Is my paint ruined or is there something I can do?

[Brady]

I don't know that there's really a quicker solution.

 

The easy solution is to take it to a body shop and have them re-spray it. But with ease comes cost.

 

Think of it this way ... the paint has been neglected for 4 years. You're putting in 4 years of work all at once. It's worth it to take the extra effort, because you incrementally make progress instead of trying to guess how much is needed.

 

In your case, you're taking down an elephant. You have an assortment of weapons at your disposal, but know that choosing the wrong weapon can have negative consequences. Let's call XMT1 a BB gun. You could use XMT1, but it's going to take a long time, just like it would take many many shots to kill the elephant, or you might never get there. Maybe you take a .22 instead ... it might take a while, but you know you'll eventually get the job done. Like knocking it down with XMT4. It might take a while, but XMT4 will EVENTUALLY get the job done. Or you can jump straight to the RPG and obliterate the elephant, but you know full well that there is going to be collateral damage. That's the equivalent to jumping to an abrasive that is too heavy.

 

If you get something too aggressive, you'll do irreversible damage, but slowly working your way down with something like XMT4 might be painstaking, but you'll at least know when to stop.

[Pako]

You are absolutely correct. There were times last night that I was bogging down the motor on my PorterCable. It's got plenty of RPM's but lacking in the HP/Torque category. Even my polisher needs some Stage 2 attention now.

 

I found the first time that I got the best results using the Turtle Rubbing Compound when I used a lot of product. Last night, putting on a lot of product just slowed down the rotation to where it couldn't even turn anymore. The polisher is fairly new as well. Surely I haven't wore out the brushes already??? I know that was part of my problem. I am trying to keep enough pressure that my pad rotates about one full rotation per second. Adding any pressure was stopping the rotation dead cold which left me with just the oscillation movement. I'll have to check into it.

[wengermi]

use the 3m as a final product. turtle wax cuts really hard while 3m's rubbing compound doesn't. like bradly said you can't skip steps or its not going to come out right. you can check out adams detailer if you want to spend the money but i never tried it so i cant say if it would work in your case. i only used the swirl and haze remover sample from a car show with good results after brushing up on a tree while taking the subie off road.

 

http://www.adamspolishes.com/p-725-adams-complete-polisher-accessory-kit.aspx

[OCDetails]

You have to be more specific as to which 3M product you are talking about. They make several products for polishing paint. Some of them work well while others just have a bunch of fillers in them and don't cut worth crap. They make several commercial grade products that aren't typically found on the shelf at AutoZone as well that work well, but those are harder to come by unless you have a hookup.

[Pako]

This was the 3M product I used:

http://3mcollision.com/products/buffing-and-polishing/rubbing-compound/3m-super-duty-rubbing-compound-39004-16-ounce.html

 

Could have been user error...., quite possibly, but it was a mess compared to the other products I was using.

[Gmoe]

Oh man.. Simple Green?!?!?!? LOL I know I know.. it's been said enough, you got the point by now but I just had to say it...one...more..time.

 

Glad to see you got it sorted out. Nice work looks great now.

 

Off topic but...OCDetails I know exactly what you mean about trying to sell details and driving a car that has such shitty paint. Also my biggest complaint about Subaru. I've thought about having mine resprayed by a pro so I can keep it. But it is very hard to sell details when you can only make this crappy paint look "so so". I never realized just how different the paint is until I worked at a detail shop (this past year). I want to bring my LGT to a BMW plant and have their paint applied, then start with that. So much better, harder, smoother quality finish it's not even funny how bad it makes Subaru (and many others) paint look. Though Subaru is by far the worst, thinnest, most chipped and soft finish I've worked on so far. It does not help that the body panels are paper thin either. Dings everywhere!

[Pako]

Oh man.. Simple Green?!?!?!? LOL I know I know.. it's been said enough, you got the point by now but I just had to say it...one...more..time.

 

Glad to see you got it sorted out. Nice work looks great now.

 

Off topic but...OCDetails I know exactly what you mean about trying to sell details and driving a car that has such shitty paint. Also my biggest complaint about Subaru. I've thought about having mine resprayed by a pro so I can keep it. But it is very hard to sell details when you can only make this crappy paint look "so so". I never realized just how different the paint is until I worked at a detail shop (this past year). I want to bring my LGT to a BMW plant and have their paint applied, then start with that. So much better, harder, smoother quality finish it's not even funny how bad it makes Subaru (and many others) paint look. Though Subaru is by far the worst, thinnest, most chipped and soft finish I've worked on so far. It does not help that the body panels are paper thin either. Dings everywhere!

 

I hear ya, I hear ya.... No more of the simple stuff that's green. I have determined that what is on my car is etched into the clear coat. I am fully prepared that if I get down into the paint trying to fix this, it will be time for a new paint job. The front of my bumper and hood has some pretty serious road rash so it wouldn't be the end of the world.

 

If I can get it looking good, then great.

 

Thanks for the Simple Green reminder (again).

[Pako]

This was the 3M product I used:

http://3mcollision.com/products/buffing-and-polishing/rubbing-compound/3m-super-duty-rubbing-compound-39004-16-ounce.html

 

Could have been user error...., quite possibly, but it was a mess compared to the other products I was using.

 

Ok, well.... I take back what I said previously about this compound. It really works awesome!

 

There were a couple noob mistakes I made the first time around with this compound. 1.) I didn't use a clean pad, it already had some product residue on it. 2.) I didn't wipe off the car between polish applications.

 

Correcting these two issue as well as using more pressure yielded fantastic results.