Suburbazine
04-24-2020, 12:03 AM
As the title implies, I've been a heavy user of a local carwash (easily 300 washes) using "ceramic infused" wash systems by a company called Blair Ceramics. While there's not any explanation of what their formulae are, I'm guessing it's SiO2. My car has a few scratches which I was hoping to fill in over time (ha ha) but rather than filling in they've developed vertically in what I'm guessing is the ceramic buildup. I spent about an hour on the trunklid (pictures below) with Griot's compound and polish, which eliminated the orange peel present and left a glassy finish behind. Even after all that I still see (but cannot feel) the scratches. Even a close-up with a magnifying glass makes them look above the paint with vertical structure present.
Big pictures, so I'm linking rather than embedding:
Here's scratch area #1. It just rained so there are some water spots that I didn't wipe off for the shot:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/4183/f4xI7E.jpg
Area #2:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/5743/WMPkxa.jpg
What it looked like before rain and after compound+polish:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/2111/k1onKc.jpg
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/5225/VJYZDr.jpg
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img923/4034/xV1DPE.jpg
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/9817/kHasH0.jpg
Scratches probably have 16+ (maybe more- I put them in grid section overlaps) passes with Griot's Compound, black FAST cutting pad on Griot G9 at speed 5. After that was 16+ passes with polish on an orange pad at speed 3. I spent about an hour total on just this top trunk section working slowly. I'm a novice when it comes to this stuff (my only knowledge comes from the videos here) so I figured slower was better. I'm sort of scared to try going after it any harder because I don't want to tear up the paint or clear...and because a local detailer wasn't able (or didn't attempt) to remove them either.
Big pictures, so I'm linking rather than embedding:
Here's scratch area #1. It just rained so there are some water spots that I didn't wipe off for the shot:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/4183/f4xI7E.jpg
Area #2:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/5743/WMPkxa.jpg
What it looked like before rain and after compound+polish:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/2111/k1onKc.jpg
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/5225/VJYZDr.jpg
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img923/4034/xV1DPE.jpg
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/9817/kHasH0.jpg
Scratches probably have 16+ (maybe more- I put them in grid section overlaps) passes with Griot's Compound, black FAST cutting pad on Griot G9 at speed 5. After that was 16+ passes with polish on an orange pad at speed 3. I spent about an hour total on just this top trunk section working slowly. I'm a novice when it comes to this stuff (my only knowledge comes from the videos here) so I figured slower was better. I'm sort of scared to try going after it any harder because I don't want to tear up the paint or clear...and because a local detailer wasn't able (or didn't attempt) to remove them either.