Removing swirls left speckles or pinholes?

[dr/owned]

Removing swirls left speckles or pinholes? (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/ask-expert-featuring-mike-phillips/53137-removing-swirls-left-speckles-pinholes.html)


Machine: PC
Products: Meguiar's M205, M83
Car: Honda Accord (2012)

So I was removing some light swirls using a lake country ccs 4" green pad (after wash, clay, and wash). I was able to get the swirls removed satisfactorily, but I notice in direct light that there's still some light speckling/pits where I polished. Very tiny, somewhat spaced out from each other. I thought maybe they were the abrasives, so I tried a mist of Final Inspection and a wipe and they didn't go anywhere. Did I do something wrong or is this just what happens with polishing?

Under magnification it almost looks like the abrasives slightly embedded themselves in the clear coat. I know Honda has a rep of soft clearcoats but yeesh, they can't be that soft?

[truckbutt]

Can you post a picture?

[tuscarora dave]

Are these speckles all over the car or just in the areas where gravel could have bounced off of the car leaving tiny chips behind? The gravel while not always leaving a large paint chip, will often leave sort of a dent in the paint (especially on soft paint) that gets filled with polish after polishing. You'll see this most especially on darker colored paint. I always wash and pressure rinse after a full detail and that normally removes all the production residue off the car and out of the chips.

Just the first thought that came to mind when reading your post.

[shoeless89]

Just to throw out a different point of view. I've seen these little pits or speckles a lot of times after polishing in areas of the car that it would be hard to believe that rocks or anything would effect. To me it looks like the paint has pores if that makes sense. IDK the cause of this but is that kind of what your talking about?

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[tuscarora dave]

Just to throw out a different point of view. I've seen these little pits or speckles a lot of times after polishing in areas of the car that it would be hard to believe that rocks or anything would effect. To me it looks like the paint has pores if that makes sense. IDK the cause of this but is that kind of what your talking about?

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Solvent popping, or solvent pop?
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/hot-topics-frequently-asked-questions/21639-seeing-dots-help-pinhole-solvent-pop-common-paint-issue.html

[After Hours]

If they look like little pin holes, then it is probably solvent pop. Has it been painted before?

[dr/owned]

To answer questions asked:

It's a brand new car (well 6 months old, but parked in a garage and not driven for 4 of them).

The spots do look like pin holes. Only appear in the 3 places I polished (hood, trunk, and rear fender by gas door). There were only 3 areas that had swirls from cheap microfiber towels, so those I only did a few sq. ft. total.

Everywhere else on the car the clearcoat looks flawless. None of the speckles I'm seeing.

You guys are in luck! My crappy camera decided to focus.

Here is a picture where the speckles are visible. The tape piece is the size of a thumbnail for scale reference. If you look at the shadowning, it almost looks like the spots go into the clearcoat (depression) and aren't sitting on top of it.

http://s9.postimage.org/dxqo3rfsv/DSC03157.jpg (http://postimage.org/image/yhvi28vjv/full/)

Here is a picture where I didn't polish. Pristine clearcoat.

http://s11.postimage.org/wesspd6vn/DSC03158.jpg (http://postimage.org/image/cwy59f9xr/full/)

[DaveT435]

I'm new to this and have seen something similar to this once. I was actually wondering if it is iron...or one of the contaminates that iron X removes...the car I saw it on was a black car...they really weren't that visible with the naked eye, but when I took a picture with a flash they showed up like small white spots in the paint???

[dr/owned]

I'm new to this and have seen something similar to this once. I was actually wondering if it is iron...or one of the contaminates that iron X removes...the car I saw it on was a black car...they really weren't that visible with the naked eye, but when I took a picture with a flash they showed up like small white spots in the paint???

I'm skeptical it's a surface contaminant, especially since the car was clayed (and re-washed) before it was polished, the clay didn't have much to pick up and looked pretty much the same afterwards as it did going in. You're right that they aren't all that visible to the naked eye (the pic above was taken using 4x25W daylight CFL's).

[DaveT435]

I really don't know...like I said I'm pretty new to this. When I was reading on the iron x it did say it removed contaminates that claying didn't. Someone on here was talking about using iron x on a new car because of some of the contaminants the car may have been exposed to during transport???

[shoeless89]

Solvent popping, or solvent pop?
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/hot-topics-frequently-asked-questions/21639-seeing-dots-help-pinhole-solvent-pop-common-paint-issue.html

Yep that answers my question that I have been wondering for a long time! :)

[DaveT435]

I didn't see the link Dave posted. That is interesting. I wonder if that would be covered under warranty...If you tell them you were buffing on it I'm sure they wouldn't want to cover it...but IMO it is a paint defect.

[dr/owned]

Trying to build my case of "Honda paint sucks", is the blurriness in this pic from orange peeling? I'm beginning to think it's just impossible to do anything to the car without making it worse, having today noticed some new swirls in a portion of the hood where I did nothing but seal and wax with blue and red LC pads respectively. Very depressing.

http://s8.postimage.org/jqr4h6g05/DSC03155.jpg (http://postimage.org/image/93xbbr7up/full/)

[DaveT435]

IYes...I would say the it's blurry because of the orange peel. Did you do any paint correction on the vehicle?

[builthatch]

i've been ragging on honda paint since my wife had her first '07 Si sedan taken back for issues; the new one that replaced it (in '07) eventually had paint completely pop off the primer on the roof, and at 80k Honda approved it to be repainted.

it wasn't always like this - honda paint was pretty decent for a long time. somewhere around 2006 it changed.

it's too soft, too thin and has too much trash in it. as far as peel, well...that is pretty common across the board on a lot of vehicles now, especially the lower you get on the panel.

you can try to sand and buff JUST enough to level it some but honestly...without constantly taking measurements and really having luck in your corner, i don't think it's worth the risk on these cars.

your best bet, in all honesty, is to correct it all, which is pretty damn easy...and use opti-guard. if using opti-coat 2.0, stack it during initial curing time. it will make a big difference in how easily the paint gets marred.