Perhaps it was a dreaded Friday car…). The car was then wrapped, shipped to my dealer, unwrapped, washed with good ol water and parked out on the lot under the spring sunshine. The water and heat combined with the untreated pollutants and resulted in a caustic mixture that etched the clear.
So, I now know that I have a car that would need to be professionally cut to restore a more acceptable finish and its most likely been this way since the day I brought it home. For anyone that’s bothered to read all of this, here am what I’m getting at:
Learn about car paint. Learn about the issues your paint faces, how to identify those issues and how to determine proper methods of resolution. Don’t get caught up in BUYING every newest, latest, and greatest product that hits the market if you haven’t taken the time to understand the condition of your finish and treat problems at the root. I was caught up in trying to figure out what the coolest products were for my car when I really didn’t have a clue what was actually going on or how to diagnose a real problem. Unfortunately, my problem was likely there before I received the car but had I been more educated and focused I might not have bought the car at all or I might have been able to treat the problem early on to minimize damages.
Sorry about the long vent. Many thanks to Ron and his staff for taking time out of their day to give a fellow Autopian a hand. On a positive note, I do have a ton of samples of Valugard products to try out and review!
Steve
