Paint Correction Progress

[Junkman2008]

Originally Posted by CamaroDreams07

You will get polish build up under the edges and could cause the stripes to lift a little at the edges. However, it's your call. The tape isn't going to hurt a thing. I like to tape off all rubber trim as well, such as around the windows.

Originally Posted by dme

Oh, and those before pics had already been washed and clayed.

Well washing and claying won't do anything for that before damage.

Originally Posted by dme

Can't wait to rub this one in his face and hope he pays my bill...

Not unless you sue him in small claims court.

Originally Posted by CamaroDreams07

Hmm..you're using blue painters tape? I'm not sure what the issue could've been. The tape should give before the pad does. Sometimes I'll lift an edge of tape, but never had a problem with my pads. And the dusting is from using too much polish. It's clogging up the pores.

Originally Posted by CamaroDreams07

Dude's an absolute moron. My car has 30,000 miles and has never looked less than 95% perfect.

133,000 here and I'd put my paint up against a new car.

[dme]

I know washing and coating doesn't make a dofference for the paint, but I mean it was perfectly clean and looked that bad.

[XQIZT]

Lookin REAL good. Glad to see a total detailing virgin get amazing results that a dealer said were impossible.

Once you get it "perfect," you should never have to go through that extreme of a correction IF you use a proper 2 bucket wash method. Occasional touch-ups with Fine Machine Polish will be all you'll need to stay perfect.

[Godon Hutchinson]

dme Its looking good so far. you should be proud of what youve been able to do on your first go at it. keep working at it and that thing will look better then it ever has.

[ChadG]

DME, great work so far - I can't wait to see how the whole car turns out! I really feel for you, and hope you're able to get the vengeance you deserve on that idiot from the dealership!

Seriously, though, when I first saw how bad your paint was I was really doubtful about how much you'd get it corrected - I'm really impressed!

[dme]

I finished up today. It ended up taking over 20 hours of actual work... I got the hood looking close to perfect. If I wanted to fix all of the damage on the car with just the PC I would be at it for days and days and days. I'll either have to find someone who can do it for me or look into more ways of fixing the countless deeper scratches.

This first video is showing my hood's problems. The second video is showing the trunk before and correction, followed by the corrected hood.




Even though I wasn't able to fix the deeper scratches all over the car, the hood looks 99% better. The car overall is probably 95% better looking, but it's still covered in scratches.

[CamaroDreams07]

Originally Posted by dme

I finished up today. It ended up taking over 20 hours of actual work... I got the hood looking close to perfect. If I wanted to fix all of the damage on the car with just the PC I would be at it for days and days and days. I'll either have to find someone who can do it for me or look into more ways of fixing the countless deeper scratches.

This first video is showing my hood's problems. The second video is showing the trunk before and correction, followed by the corrected hood.




Even though I wasn't able to fix the deeper scratches all over the car, the hood looks 99% better. The car overall is probably 95% better looking, but it's still covered in scratches.

Hood looks very good. Now time to get on the rest of the car

[dme]

Originally Posted by CamaroDreams07

Hood looks very good. Now time to get on the rest of the car

Like I said... I had over 20 hours into this. That video was taken before I got finished. I started Sunday morning and just got done with it tonight. It took over 10 passes to get the hood right and would have taken at least that many to get the rest of the car right. There's no way I could spend that much time to do it with the PC. I'll have to look into other options I suppose. I'm really pissed/depressed that my brand new car looks like this and I'm stuck dealing with it.

[CamaroDreams07]

Originally Posted by dme

Like I said... I had over 20 hours into this. That video was taken before I got finished. I started Sunday morning and just got done with it tonight. It took over 10 passes to get the hood right and would have taken at least that many to get the rest of the car right. There's no way I could spend that much time to do it with the PC. I'll have to look into other options I suppose. I'm really pissed/depressed that my brand new car looks like this and I'm stuck dealing with it.

I would strongly advise against "looking into other options." Your other options are something like the Flex (expensive and you don't need it), or a rotary (don't even think about it).

Take the time and do yours one panel at a time. Let's break it down like this. The hood is done. Now, we can break down the rest of the car into chunks that you can tackle in a few hours when you get a chance:

1. Roof
2. Front fenders and front bumper
3. 1 door and 1 rear panel
4. Other door and rear panel
5. decklid and rear bumper

So even if you did one a week, you'd be done in a little over a month. Just make sure you're washing properly and resealing the areas you polished to protect them.

Now, you say it took 10 passes. What exactly was your process? Is that 10 SHR followed by one FMP? You probably want to go ahead and bump it up to SSHR with the green pad. That should cut down your amount of passes significantly.

[Junkman2008]

Originally Posted by dme

Like I said... I had over 20 hours into this. That video was taken before I got finished. I started Sunday morning and just got done with it tonight. It took over 10 passes to get the hood right and would have taken at least that many to get the rest of the car right. There's no way I could spend that much time to do it with the PC. I'll have to look into other options I suppose. I'm really pissed/depressed that my brand new car looks like this and I'm stuck dealing with it.

It took me 6 months to get my car perfect using the PC, working on and off when I could. I was also learning as I went. So 20 hours is just a small walk in the park in comparison, and you have help. Look at it this way. You have what you need to fix your paint. Had you paid someone, you wouldn't have squat in supplies and they may have not done as good of a job as you're doing. That's food for thought.

Get the stuff you can fix done first. Worry about the deeper stuff later.

[CamaroDreams07]

Also, I don't know what kit you bought, but if you don't have it already, I'd be happy to send you my green pad and SSHR for you to use if you just wanted to cover the shipping both ways. I don't know how much that would save you, but it's got to be cheaper than the $40+ shipping it'd cost you to buy it new.

[dme]

Originally Posted by CamaroDreams07

I would strongly advise against "looking into other options." Your other options are something like the Flex (expensive and you don't need it), or a rotary (don't even think about it).

Take the time and do yours one panel at a time. Let's break it down like this. The hood is done. Now, we can break down the rest of the car into chunks that you can tackle in a few hours when you get a chance:

1. Roof
2. Front fenders and front bumper
3. 1 door and 1 rear panel
4. Other door and rear panel
5. decklid and rear bumper

So even if you did one a week, you'd be done in a little over a month. Just make sure you're washing properly and resealing the areas you polished to protect them.

Now, you say it took 10 passes. What exactly was your process? Is that 10 SHR followed by one FMP? You probably want to go ahead and bump it up to SSHR with the green pad. That should cut down your amount of passes significantly.

It took me about 14 hours to get the hood to where it's at (there is still several scratches). I'm not sure how many passes it was... I lost count. I have a very hard time seeing and controlling what I was doing on the side of the car, even with a well lit garage with two halogen spot lights. I moved on and did 6 passes on the roof with no success on removing the scratches before I called Dylan and asked what the hell I should do. He said the PC was for swirls. Anything deeper would take lots and lots of time, especially if they're all over. He suggested their 4" pad system or something (haven't looked into it yet) or wet sanding. The PC worked wonders with the swirls and that sort of thing. When I was doing the hood and compared one side to the other... the non-polished side almost looked grey it had so many "swirl" caliber scratches.

[CamaroDreams07]

Originally Posted by dme

It took me about 14 hours to get the hood to where it's at (there is still several scratches). I'm not sure how many passes it was... I lost count. I have a very hard time seeing and controlling what I was doing on the side of the car, even with a well lit garage with two halogen spot lights. I moved on and did 6 passes on the roof with no success on removing the scratches before I called Dylan and asked what the hell I should do. He said the PC was for swirls. Anything deeper would take lots and lots of time, especially if they're all over. He suggested their 4" pad system or something (haven't looked into it yet) or wet sanding. The PC worked wonders with the swirls and that sort of thing. When I was doing the hood and compared one side to the other... the non-polished side almost looked grey it had so many "swirl" caliber scratches.

PM me if you're serious about taking care of this. I have everything you'd need and like I said, no problem lending it to you, polishes or the spot pads, whatever.. I feel bad for what you've gone through.

Dylan's right, the PC isn't going to take out the deepest stuff, but you can get that car to 95% I'm sure. The spot pads can be used on either the PC or a drill and work magic on deeper spots.

[dme]

Originally Posted by Junkman2008

It took me 6 months to get my car perfect using the PC, working on and off when I could. I was also learning as I went. So 20 hours is just a small walk in the park in comparison, and you have help. Look at it this way. You have what you need to fix your paint. Had you paid someone, you wouldn't have squat in supplies and they may have not done as good of a job as you're doing. That's food for thought.

Get the stuff you can fix done first. Worry about the deeper stuff later.

I've got a few things that are going to be killer with working on it when I have free time. It's my daily driver for one. My garage at home only has enough room to park inside. I had to use my dad's garage (about 15 minutes away). Because of that stuff it's hard to just go work on it for an hour here and there until it's fixed. I'm just very upset that I'm having to fix these deep scratches. I have seen this as a good learning experience... but dammit. I bought a new car. D: Getting rid of the swirls was nothing.