New guy with a few questions

[Radster1986]

I have been viewing the forum for quite sometime. It has been a great wealth of knowledge for sure. I think I need a little more 101 though as I am facing a new venture in my detailing needs. I recently purchased a 2013 KIA Rio SX hatchback. It is a SWEET little ride, but it is the mother of all colors to keep pretty, BLACK! The color is a metallic sparkly black and it looks gorgeous however it came with the undesired DISO, yuck! I have had my Meguairs DA polisher for a few months and have used it with great sucess on lighter colors, but I am not having the best of luck with getting the DISO out of my black paint. I knew what I was getting into when I bought a black car, and was totally willing to accept that its part of the joy and experience of owning a black car that when its just about perfect no other color looks better or reflects your dedication to having a nice car. The weather was really crummy this past weekend, humid and misty, but I had to get a nice detail and wax in before it drops into the 30s for the next few months. So here is my situation. Against my better judgement I used Meguiars UC to do alot of the swirl removal, I know I should have used the least aggressive first, but dont worry this isnt one of those OMG what did I do to my car posts, because for the most part it turned out really well, as I have had some experience with using UC with a DA. I used a CCS white pad with the UC and then finished with a black CCS pad with Meguiars Gold Class on the car. This is more of a clarification of what I can do better next time I give the car a good buff out, which most likely will be in the early spring or when the weather permits. So here is what I would like clarification on....

-I still have some swirls and straight "spider webbing" in certain places, and some little isolated marks where I messed up and you can see the oscillating marks from the DA
( I only found a few 2 inch spots of this in a curved panel)

-The car has quite a few RIDS, most of them looks like marks where a cover or some kind of tarp was slid across a gritty surface, 9 out of 10 of them I cant catch with my fingernail (which is good news?) and mostly blended in with the buffing but you can still see the lines in the paint where they are.

- And for anyone who is an interior guru, I have a small scratch on the textured plastic dashboard that really isnt that bad and you cant see it unless you are looking for it, more like little "whiskers" sticking up where the material has been scratched. Someone suggested heating it up with a hair dryer to reform the plastic. I honestly can live with it if its going to make things worse by messing with it, then I may not be able to live with haha.

I know its a brand new car and nothing in this world is going to be perfect, especially black, but what can I do for the above mentioned to achieve my goal of keeping a nice clean, swirl free finish, and what I can improve on technique wise? Thanks in advance! :xyxthumbs:

[CM8 6MT]

My advise to you is to take it one step at a time. Many new folks tend to "dive" right into the world of detailing and really try their best to achieve that show car finish. Often times they go too aggresive right away, or use poor technique and wonder why they are not getting good results.

And you will get a show car finish, it just takes time and the more time you take learning the RIGHT way the better and faster your results will come. As far as compounding with UC, you need to follow up with M205, UP or any other fine polish. Menzerna & Optimum are some great alternatives.

Practise perfecting your technique before you go on tackling RIDS. Above all, have fun while your doing it :)

[tuscarora dave]

If I owned a black car from new...I'd do an initial swirl removal and then use Mothers Foam Pad Polish (from their professional line) from there on out. The fillers in the Mothers pro line hide more swirls than any other product I've used. This would make the car look awesome, take a lot less time to achieve an awesome look and preserve your super thin clear coat.

Mothers Professional Foam Pad Polish, mothers car polish, machine polish, auto polish (http://www.autogeek.net/mothers-foam-pad-polish.html)

[Radster1986]

Thanks for the info, I will have plenty of time to stock up before spring, I dont anticipate doing anything anytime soon given the weather is going to be pretty cold and nasty, but I will probably do a few maintenance washes on nicer days. Any ideas about that dashboard scratch? Perhaps a dressing I could use to mask it, I used some Meguiars Natural Shine, and while it helped it also made it darker and easier to see ha.