So next we clayed it, finally got the paint to stop making noise when we'd run a towel over it. Then we broke out the polishers, pads and product. This was an Optimum day, Optimum Hyper-Compound, then followed up with Hyper-Polish, then the car was washed with Optimum No Rinse and finally had Optimum Opti-Coat applied. Wow, i sound like a commercial lol. Ok but seriously...this was our first crack at using Hyper-Compound & Polish. We had our old stand by with us too, Meguiars 105, D300 and 205 polish JUST incase...but gotta say the Optimum duo did the job.
We taped off the hood and compound ...and then polished on one side of the tape...we left the other side as it was before (washed and clayed but no polishing done).
Heres what we got:
Boo-yah! Yes, the metallic paint shines again! This was after IPA wipe downs so, no fillers in this paint, this was true correction.
Out in the sun she looked just as stunning on one side....and equally as hideous on the other:
Close up shot of the finished side:
Yeah, we couldn't believe this was the same paint...
One more 50/50 shot...the un-done side is INSANELY hazy...it actually has a grey hue to it...the finished side though...well, you know whats up:
Seeing this is always inspirational...this is why we do what we do. Time, sweat and fatigue aside, this kinda stuff keeps us going. The only problem was well, we had about 9 acres of paint left to polish!
One thing the owner questioned me about was the wavy look of the paint (this was during the time we bid the ride).
I explained to him that this was orange peel...unfortunately even extremely expensive SUV's like this still come from the factory with orange peel due to them being machine painted and not sanded down properly. There was even a very small run in one spot:
Unfortunately, nothing we could do...thought i AM looking forward to trying out the new Orange Peel Removal Pads sold by Corey at CarPro-Us.com To be able to remove orange peel without sanding would be a HUGE advancement in paint correction, you can bet we'll be trying these out soon.
Where my 5" pads were able to cut almost every swirl/scratch i came across, some were rather deep:
Ones like these i broke out my 3" pad and focused directly on a particular scratch. Yes it takes extra time to just focus on a small area but, to us, its well worth it...and surely paid off:
While i marched on doing the compounding, my sister was steadily staying behind me polishing the paint up to a super high gloss:
Look, another one of my beloved RIDS (Random Individual Deep Scratch):
Back to the 3" pad and:
As you can see the paint is slightly hazy. Using smaller pads up's the amount of cut so the polishing step is VERY important to be sure no haze/marring is left over.
Now while i was loving how Hyper-Compound was cutting and equally loved how Hyper-Polish finished the paint up...one thing we did notice is that the claim of 'No Dusting" well...just isn't really true lol:
Lets face it...compounds are composed of particles that are needed to cut the paint, once the liquid dries up and only the particles left, dust happens, until some super genius comes up with some way to get around it. Until then, you just live with it. While it was a little annoying, we didn't really care because the paint was coming out awesome.
Here i am about to start compounding behind the rear door:
The passenger side was nice and glossy after we both finished, we still had a long ways to go but, it sure looked promising:
Now back to our regularly scheduled programing:
Small pads are essential for reaching into tight areas, like underneath the emblems on the back hatch:
It was starting to get a bit dark but we were still working..our LED light really showed what the paint was looking like, still much work to be done:
LED lights, its a love hate relationship...they show EVERYTHING:
We finally came to the point of being done with the polishing. Luckily 80% of the roof was glass...no major swirl correction needed there...but it did all have to be opti-coated...and washed.
The awesome part about doing an ONR wash after using optimum polishes is that it is suppose to remove all polishing oils that may be left on the paint. The other great part is washing with ONR is pretty easy and much less chance of accidentally leaving water spots from a typical wash...dont wanna Opti-Coat over those.
My sis attacked the rims with Opti-Coat while i started on the paint. After she finished, she did the lights and trim and then dressed the tires (carefully, making sure to not get anything on coated rims since the coating was fresh) and wells.
After finishing...it was well past dark...about 9 p.m at this point, but even in the garage it looked awesome:
No swirls on this paint:
Ready to rest in the garage for the rest of the night:
Linear Mode
