Rotary polisher to the rescue!

[Don M]

Well, I THOUGHT I had polished out the damage from the car sitting outside, uncared for, for a month, while waiting for parts - I was WRONG.

I THOUGHT that by using an aggressive foam cutting pad and then a mild polishing foam pad on my orbital FIXED the issue - I was wrong

I went out this morning with my coffee, just to LOOK at the car (don't act like most of YOU don't do the same thing, once in a while), and I saw that the damage had "come back!"

Once I got over my initial, EXTREME level of irritation, I realized that my FIRST thoughts after seeing the condition of the top surfaces of the car were RIGHT. It would likely take either a rotary polisher or wet-sanding to "fix" the issues. Well, I DID NOT want to wet-sand the car, but I DO have a rotary - I just don't use it very often at all.

So I get the rotary, and knowing I can quickly cause unrepairable damage if not careful, I decide on a light polishing pad (actually the only type of pads I have that are 6" - which is the size of the backing plate on the rotary) and the Turtle Wax, 1 and Done Compound and set the polisher to speed 2.5. I figure that would be fast enough to correct the issues (if they were correctable by polisher), but slow enough that it would minimize the odds of causing damage.

I did a test spot on the roof, since it's the least 'visible' if it didn't work. Well it worked, and better than I thought. So I finished the roof and moved to the trunk lid/rear spoiler. Same results, so I moved onto the quarter panels (where they are horizontal), and they came out great as well.

I saved the hood for last, knowing that if there was a chance for a good 50/50 shot, it would be the hood. So I used the rotary on the driver's side of the hood. I should mention that I knew I don't have the experience with the rotary to polish a panel WITHOUT leaving holograms. So once I was done with the rotary on a panel, I would use my orbital, with a light cutting pad and more TW compound on speed 6, to clear up any marring from the rotary. That too, was successful.

So here are two pictures. One a 50/50 of the hood, showing what I saw when I went out with my coffee first thing, and after the rotary/orbital combo. The second picture is the hood, completed and the car washed (to get rid of all the splatter from the rotary). In the "finished" picture, it DOES look hazy around the overhead lights, but it's not. The hood seems to have thousands of tin "pinholes" almost like sandblasting marks. PROBABLY because the car HAS been driven over 166,000 highway miles all year round, and it does look worse IN THE PICTURE. When viewed with my eyes, it looks really dang good.

[PaulMys]

That's right, Don.......

Show that paint who's boss!!


Nice work, my friend!

[SNP209]

Looks like the damage that reappeared were water spots? Did you use a water spot remover before polishing? The theory is that in some cases attempting to polish out water spots only pushes the minerals that cause the spotting deeper into the paint only for them to reappear later on. Supposedly, using a good water spot remover before polishing will help soften up the mineral deposits and they will polish out easier. Just some food for thought.

[Sizzle Chest]

Nice save...again! LOL, looks like you took care of it this time, looks good!!