how to remove scratches and keep them from returning?

B

boostdfd3s

New member
hello every1,

I am new to this forum, and was referred here by a friend on my RX-7 forum. I own a 1994 Rx7, and it has BEAUTIFUL dark blue paint that turns metallic green in sunshine. However, as u can expect from a 10 year old, 3 owner car, the surface is LOADED with swirls and scratches.



I spent the last two weeks polishing the paint. I started off by claying the entire surface, then using 3M Perfect-It medium cut compound, took that off, came back with 2 separate coats of 3M swirl mark remover for dark cars, then did a double coat of liquid griots' garage wax, and a week later put a coat of meguiar's paste caranuba wax over the top of THAT. It looked AWESOME for the first like 4 days, and it appeared that i had 95% of the scratches out. Then i walk out today, about 10 days later....AND THEYRE ALL BACK AND THEN SOME MORE!! It looks like they got bigger and WORSE! Does anybody have any suggestions? For the record, Everytime i wash the car, i use a griots garage horse-hair brush, and the only kind of towels that touch that paint are microfiber. I am just disgusted that all my hard work didnt do anything for the look of the paint, and actually made it look worse.



Your opinions, comments, and methods will be greatly appreciated!



-Zach
 
oh, and also, all the products i used were applied with a Porter Cable rotary buffer with a Griots garage stiff orange foam pad. Speed was 3.5 or 4.



-Zach
 
How did it look after the 3M PI compound? Swirl free? If so, maybe what you are seeing is on the wax layer, maybe caused by the wash. Apply another coat of wax in a section and see what happens.
 
the compound removed some swirls, but once i put it out in sunlight, i saw larger swirls that would follow the sun. Dont know really how to describe it. Then after the SWR, it looked almost perfect with NO swirls....but now after about 4 washes...theyve all come back and there seem to be more.
 
If you want to remove them you must not see them after the compound, the SMR only filled them. Remove most, hide the rest, that's the rule!
 
so would u recommend using the medium-cut, or getting some fine-cut? Also, ive heard things about using alcohol/wate mixes to remove the remains of the compounds off the surface? Cuz it is really hard to get it off by using just microfiber towels. Thanks for the advice so far!
 
also, i had a double coat of griots liquid wax, and a single coat of meguiars paste wax on the top of the paint after i was finished with the polish...shouldnt that have covered up the marks for more than 3 washes? I about had a annurism (sp?) when i walked outside and every single one returned after all my hard work, lol.
 
Or menzerna Intensive Polish then Finishing Polish. No fillers. They have an Introductory Kit out with both in it and good instructions.
 
well what i have easy access to are 3M products...would u recommend that i go and pick up some PI Fine cut, or should i just stick with the medium cut and use the SWR to finish it off?
 
also, when and where should i use water/alcohol to clean the surface? I apologize for all the questions, but its clear that all of you are much more skilled than me and im trying to learn a lot quickly. :)



-Zach
 
boostdfd3s- Cool car, my wife drove a '93 for a while and she really liked it (at least when it was on boost ;) ).



As I recall, Mazda's paint was sorta hard those years (and it still is). Hmmm...



It sounds like you only filled your swirls and the degradation of the wax/SMR rendered them visible again. And *I'M* not too impressed with Griot's BOS wax, so I'm not too surprised they came back so fast.



I'd get some cutting pads for use with your RC's. Griot's orange pads are MUCH too mild, even for Griot's Machine Polishes! You really do need a cutting pad to remove what you have there. Get a Lake/CMA/TOL yellow or a Meguiar's burgundy, and get a few of them.



Work the Medium Cut with a cutting pad until the worst of the swirls are gone in ANY lighting. The Medium Cut will, however leave its OWN marring, faint swirl marks from its abrasives. Work this, and all products, quite a while so the abrasives break down as much as they can.



Then switch to a milder product, maybe one of 3M's FINE cut RC's (PI-II pn 39002 or PI-III 05933), still using a cutting pad. This should give get rid of MOST of the marring from the (coarser) Medium Cut and give you an ALMOST ready to wax finish.



Switch to 3M's PI-III MG (pn 05937), *I* would do one pass with a cutting pad, then switch to a polishing pad (the Griot's orange will work ok for this or get a Lake/CMA/TOL white pad). Don't quit with the MG until the surface is a close to perfect as you want it to be. Any swirls you leave will bug you later.



Then *I* would use something like Klasse or Platinum or BFII or Zaino.



BTW, *I* have good luck with Griot's boar's hair brushes on MOST of my vehicles, but you gotta REALLY be careful with them. AND you gotta really inspect them as a lot of them get through with contamination (such as the adhesive used to hold the bristles) on the bristles that can scratch your paint. Also, if you press hard enough to bend the bristles, or fail to rinse it after every 1/2 panel or so, you'll swirl your paint. Sometimes I'll rinse it after EVERY swipe! Gotta just "whisk" the dirt off with LOTS of soapy wash solution, and I always do each panel a few times, rinsing the paint (and the brush) after each pass.
 
Okay, so i start with the medium cut pn 39001, then go to the PI-III pn 05933, THEN i need to go pick up some PI-III MG (pn 05937). Where can i buy cutting pads? I got some 3M white foam compounding pads with the polish (pn 05723) but i have a feeling thats not what ur talking about. I plan on going out 2night and stripping off all of what i have done ( :mad: ) with some 50/50 water/alcohol mixture, and starting to accomplish what you have all suggested.
 
nvm...i found the CMA webpage. So i'll have 3 cutting pads (CMA yellow), 3 polishing pads (griots orange) and 3 wax pads (griots red). What category do my white 3M pads fall into? Also, what would you recommend? Boars hair brush or an authentic sheepskin mitt? I have no preference, but have been using my hair brush more often cuz the sheepskin has a gigantic hole in it and its getting hard to hold on to.



-Zach
 
Also, i ordered some Caranuba paste wax from griots. I tried some meguiars cleaner paste wax and i liked it, so im gonna give some of the just wax a try.
 
as you can see, all of the MAJOR scratches have been removed, and im left with multitudes of tiny swirls and some light hazing. This is after 3 passes with MI-II Medium, using my aformentioned white 3M compounding pad. I wiped the surface down with the water/alcohol mixture after every coat as well. Thoughts? Opinions on where i should go now?





-Zach
 

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