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Sap stains/rubbing compound/dull paint/noob/etc.

Discussion in 'Detailing' started by tacosupreme54, Sep 3, 2013.

  1. Sep 3, 2013 at 7:59 PM
    #1
    tacosupreme54

    tacosupreme54 [OP] Well-Known Member

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    Okay, I'll attempt to make a long story short. I parked near a tree the other day. A couple of days later I noticed that I had tons of little sap droplets all over the hood and roof. So I give the truck a good wash. The actual sap droplets came off fine, but there were still orange spots on the truck. You could not actually feel them when you rub your hand across the truck. So I did a google search and found all these weird ways that were supposed to remove these stains (mayonnaise, lard, alcohol, wd40, etc.). The spots might have faded a little, but for the most part were still there. So I end up getting a clay bar, because it was also mentioned a lot when trying to find a solution. It has made my truck silky smooth, but the spots still remained. Lastly, when I got the clay bar I got some turtle wax rubbing compound (http://www.walmart.com/ip/Turtle-Wax-Premium-Rubbing-Compound/16767843) because I'd also saw it while searching. Well this stuff is taking the sap stains off like it's nobody's business. I end up getting all the spots off of the hood, then go on to the roof to get off even more sap stains, and lots of other little scratches and spots all over the truck that I hadn't been able to get before. So I ended up going crazy with the stuff and am happy to get rid of these stains, scratches, bug guts, oxidation, etc. that I thought would never come off.

    So I go to wax the truck up...and it's not quite as shiny as I expected. In fact, I can see pretty much everywhere that I used the stupid turtle wax stuff. Each spot is kind of dull. So apparently the turtle wax rubbing compound I used is too harsh? The main reason I got it is because it said right on the front that it's clear coat safe. This sucks. Luckily I did this all by hand, so I think none of it got past the clear coat. So what can I do to correct this, a polish? If so, what is a good brand and method? Would I polish the entire truck, or just the dull spots?
    Also, while I have you detailing experts here:
    -How can I remove water spots from my windows? Everytime I try to clean them, I just end up seeing streaks and water spots.
    -What can I do about my window trim? It has the terrible water spots/dry rotting and just looks really dull. I've tried Back to Black, but it didn't really work.

    Thanks in advance for any help!!
     
    Last edited: Sep 3, 2013
  2. Sep 3, 2013 at 8:34 PM
    #2
    lasllc

    lasllc Wait. . what’s wrong here

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    Sticky number one, as it should be, in this forum, is a good read.
     
  3. Sep 4, 2013 at 1:08 AM
    #3
    cheeseit

    cheeseit Well-Known Member

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    Rubbing compound is really gritty and acts like a really fine sand paper. You just need to get some swirl remover and buff out the scratches from the rubbing compound. I would just do the whole truck so you don't miss any spots and the truck has a uniform finish.

    I clay and then steel wool my windows when I really want them to be clean. The trick to cleaning windows is to use a fuckton of paper towel. I see people trying to use a small piece of paper towel which just makes everything streaky and shitty. You need a few feet of paper towel so it can easily soak everything up. Use one side to soak up the majority of the foam and then flip the towel over to remove all the remaining streaks.

    There are some really nice plastic restorer products that can save even the nastiest looking plastics to look new again.
     
    Last edited: Sep 4, 2013
  4. Sep 4, 2013 at 8:05 AM
    #4
    Boilerman

    Boilerman Well-Known Member

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    You have to be extremely careful with Turtle Wax Rubbing compound. I made the same mistake and had a scratch on the passenger front door. Got the scratch out, but the clear coat was really dull and messed up. Got some Mequier's Ultimate compound and the dullness disappeared and back to a beautiful clear coat shine. Mequier's is all I use now for and blemishes in the paint.
     
  5. Sep 4, 2013 at 7:03 PM
    #5
    tacosupreme54

    tacosupreme54 [OP] Well-Known Member

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    Okay, I used the Megiuars ultimate compound polish on a small part of the truck. The dullness is not as bad, but it's still there. Just a little less obvious. So...do I need to keep doing the polish until everything matches? I am doing this by hand, so do I need to rub harder or use a rotating polisher? I've just stopped messing with it for now because I don't want to mess it up worse. Or should I just take it to a detailer and let them fix it? I'm kind of getting worried about it because I don't want to mess it up worse because I don't know much about this.
     
  6. Sep 5, 2013 at 7:47 AM
    #6
    tacosupreme54

    tacosupreme54 [OP] Well-Known Member

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  7. Sep 5, 2013 at 1:33 PM
    #7
    cheeseit

    cheeseit Well-Known Member

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    Part of what fixes the paint with stuff like that is the heat that working the surface creates. If your doing it by hand it wont work nearly as well as using a machine to polish it.

    You shouldn't fuck anything up if you just keep the pad flat on the paint and work slowly. It's really hard to burn through on flat area of paint. We had a ruined door that we tried to burn through on at work one day and we couldn't with the polisher speed maxed out only using the edge of the pad. Try to avoid edges on the panels because those spots are more vulnerable to burning through than flat parts. Just tape the edges of panels off and go at it with the polisher.


    Posting a picture would really help too.
     
  8. Sep 5, 2013 at 2:09 PM
    #8
    Flynbyu2

    Flynbyu2 Start every day with a smile and get it over with

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    I've detailed a few dozen cars and while I'm no expert, I do have some experience.

    You're going to have a tough time getting your finish looking like new by hand. By the same token, I wouldn't use a rotary polisher without that skill-set since you could end up taking off too much clear coat or even paint.

    I have a Porter-Cable 7464XP Random Orbital. This is the only way to go. Even a newbie can't screw up their pant using one of these.

    It's time consuming and pricey to do it right, but the finished product is second to none. I use Adam's products on all my cars. You start with a swirl and haze remover, go to a wax then a sealant. That's going over the vehicle three times with three different products and three different pads.

    Watch this YouTube video. He shows how safe this beast is.

    Find somebody on the forum that has one you can borrow.


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XAqpOe9Zt4
     
  9. Sep 5, 2013 at 5:53 PM
    #9
    cheeseit

    cheeseit Well-Known Member

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    Lol I have the rotary polisher he has in the video the Makita. His pad is all fucked up though wobbles like a mother fucker thats probably why he burns through :D
     
  10. Sep 5, 2013 at 8:23 PM
    #10
    tacosupreme54

    tacosupreme54 [OP] Well-Known Member

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    I think I might just take it to a real detailer
     
  11. Sep 5, 2013 at 8:56 PM
    #11
    cheeseit

    cheeseit Well-Known Member

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    What kind of polisher do you have? Honestly your not going to hurt anything if you keep the speed low and tape off the edges. The amount of damage that you did would be super easy to take of and won't take much time to do.
     
  12. Sep 5, 2013 at 9:01 PM
    #12
    OZ-T

    OZ-T You are going backwards

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    Good call
     
  13. Sep 5, 2013 at 9:31 PM
    #13
    tacosupreme54

    tacosupreme54 [OP] Well-Known Member

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    My polisher is my two hands lol. This might also be why it's taking me longer to see the areas come back to life with more shine. It may take a few times going over it by hand to get it right. I've been debating getting a cheap polisher at walmart, but just am scared to even touch my truck with anything other than suds and wax; much less a power tool lol. What is a decent one? The ones that you can put into a drill (like Mothers Power Ball) seem easy to mess up with. So one of the random orbital ones? Or like the Megiuars DA power system tool? I'm not planning on spending a ton, because I hope to never get in the situation to need a polisher again lol.

    Yep, I'm going to give it another shot with the polish this weekend. I haven't had much of a chance to mess with it this week. I'll try a few passes of polishing it, then if it's still just not doing the trick, I'll put it in the hands of a professional.
     
  14. Sep 5, 2013 at 10:51 PM
    #14
    cheeseit

    cheeseit Well-Known Member

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    It's kinda scary at first but if your slow and careful you won't hurt anything.

    I have the Makita that I learned how to polish at an auto body shop with and it has served me very well with nearly no issues. What caused the problems was working with fresh CC and trying to get out really bad imperfections when I was still learning how to polish and not knowing how far I could push things. Taking a razor blade to scrape down a run on the edge of a fender is where your going to be risking fucking up the paint. If your just buffing up light scuffing on a flat panel there should be no issues other than maybe swirls.

    If you don't have a polisher it would probably be safer to just buy a DA polisher like the Flex mentioned in that video. The DA won't leave swirls if you are not thorough enough and it's nearly idiot proof.

    I think a polisher is well worth it. $200ish? for a polisher and being able to fix small issues in your paint is a small price to pay imo. Considering if you go to a detailer they sometimes charge up to $500 for a full paint correction on a black vehicle.
     
  15. Sep 6, 2013 at 9:20 AM
    #15
    tacosupreme54

    tacosupreme54 [OP] Well-Known Member

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    I picked up the meguiars da power system drill attachment today. I read a lot of good reviews on it. I'll see how it does this evening hopefully
     
    Last edited: Sep 8, 2013
  16. Sep 8, 2013 at 7:48 PM
    #16
    tacosupreme54

    tacosupreme54 [OP] Well-Known Member

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    Well here's a follow up on this subject. As a disclaimer, I have no affiliation with Meguiars. I got the meguiars DA power system drill attachment the other day. Finally today I got the chance to try to fix my paint. I have to say, I'm pretty sure the DA stands for dumb ass, not dual action. Because any idiot could use this thing. It was super easy to use. I just tightened it up on an 18V lithium ion cordless ryobi drill. Put a line of ultimate compound on the pad, grabbed the handle and went to town. I figured out that you definitely want to only do small sections at a time. The ultimate compound dried really quick, even on a cool surface in the shade. If I didn't get to it soon enough, it was really hard to get off and just streaked. It was a little time consuming, but then again I had places all over my truck and it's way quicker than going by hand. Also, it said that a corded drill was required; probably for higher rpms and no changing batteries. However, the ryobi I used did fine at 1500 rpms (I only had to go over a couple of spots twice) and I only used one battery and part of another for the entire truck. Overall, my truck's paint is looking better than it ever has. The ultimate compound was sufficient at bringing out a good shine, so I didn't even use the polish. The paint is clear, shiny and good as new. All of the dull spots are gone and the da power system didn't leave any swirls at all. The thing is pretty idiot proof; the worst thing that happened was that I let a few spots dry and they were harder to get off. I'm sure this thing is no substitute for a professional polisher. However, I think for the average person, it definitely bridges the gap between doing everything by hand and spending a ton on a professional polisher/paying for a professional detailing of your car. For about $55, I don't think you can beat it. You can also use it for waxing, compounding, polishing, etc. The pads are also washable/reusable. So the bottom line is that I am happy with how this thing worked and how well it helped me get my truck back in shape. I spent about $75 ($55-DA power system, $10-extra pad, $10-ultimate compound) for a job that I would have paid at least $100-200 for at a detailer or buying a polisher.
     
  17. Sep 8, 2013 at 8:29 PM
    #17
    Yotabilly

    Yotabilly Well-Known Member

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    It's supposed to wobble.:)
     
  18. Sep 8, 2013 at 9:37 PM
    #18
    Guerrilla

    Guerrilla L(.)(.)K@G(.)(.)Dz

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    Stuff

    That's a negative, it's not supposed to wobble, you're thinking of another type called "random orbital". I also have that same model Mikita. He may have had it laying on that part which will cause it to spin off balance, could've been jacked up too. Better habit to lay it on the handle.
     
  19. Sep 8, 2013 at 10:08 PM
    #19
    stmpjmpr

    stmpjmpr Well-Known Member

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    Does it come with any pads? and what pads did u get?
     
  20. Sep 8, 2013 at 10:10 PM
    #20
    User Name01

    User Name01 Little boy from FairyTale Land

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    I tried Turtle Wax once, never again. Meguiars has not let me down yet. My problem is with water spots. I am going to have to buff them out, I guess.
     

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