My recent encounter with DISO

[kivyee]

Hello everyone,
About 3 weeks ago I bought a new SUV with Hyundai's Beckett's Black (black pearl) paint. During inspection it looked fine, but a few days and one rain later, I saw this:




Needless to say I was peeved. Long story short, after letting the dealer detailer have a go and another highly recommended local detailer (who in hindsight is more about washing/waxing than paint correction), I still had this and something I didn't find acceptable for a new car:





Armed with a PC7424 (yes, w/o the XP), 6" Meg cutting, polish, and finishing pads, Meg Ultimate Compound, and about 7 hours spread over a couple of days, I went to town on the car. Here are the before and after pics - the after is post compounding, prior to polishing (not convinced I want to do that yet, as the paint is just about where I want it and there's many other projects waiting for me...), and prior to LSP which is going to be collinite 845...






While I'm not happy that my already thin clear coat is now thinner, at least I've learned some valuable skills and can finally get back to the important things, like spending time with the family instead of polishing the car!

And yes, NEVER let the dealership wash or "detail" your car!

[The Guz]

Looks much better. How do you know the clear coat is thing? Did you take readings with a paint gauge?

[North26]

I have to confess...I tend to look at pictures before text so when I saw picture 1 I thought you had a massive amount of over spray or something lol. Anyways in the first picture it didn't look that bad, some like swirls but 2nd would have irked me too. Anyways nice job bud!

But why did you compound the whole car and not just spots? Unless dealer washed your car in a rock tumbler that seems a tad aggressive to me. What is your clear thickness now?

[kivyee]

Looks much better. How do you know the clear coat is thing? Did you take readings with a paint gauge?

My "thin clear coat" comment is based on Mike Philip's post on how modern clear coats are thinner than a post-it note!

North26, there were swirls *ALL OVER* the car. The long horizontal scratches that spanned 3 panels I'm not sure was from the dealer, but the swirls were bothering me. I have a 5 year old mazda with much less swirls than my brand new car!

Anyway, will have some final pics soon once I get a chance to wax the car!