Paintwork problem
Discussion
Got a problem with paintwork on my Griff and would appreciate your advice.
Colour is a pearlescent yellow ("Sunset yellow"). When I bought the car I don't think the problem was there but a few months ago I polished and then waxed the car. Most of the bodywork looked fine but a little time later noticed (in full sunlight) that the bonnet and nose had fine scratch marks/ swirls all over (not noticeable in dull conditions but very noticeable in full sunlight).
Tried polishing again but no improvement. Then I tried "T Cut Metallic"- which states on the back that its for metallic or pearlescent paint types : still no better.
Looking back I do remember that when I first polished it the polish went on strange and took some rubbing off when dry.
Wonder now if there was/is a problem with the lacquer coat (or lack of it)on the bonnet/ nose.
So :
- Has anyone had similar problems & what was the remedy.
- Never used a clay bar kit but could that help or is it more for cleaning deposits off the surface rather than removing scratches ?
-do you think I should see a paint specialist to put it right.
Thanks,
Graham
Colour is a pearlescent yellow ("Sunset yellow"). When I bought the car I don't think the problem was there but a few months ago I polished and then waxed the car. Most of the bodywork looked fine but a little time later noticed (in full sunlight) that the bonnet and nose had fine scratch marks/ swirls all over (not noticeable in dull conditions but very noticeable in full sunlight).
Tried polishing again but no improvement. Then I tried "T Cut Metallic"- which states on the back that its for metallic or pearlescent paint types : still no better.
Looking back I do remember that when I first polished it the polish went on strange and took some rubbing off when dry.
Wonder now if there was/is a problem with the lacquer coat (or lack of it)on the bonnet/ nose.
So :
- Has anyone had similar problems & what was the remedy.
- Never used a clay bar kit but could that help or is it more for cleaning deposits off the surface rather than removing scratches ?
-do you think I should see a paint specialist to put it right.
Thanks,
Graham
Edited by TVR OWL on Monday 8th July 15:36
has the car had a respray?
it sounds to me like it just has some bad swirl marks caused by poor washing technique/ polishing in the sun/ heat etc..
you will need to have it machine polished to remove the swirl marks, with either a random orbit polisher or a rotary with some cutting compound.
Should be an easy enough job to fix
if you do a quick search in youtube for portacable, or swirl removal in google and you will see lots of examples
it sounds to me like it just has some bad swirl marks caused by poor washing technique/ polishing in the sun/ heat etc..
you will need to have it machine polished to remove the swirl marks, with either a random orbit polisher or a rotary with some cutting compound.
Should be an easy enough job to fix
if you do a quick search in youtube for portacable, or swirl removal in google and you will see lots of examples
It can be that they were there from before but had been filled in (lots of glazes will fille spiderwebbing so its not visible even if it technically is still there) - alternatively it could be there were some particles present when you polished as you mentioned you didn't clay - if they are only light (can't feel with finger nail) they will be easy to polish out by machine (or I guess by hand if you have the time!). I've got the same issue with mine and they will polish out fine with appropriate equipment - I picked up a meguiars 220 da polisher as they are much safer/beginner friendly that the old rotary ones - e.g. you put too much pressure on it just won't spin.
Clay bar doesn't remove any scratches in fact it may make it easier to see them because it probably will remove any filler that may have previously been there.
To clean:
Ideally snowfoam as this removes a huge amount of the larger pieces of dirt from the car (pretty much all easily visible dirt nowadays it's really good).
Then standard 2 bucket method wash using a car shampoo (not detergent) - by snowfoaming first it makes the likelihood of this part causing any minute scratching far less likely.
Then normally you're good to go - or apply a bit more wax depending on how far you are going.
If you are looking to polish follow the above by..:
Clay bar to remove any surface contaminents (mainly the stuff you can feel when running your fingers across paint if it isn't smooth as glass) - it's really simple to do either spray some detailer or even with soapy water then run clay across surface - turn/mould to clean surface and repeat.
Then use a paint cleaner to remove any other contaminents/wax etc. still present (talking very small particles now - you may not notice anything coming off if you wash regularly).
Now you are ready to polish - then straight to wax or sealant and then wax or glaze then sealant then wax if you want to go over the top =). Some polishes contain fillers which hide the swirls, others have different degrees of abrasiveness and will actually polish the surface to flatten it and remove them completely - some are a hybrid of the two.
It shouldn't be hard to fix at all though if you don't have the equipment/want someone else to do it then should cost too much to have it detailed. I'd offer to have a go but I'm only just starting to try on mine this week so I'm not confident to help out others by messing with their babies at the mo!
Clay bar doesn't remove any scratches in fact it may make it easier to see them because it probably will remove any filler that may have previously been there.
To clean:
Ideally snowfoam as this removes a huge amount of the larger pieces of dirt from the car (pretty much all easily visible dirt nowadays it's really good).
Then standard 2 bucket method wash using a car shampoo (not detergent) - by snowfoaming first it makes the likelihood of this part causing any minute scratching far less likely.
Then normally you're good to go - or apply a bit more wax depending on how far you are going.
If you are looking to polish follow the above by..:
Clay bar to remove any surface contaminents (mainly the stuff you can feel when running your fingers across paint if it isn't smooth as glass) - it's really simple to do either spray some detailer or even with soapy water then run clay across surface - turn/mould to clean surface and repeat.
Then use a paint cleaner to remove any other contaminents/wax etc. still present (talking very small particles now - you may not notice anything coming off if you wash regularly).
Now you are ready to polish - then straight to wax or sealant and then wax or glaze then sealant then wax if you want to go over the top =). Some polishes contain fillers which hide the swirls, others have different degrees of abrasiveness and will actually polish the surface to flatten it and remove them completely - some are a hybrid of the two.
It shouldn't be hard to fix at all though if you don't have the equipment/want someone else to do it then should cost too much to have it detailed. I'd offer to have a go but I'm only just starting to try on mine this week so I'm not confident to help out others by messing with their babies at the mo!
Edited by Dischordant on Monday 8th July 18:26
Edited by Dischordant on Monday 8th July 18:28
Edited by Dischordant on Monday 8th July 19:14
Thanks for your advice guys.
I think the car may have had at least the nose resprayed in the past as when you look really close up you can see some previous stone chip depressions under the paint.
On my other cars I have found the coloured polishes cover swirls well. Shops stock them for blue, green, red, black, white cars etc but no-one seems to make a polish with yellow in
.
Think I will have one last long attempt with polishing out by hand and if theres still no impovement get a meguiars polisher as suggested. I've always been wary / scared of using machine polishers though in case I make things worse.
Thanks.
I think the car may have had at least the nose resprayed in the past as when you look really close up you can see some previous stone chip depressions under the paint.
On my other cars I have found the coloured polishes cover swirls well. Shops stock them for blue, green, red, black, white cars etc but no-one seems to make a polish with yellow in
.Think I will have one last long attempt with polishing out by hand and if theres still no impovement get a meguiars polisher as suggested. I've always been wary / scared of using machine polishers though in case I make things worse.
Thanks.
http://gtechniq.com/shop/3s-for-cars/polishing/p1-...
I would try this one Graham, works well by hand. I use it on my Chim with some of the other products here.
I would try this one Graham, works well by hand. I use it on my Chim with some of the other products here.
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