Help with Black Mercedes

[Mike Phillips]

Welcome to the Autogeek Online Forum!

My question is this... Will Megs 105/205 combined with a 5.5 orange pad effectively take care of these marks? Or is this rotary level stuff?

If the above combo with a 5.5 light orange foam cutting pad won't handle it then the Surbuf pad might... it's one of those things that,

"You don't know what you can do until you try"

The Surbuf pads cut fast but leave micro-marring, this is normal, simply re-polish with a less aggressive foam pad and light polish.


Check out the pictures in this thread...

Surbuf MicroFinger Buffing Pads now at Autogeek!


Removing defects is just about removing enough paint to level the highest points on the surface with the lowest depths of the defects you're trying to remove.

If the car is a daily driver then keep in mind that sometimes it's better to learn to live with the deepest defects instead of removing them because as you remove more and more clear paint you remove more and more UV protection for the basecoat or colorcoat.

A rotary buffer will remove paint faster than a tool with a Free Floating Spindle Assembly but if you work the DA Polisher correctly and with the right products and pads you should be able to reach a level of results that you'll be happy with.

Looking through the info on polishes, it seems my 6.5 pads and the XMT polish aren't quite as capable as I had hoped.

The XMT Heavy Duty Swirl Remover #4 is a true polishing compound and is completely capable of removing enough paint to remove the defects and like the Surbuf pad you'll have to re-polish using a less aggressive product to remove any haze.

I'm DEFINITELY not an expert, but the marks look a lot like oxidation to me... Basically just like small water marks that don't go away. They are still present even after the 205 and WG paintwork enhancer.

Oxidation is usually an "Uniform chalky or whitish appearance" over an entire panel, not small isolated defects.

Here are two threads I wrote with pictures of different types of defects, see if the Type II Water Spots pictures look like what you have in your car's paint in the first thread.


Tracers Tracers - RIDS - Pigtails - Cobweb Swirls - Rotary Buffer Swirls - Holograms - Water Spots - Bird Drooping Etchings - Micro-Marring

The Clearcoat Failure Photo Gallery Archive

Here's a thread that shows very distinctly what oxidation looks like...

The power in the after shots is created in the before shots

I'll try the SurBuf pad in a couple of weeks when I have time to work on the car again.

Overall the car looks awesome after ask this work, save for the marks on the hood and roof. *sigh*

Thanks for the advice, guys!! I'll report back when I give your recommendation a go.

Sounds good!