Q about paint cleaner and when to stop

F

FLdude

New member
Ok, I'm working on a 2006 Red car, factory paint/clearcoat daily driver avg mom pop car (wife's car). We've owned it since new and only slapped two coats of liquid glass on per year. Well I've finally gotten back up to speed on paint care. I picked up some Meg's SwirlX for my paint cleaner step after the clay bar. And yes she's got light scratches in the clear. I did one panel this weekend and got it looking awsome. But My question is when do you stop with the swirlX? On my 2007 Silver car in better shape, I tried the swirlx and no paint came up, if so it was so minor I couldn't see it on a white cloth. On hers the cloth kept coming up with red paint. Does it ever stop? I tried some Liquid glass right after and it was also pulling up red paint. but the finish looked like a million bucks. So my question is do I keep cleaning the paint, or stop when it looks good?
 
First of all, are you absolutely sure your car has a basecoat/clearcoat finish? If you're seeing red on your cloth, there are only 2 possibilities that I can think of: either the finish on your car is actually single stage paint and you were mistaken about the clearcoat, or you or someone else has somehow managed to buff passed the clearcoat and you're now seeing the basecoat on your rag. If that's what happened, that panel is probably ruined and needs to be refinished. Either way, when you should stop depends on what you're looking for. If good enough is indeed good enough, then you've met your goal and it's time to stop. If absolute flawless perfection is what you're looking to achieve, then you'll most likely know it when you get there. The only thing is, you have to hope you have enough paint on the car to get there safely. BTW, I think I can safely say that all silver cars painted in the last 20 years or so are finished with a clear topcoat. That means that no matter what color car you're looking at, even black, your rag will only show a white residue, because white is the color of clearcoat if it's polished or sanded. I hope I've been of some help...Carmine
 
It's a 2006 Suzuki, factory red. We bought it new. Only thing we've done for paint care is washings every month and Liquig glass every 6 months. The swirlX pulls red on the rag pretty bad, and so does the Liquid Glass. Car has never been repainted, so it should be base coat clear coat right? that's the only thing they use now right? This car deffinately does not suffer from Over buffing..lol. I always wondered how you get paint on a rag if the paint is supposed to have "clear coat" ontop. Never understood that. On my red Camaro I'd get a bit here and there... nothing crazy. But that was a 15yr old factory paint job and 80's paint. So maybe Suzuki went cheap and didn't use a base/clearcoat?





FYI, My car is a 2007 Honda, silver.
 
There are, in fact, a handful of manufacturers that will still use single stage paint on solid colors. That is, colors that do not have any metallic or pearl content. There's nothing wrong with that, but everytime you use something with a cleaner added to it, you will get a transfer of the color. The tricky part is this: when you polish a car that has a clearcoat finish, with a product that has any amount of cleaner ingredient (or compound), you'll get great results right up to the thinnest amount of clear that's left. With single stage paint, the more you remove, the closer you get to the primer, and then the color will start to become "shallow", or transparent. So be careful. Also, any auto body shop that looks up the color code on your car will be able to tell you if it's a single or 2 stage paint, and then you can take it from there...Carmine
 
That's not a clear coated car. If it were clear coat failure it would look like a bad sunburn with pealing skin, flakes and all.



If it's turned pink then you have to cut the pink, oxidation, down to still good paint, then put on your sealer. The best way to know if you've gotten there is to polish then take some IPO and clean off the polish residue and let it dry out. Do it a couple of times. The oils from your cleaner will mix with your oxide, wetting it, and making the paint look good while there's still oxidation on it.



On the other hand, you could just go over the car, do a nice rub and stop when you're tired, wax it and see if it turns back over the next month or so and do it again if it does. Repeat till the result lasts.



Finally, there are times when the paint is just plain shot clear to the primer and even sanding it down won't work. I did a read Fiat Dino the other day I had to wet sand to cut through the oxidation because I wanted to know for sure I'd gotten down to good paint. We'll know in a few months if even that was enough or if the paint is just plain shot.



Robert
 
Yup, ya'll are right. single stage paint. So the best way to preserve paint like that is to keep it in good shape and keep it waxed/sealed. On my Clearcoat car.... ?? take it easy on the swirlX huh. polish and slap some LSP on it and keep it sealed. I can't believe it... learned another thing today. single stage paint.
 
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