Does your Detailing Eye Change?

cwcad

cwcad

New Normal
I set about yesterday to polish and correct my tonneau cover of my truck. I cleaned the surface and decided that claying was not necessary. Then I got out the multitude of pads and products that I thought would do the trick.

Lately, I have been reticent to use the most abrassive products because I have been seeing wear on the paint of my truck from many polishing sessions in my quest for a swirl free paint surface.

After numerous attempts to get a swirl free surface using both the PC and rotary with a whole host of swirl removing products and pads I stopped and made a judgement call.:confused: Enough is enough.:surrender No matter what pad or product I used I still had marring/swirls when looking on the surface with direct sunlight.:wall

Don't get me wrong...the tonneau cover looks very nice and it is well protected.:inspector: My question is does the detailers eye change with experience? The reason I am asking is I remember posts that I stated that my paint was marr free or near marr free(I truly meant it at the time) with a lot less work, fewer products, and without the need of a rotary.

Am I expecting to much? Maybe I am not as good at judging paint, use of swirl removers, or mechnical machines as I thought.:idea Maybe I question to much?.:hmmm:

What are the forum members thoughts?.:help:
 
Personally, I think always having a flawless finish on a daily driver is virtually impossible.
I polish with fairly mild polishes, PwS or Poli-Seal right now, with a polishing pad twice a year. It seems to keep things looking decent and I'm not too concerned about grinding away my paint.
Every time you correct those blemishes with an abrasive, you do remove some paint. Since I keep my vehicles quite some time, I do think about that.
Many people don't realize that you don't remove flaws and scratches, you level the paint around them by removing a portion of it.
I do think that using a paint cleaner occasionally helps keep some of the swirls from showing up. I have always felt that a lot of the swirls we see are in the LSP rather than the paint actually being damaged. :dunno:
 
CharlesW said:
Personally, I think always having a flawless finish on a daily driver is virtually impossible.
I polish with fairly mild polishes, PwS or Poli-Seal right now, with a polishing pad twice a year. It seems to keep things looking decent and I'm not too concerned about grinding away my paint.
Every time you correct those blemishes with an abrasive, you do remove some paint. Since I keep my vehicles quite some time, I do think about that.
Many people don't realize that you don't remove flaws and scratches, you level the paint around them by removing a portion of it.
I do think that using a paint cleaner occasionally helps keep some of the swirls from showing up. I have always felt that a lot of the swirls we see are in the LSP rather than the paint actually being damaged. :dunno:
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I agree with Charles, unless you have a garage queen and it's basically a show car, then grinding away every last swirl on a daily driver is a waste of time. A good polish twice a year should be sufficient to keep the car's clearcoat glossy and smooth. Chemical cleaners like PwS in between will also help to maintain a finish that is better than 95% of all vehicles you will encounter on the road:rockon
 
Poorboy said:
I agree with Charles, unless you have a garage queen and it's basically a show car, then grinding away every last swirl on a daily driver is a waste of time. A good polish twice a year should be sufficient to keep the car's clearcoat glossy and smooth. Chemical cleaners like PwS in between will also help to maintain a finish that is better than 95% of all vehicles you will encounter on the road:rockon
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I will plus one on this Steve, and to add that using a glaze that has some filler capabilities on your daily driver in between those rotary polishes, can add to a better looking finish over all.

On my jet black car its what I have been doing for some time now...
 
I really think there is a place for fillers too. Try keeping a Jeep perfect that you take off-roading. lol
 
LOL!!! Charles, you(your vehicles) are the reason that I question my detailing. I remember seeing your vehicle and my vehicle together. My truck never looked better than that day. Yours(your wife's car)was very remarkable and very memorable to me. Such is not the case with my truck today, though.
 
Beemerboy said:
I will plus one on this Steve, and to add that using a glaze that has some filler capabilities on your daily driver in between those rotary polishes, can add to a better looking finish over all.

On my jet black car its what I have been doing for some time now...
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It is funny that you mention a glaze, BB. I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of a glaze to begin that exact regimine on my Black truck.
 
Beemerboy said:
and to add that using a glaze that has some filler capabilities on your daily driver in between those rotary polishes, can add to a better looking finish over all.
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cwcad said:
I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of a glaze to begin that exact regimen on my Black truck.
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The use of a glaze might be of some value, but I haven't found one that I felt did much at hiding flaws and most of them aren't compatible with any of the products I use. If you apply the glaze before the LSP, I have had streaking problems. If you apply the glaze after the LSP, it's only good till the first rain or wash.
Maybe a thread about glazes would be of some value.
Maybe a search to see if there is already a thread about glazes would be of some value. :)
 
No matter how careful you are, it's still impossible to keep a daily drive 100% perfect. Especially on black vehicles as we all know.

cwcad- instead of being overly critical on yourself, park your truck next to another black Chevy and compare. Your truck will look brand new compared to the other. If you picked someone off the street and asked which truck looked better, I'm sure it would be a quick and easy answer. They wouldn't be able to see the light marring, rather they see a nice clean, glossy and well protected truck.

I believe, yes, your detailing eye has changed, but in this case it may be a bad thing -- Your truck is probably the cleanest in town but to you you percieve it's a mess because of the marring. Stand back 10 feet and compare your truck to other vehicles around, yours will stick out like a sore thumb, and its not because of the marring :bigups
 
cwcad said:
It is funny that you mention a glaze, BB. I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of a glaze to begin that exact regimine on my Black truck.
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Its what I have been doing for a while and what I like about it is, it hides the minor swirls for me, which on jet black there are plenty even with the best wash practice

CharlesW said:
The use of a glaze might be of some value, but I haven't found one that I felt did much at hiding flaws and most of them aren't compatible with any of the products I use. If you apply the glaze before the LSP, I have had streaking problems. If you apply the glaze after the LSP, it's only good till the first rain or wash.
Maybe a thread about glazes would be of some value.
Maybe a search to see if there is already a thread about glazes would be of some value. :)
Click to expand...

I did run a thread sometime back about the word glaze and what it meant in the industry...I had this discussion with Steve yesterday its a mis-used term if you ask me, in some cases....The glaze that I use has fillers that can hide the minor swirls this is based on a finish that is still in some what decent shape...I like to think of it as extending out the finish in between my two times a year that I do the full paint treatment on my car
 
While you guys are talking about glazes, my friend just bought the Danase Wet Glaze. It does a decent job of filling in light marring and swirls but bonds differently then other glazes. I guess you can call it a new age glaze because it has acrylic polymers. You can layer this glaze or top with wax or even put on top of the wax.:bigups
 
I have always had a glaze step in my routine, I have found that it fills in some slight swirling and even seems to enhance the color and deepness of the paint.
 
Beemerboy said:
Its what I have been doing for a while and what I like about it is, it hides the minor swirls for me, which on jet black there are plenty even with the best wash practice



I did run a thread sometime back about the word glaze and what it meant in the industry...I had this discussion with Steve yesterday its a mis-used term if you ask me, in some cases....The Purchase ID: 2000184832101‏this is based on a finish that is still in some what decent shape...I like to think of it as extending out the finish in between my two times a year that I do the full paint treatment on my car
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What glaze are you using.

I'm going to need to do something like that on my Black Ranger.

People comment all the time about how nice it looks but all I see is the minor flaws and I keep removing them and trying to maintain a flawless finish.

I know that I'm going to polish the paint off of it if I keep this up.:howdy
 
black bart said:
What glaze are you using.

I'm going to need to do something like that on my Black Ranger.

People comment all the time about how nice it looks but all I see is the minor flaws and I keep removing them and trying to maintain a flawless finish.

I know that I'm going to polish the paint off of it if I keep this up.:howdy
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I'm using two FK1 Pink hand glaze and 3M IHG the FK1 is better
 
cwcad said:
Don't get me wrong...the tonneau cover looks very nice and it is well protected.:inspector: My question is does the detailers eye change with experience? The reason I am asking is I remember posts that I stated that my paint was marr free or near marr free(I truly meant it at the time) with a lot less work, fewer products, and without the need of a rotary.

:
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A detailer’s eye is like an art enthusiast telling you the difference between a authentic Picasso and a fake.

A trained eye will see all kinds of imperfection that normal people will never notice unless they own show cars that are never touched pretty much.

I ride up and down the highway watching the BROKEN sun beams reflect off of highly swirled finishes. I need some serious help.

At this point I would recommend that you glaze and or go with a filler wax/sealant. And save the perfect finish for the Shows and Meets. NO use polishing it to death just to go back and forth to work and abroad.
 
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