New car paint, not new anymore.

redhotzx9

New member
Alright, I am not a pro by any means, but I have learned a lot from this site, and now I have little problem. I started a detail on a 2006 Toyota Camry, sky blue pearl. The car has never been washed, maybe by the dealer when it was prepped, with 2700 miles. I took my sweet ole' time washing it with Megs GC, 2 bucket method and so on. There were no swirls or scratches from washing, I might add the paint was perfect, besides it being rough from industrial fallout. So i decided to clay it, with clay magic clay. Used tons of lube and used very gentle pressure. Sure enough under the street lamps I saw swirls that looked holographic, I immediatley stopped. Decided to take the swirls out with an edge blue pad, and pinnacle advanced swirl remover. The swirls went away but then I saw very small scratches that where in a circular form. Ok I stepped down to a white pad and megs swirl remover 2.0. It seemed to get worse. Then I tried the megs machine glaze, again worse. My pad was cleaned and dried prior to use and was primed by pinnacle pad conditioner. Can anybody guide me in the right direction to restore the paint back to new? By the way, I have most of the megs pro line and an edge pad kit and various other cleaners and polishes, and I will get something diff if I need to. Thanks for reading and any info.
Troy
 
How long did you work the polishes? In my experience it takes about 5 minutes at least for a polish to break down. If it has not broken down completely the abrasives in the polish can cause that swirling and hazing. I would try your finishing polish again with a finishing pad and work it for at least 5 minutes and see if that does the trick. Good luck. I hope this helps you. :)
 
I have know experience with Toyota Paint,theres many who detail daily and could offer up some advice. sorry you had a bad experience.

Could it be that the paint is very soft? Maybe a less abbrasive product with a polishing pad may help then step down from there. Good luck and dont stress out and have fun..

JMO, but Jen has offered some very good advice as she has in the past.Jen could the clay been to aggressive i know he did mention he used plenty of lube.maybe a much softer clay can be used to remove the rest of the contamination and the use a light polish?
 
joe.p said:
I have know experience with Toyota Paint,theres many who detail daily and could offer up some advice. sorry you had a bad experience.

Could it be that the paint is very soft? Maybe a less abbrasive product with a polishing pad may help then step down from there. Good luck and dont stress out and have fun..

JMO, but Jen has offered some very good advice as she has in the past.Jen could the clay been to aggressive i know he did mention he used plenty of lube.maybe a much softer clay can be used to remove the rest of the contamination and the use a light polish?

I suppose it could have been the clay since it is abrasive hence the need for a clay lube. I have a Toyota and have clayed it many times without problem, but then again not all paint is created equal even with the same manufacturer. He could have applied too much pressure with the clay or maybe the paint is just particularly soft. Since we don't have the vehicle right in front of us we can only speculate. I would just try the finishing polish with a finishing pad working it for at least 5 minutes and if that doesn't do the trick then I think I would go with Pei's advice and call in a professional.
 
Ok....
Let's relook at this.
First, it would be awesome if you had some pics for us to look at.
Since the car is new and a foreign model, it can suffer from a type of industrial fallout called rail dust. You said that it was swirl-free to start with. Did you look at it with the same light as after you clayed? Claying should never induce swirls unless there are large amount of rail dust present. Then the clay will remove the dust but some light swirling will appear.
I don't understand why you would get more swirls after polishing. This can be hazing which some take to look like swirls. I use Meg's #80 alot with my E2K Yellow pad and very very seldom get hazing.

Pictures would assist me and others alot.
If you can add anymore to my questions please do. We all want to help.

Justin
 
I have tried taking pics the same night this happened but cant get the swirls to show up so im trying to find the correct light to take the pics. Will post the pics when I can get them. Thanks for the replys.
 
Ok, the light on right is what I am experiencing. The light on the left just as a smudge on it. Hope this helps the explanation. Thanks.
 

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I am not sure i am seeing it , is it like the micromarring around the light? I have used M09 many time and i have never had that happen. I just looks like M09 didn't take out all the swirls
 
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