kerosene ghost marks?

[Setec Astronomy]

I don't know if Mike is familar with any of those, and he of course will have the expert recommendations, but if all you have for a machine is the Makita, and you don't want to buy from the outstanding collection here at Autogeek, I'd say get some Meg's Swirl-X locally and use it with a nice soft (black or red) clean pad with your Makita and you ought to be able to clean everything up. You do have experience with the Makita?

[blue DX]

I don't know if Mike is familar with any of those, and he of course will have the expert recommendations, but if all you have for a machine is the Makita, and you don't want to buy from the outstanding collection here at Autogeek, I'd say get some Meg's Swirl-X locally and use it with a nice soft (black or red) clean pad with your Makita and you ought to be able to clean everything up. You do have experience with the Makita?

Thanks for the advice. I shall try that next time. As for the Makita, I'm no guru but yes, I do have experience with it. At what speed do you think should I set the polisher for these ghost marks?

[Mike Phillips]

but if all you have for a machine is the Makita, and you don't want to buy from the outstanding collection here at Autogeek, I'd say get some Meg's Swirl-X locally and use it with a nice soft (black or red) clean pad with your Makita and you ought to be able to clean everything up. You do have experience with the Makita?

That will probably work... (a person won't know till they try), just to be technically correct, SwirlX is not recommended for use with a rotary buffer and this could just be a heat factor as a RB will generate more heat than the other types of machines faster and thus affect the formula but at low speeds with a polishing or finishing pad it should work. M205 would be another option and it is formulated and recommended for use with a rotary buffer.

Thanks for the advice. I shall try that next time. As for the Makita, I'm no guru but yes, I do have experience with it. At what speed do you think should I set the polisher for these ghost marks?

Low and slow... start at the 1000 RPM to 1400 RPM to cut out the staining, then wipe the paint clean, switch to a new, clean pad and re-polish at the 600 RPM range to do some jeweling or finish polishing and hopefully leave a swirl free finish.

After that... seal with your favorite wax or paint sealant.

[Mike Phillips]

[quote=blue DX;369458]
His car's paint is clear coated. Even if the stain is topical, abrasion is still needed? Is it best if i use a machine instead of just "bare hands"? The polisher I have is a Makita 9227C by the way.
[/quote[

If the Kerosene has penetrated into the upper portion of the clear layer of paint then the only way to remove the affected paint is to remove it. So "yes", some abrading or "cleaning" will be necessary.

The word cleaning always sounds so much kinder and gentler than abrading...

Hmm... I don't have much chemicals at my disposal at the moment. For paint, aside from the P&S Polish, I currently have a 21st Element Sapphire Cleaning Compound (step 1) and a Turtle Cleaner Wax (stored and untouched for several months already).

Well, I also do have Calibre Synthetic Sealant and some Yellow Wax but they don't serve the purpose of cleaning/abrading.

Mike aka Setec Astronomy is right, I'm not familiar with the polishes you listed but regardless, no matter what you have you want to start by doing a Test Spot.

Wash and dry the car, make sure it's clean, always work clean
Clay the paint if needed, inspect with your clean hand before you apply any liquid chemicals
Do a Test Spot first, take and apply the product you think might work to just one small area and then inspect the results.

The idea of a Test Spot is to check to see if the products, pads, and approach you plan on using over the entire car will work in one small area to reach your goal. If it will, the simply duplicate it or cookie-cutter it over the rest of the car.

If it's not working, then you'll be glad you didn't waste your time using your process over the entire car and come back here and tell us what you're seeing in your test spot.

Topical staining shouldn't take much to remove... you could probably do this by hand with a quality paint cleaner and by putting a little passion behind the pad...