Seeing polish breakdown on white?

X

xDevious

New member
I decided to polish out the swirls in my Scion today, and after working on it for a while I saw most of the swirls were gone, but there seems to be tiny little specks in the paint now that I didnt notice before. I could not for the life of me get them to show on camera.



Im thinking I did not work the polish long enough.. not sure, still new at this, but with the other cars I buffed, which were dark colors, I did not notice this, but was easily able to tell when the polish had broken down. Any tips to seeing this a little more clearly?



Or.. info as to what the "specks" are?
 
Where are the specks located? All over the car or just on the front end of the car?



The reason I ask is because I had the same thing happen to me on my white Subaru. I think what happened was the M105 cleaned out the paint so good it revealed all of the rock chips and sand blasting from long trips to Vegas on the freeway. It was only on the front end of the car I noticed this - hundreds of tiny little dots/specks/pits, whatever you want to call them.
 
Regulars here know that I'm always bashing fluorescent light, preferring incandescent when polishing so I can better inspect my progress (or lack of it).



But you might find it easier to see the polish on white paint under fluorescent lighting.



Otherwise, I'd try to get a feel for the amount of time required, doing a finger-swipe test now and then to help determine when the polish is at the not-quite-dry point.
 
The specks are over the entire car. I got the hang of the polish breakdown once I made it all the way around the car. I kept a very close eye on the paint, and got a feel for it once I started seeing the reflection crisp up under the polish. I'll eventually get better, but Im quite proud of the results. I do think I'll need to hit it with a rotary at some point.. removing the swirls showed me a lot of scratches that didnt seem to want to come out with the PC I bought, that were hidden amongst the swirls. The car does look a ton better.. got a -couple- close-ups during polishing, but was 9:30pm by the time I was done, no outdoor shots. Total time invested was about 10 hours between 2 days.. still havent done the roof of the car... which I think is going to be a pain due to the fact that I deliver pizza, and have the magnet-mount sign on the roof 2 days a week, and it ground in some dirt.



I appreciate the help, and love the fact that much more knowledgeable people are so willing so help out a newb. I recommend the site to everyone I know that likes to keep their car looking new.
 
xDevious said:
.. still havent done the roof of the car... which I think is going to be a pain due to the fact that I deliver pizza, and have the magnet-mount sign on the roof 2 days a week, and it ground in some dirt..
Click to expand...



Maybe you could come up with some kind of protection between the sign and your paint. Wonder if the sign's magnet would be strong enough to work through some sort of plastic film :think:



Glad you got the polishing thing figured out.
 
Possibly acid rain etching?



Do the specs looks like this...





DSC06587.jpg
 
dsms - They look much like that, only not so concentrated.



Accumulator - As far as a barrier, I was considering going to the local tint shop and possibly having him do some of the clear bra stuff on the roof in that area.. does the clear bra swirl up as much as paint? or is it more resistant? if it does swirl... can it be polished out with like plastX or something? I read over this forums hundreds of times before polishing my car.. No way to REALLY learn, until you try, and experiment first-hand. All the reading in the world wont make you good at it. It sure does flatten the learning curve, though. I attribute my "success" to the good people here on this forum.
 
xDevious said:
Accumulator - As far as a barrier, I was considering going to the local tint shop and possibly having him do some of the clear bra stuff on the roof in that area.. does the clear bra swirl up as much as paint? or is it more resistant?
Click to expand...



IME it's slightly more resistant.

if it does swirl... can it be polished out with like plastX or something?
Click to expand...



To some extent but not 100%. Some say you shouldn't abrasively polish it at all so :nixweiss



I was thinking more of a static-cling film though. IIRC they make them that are pretty thick (hence protective) that can be peeled on/off and IMO that'd be a lot better for your situation than a semi-permanent clear-bra type film. I bet you could almost get by with just some thick saran/cling-wrap stuff; I've done that when using magnetic-based funeral procession flags on my vehicles (the paint has to be clean though...).



..I read over this forums hundreds of times before polishing my car.. No way to REALLY learn, until you try, and experiment first-hand. All the reading in the world wont make you good at it. It sure does flatten the learning curve, though..
Click to expand...



Heh heh, you mean to say it makes the learning curve *steeper* (opposite of flattening it out) since you get greater learning (high up on the Y-axis) over shorter time (without going too far along the X-axis). Sorry to be so pedantic but this is one of those things I can't resist correcting :o
 
You're right ;P Thats what happens when you post at 1am ;P



Never thought of the static cling stuff.. I'll have to see what I can get my hands on..
 
Finally uploaded pictures of the "specks".





Specks



Before



After





The before, and after shots were taken on a different panel, which is why the numbers of the images dont add up. The specks appeared during polishing, and still remain to some extent. I got pressed for time, so had to do a quicker polish with less passes. I have to strip the wax back off the car, and go over it again soon. So dont judge on the swirls still being present ;P



The pictures are HUGE.. just a warning.
 
xDevious- OK, those pics show the problem quite well.



I've seen pitting like that from a number of causes- abrasion (like sandblasting) from rocks/etc., damage from acid-rain, and "solvent pop" from poor-quality repaints. My M3 has it from what I suspect are the first (on the roof) and the last (on the hood). My Yukon has it from the acid-rain (I presume).



Sometimes, yeah, the pitting isn't visible until *after* you do some polishing...and you think to yourself "oh sheesh, I'm solving one problem but exposing another!". I'm afraid that's just the way it goes sometimes :nixweiss



AFAIK you can't really *fix* it except by repainting. Just finish your polishing and see how it turns out.



That's some nasty marring you're polishing out BTW, looks like it still needs even more work (in the pic that shows the pitting).
 
Ya, its rough... I wish I had found this forum before I even bought the car, I would have washed it in a completely different manner. I definitely need to go over it again. Wish I had a pro around here to give a hand, and kinda show me the best method to get it looking it's best.
 
xDevious- IMO you're making good progress as it is. Just remember to *not* switch to your milder pad/product combos until the marring is as corrected as you want. Just use the mild stuff to clear up micromarring/etc. from your aggressive combos, and let the heavy hitters do the hard work.



I just wouldn't worry about the pitting, hey...life happens.
 
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