Fixing a mistake in CSL under EXO?

**DouginDenver** · 04-12-2020, 05:01 PM

I was all proud of myself for a successful first-time coating application until I noticed one spot on the hood about half the size of my thumb where I did not get all the residue off. Of course I did not notice until after applying EXO on top. So now what? I know that a selling point of CSL is that mistakes can be polished out, but with what? Will a yellow foam pad and M105 do it? I assume I just polish the small spot, but will re-application of CSL be affected by the EXO on the surrounding area? Any advice appreciated.

**Bruno Soares** · 04-12-2020, 07:25 PM

Personally, I’d polish the entire hood and do it again. I’m not sure how blending goes for CSL/EXO but I haven’t had good luck blending other coatings, had to redo the whole panel.
Probably don’t need something aggressive as M105, do you have a fine polish? Maybe M205?

**The Guz** · 04-12-2020, 08:04 PM

A polish such as M205, perfect finish, ex 04-06 on a polishing pad will get it done. You can try to blend it in and see how it looks. Of not polish the entire hood as mentioned.

Exo is prone to high spots as it takes more towels to level out.

**DouginDenver** · 04-13-2020, 09:31 AM

Originally Posted by BSoares

Personally, I’d polish the entire hood and do it again. I’m not sure how blending goes for CSL/EXO but I haven’t had good luck blending other coatings, had to redo the whole panel.
Probably don’t need something aggressive as M105, do you have a fine polish? Maybe M205?

Yes, I do have M205. I was just assuming it was harder than that. Not good news if I have to do that whole panel. Oh well, first world problems.

Mike Phillips · 04-13-2020, 09:38 AM

Originally Posted by DouginDenver

I assume I just polish the small spot, but will re-application of CSL be affected by the EXO on the surrounding area? Any advice appreciated.

In your situation - you can try doing a spot repair and blend but if you want to make sure it's perfect, then like others recommended - re-do the entire hood.

The good news is the hood on a car (or trunk lid), tend to be the easiest panels to work on.

I have done spot repairs myself, just do the proper polishing and panel wipe before re-installing the coating to the affected area and apply the coating to a larger area then polished.

Afterwards - inspect carefully. If it looks good under strong light you're good to go. If you see any appearance differences then you can always go to Plan B and re-do the entire panel.

I've done spot repairs when using BLACKFIRE Pro Ceramic Coating and they came out just fine. For anyone that's never used the BF Pro Coating, if you miss a high spot - you WILL have to mechanically abrade it off the paint. It will not wipe off with anything. It's permanent.

And this is why I wrote this article,

Installing a Ceramic Paint Coating? You MUST have a GREAT hand held light to avoid high spots!

Can I get a witness?

**Bruno Soares** · 04-13-2020, 12:39 PM

When I coated my car with Syncro I had good lighting and thought all was perfect. Under bright light it was. Outside, if sunny, it looked perfect. Cloudy days you could see the line where I broke the sections of the hood. I must have dragged some product over to the next section while wiping and couldn't see it under bright lights, only in a cloudy day. I tried to blend, no go, not with that coating. I had to re-do the hood and thankfully the second attempt it was fine.

Mike Phillips · 04-14-2020, 08:46 AM

Originally Posted by BSoares

When I coated my car with Syncro I had good lighting and thought all was perfect. Under bright light it was. Outside, if sunny, it looked perfect.

Cloudy days you could see the line where I broke the sections of the hood.

I must have dragged some product over to the next section while wiping and couldn't see it under bright lights, only in a cloudy day.

I tried to blend, no go, not with that coating. I had to re-do the hood and thankfully the second attempt it was fine.

Thanks for sharing the above. It goes to show we should all be inspecting our results using multiple sources of light.

**Bruno Soares** · 04-14-2020, 04:32 PM

Today I started polishing my car and enjoyed the fact I can change colors on my Multimatch R. Amazing how some defects are easier to see with yellow light and some are easier to see with white light.

**DouginDenver** · 05-18-2020, 09:03 AM

Just to follow up on my original question, it turned out that I had not made a CSL error, but had not fully corrected a small spot where I wet sanded. I corrected it and spotted on CSL and EXO and I cannot see any evidence of the CSL spot repair in any light.

Mike Phillips · 05-18-2020, 11:29 AM

Originally Posted by DouginDenver

Just to follow up on my original question, it turned out that I had not made a CSL error, but had not fully corrected a small spot where I wet sanded.

I corrected it and spotted on CSL and EXO and I cannot see any evidence of the CSL spot repair in any light.

Thank you for the follow-up.