Quote:
Originally Posted by epapp
What do people do to keep spider webs in the paint to a minimum? I have used a polishing wheel with meguiars ultimate compound (last summer) to really get rid of the hazy top layers of paint when I bought the car, and I can keep the guards red looking great and shiny, but the spider webs have come back/remain. You can only see them in direct sunlight but I'm looking for any good ideas or processes that others use.
I don't want to continually cut the paint with a random orbital and meguiars medium-cut or fine-cut cleaners because eventually there will be no paint left.
How does everyone keep the swirls, spiderwebs away?!?!?  |
When you get out the orbital, have you been able to leave the paint swirl free?
Meaning when you shine a halogen lamp (cheap at Sears) or an LED flash light, is the paint surface totally clear?
If it isn't, you aren't using an aggresive enough polish (like Menzerna IP), are using too much polish, aren't overlapping the orbital in L shape passes, or aren't using an aggresive enough cutting pad (I think the Meguiar's are maroon).
And you have to move very slowly when you're cutting, the weight of the orbital has to be fully over the swirl, but don't push down.
This can easily take over an hour to do even on a small car like the Boxster. If you're a pro detailer, you already know the precise pad, the precise polish to use, the precise quantity of polish and the precise speed, and they generally get it done much faster than a DIY'er. You have to get all of the above right to get the 100% mirror finish.
If you are leaving the surface clean, and confirmed so with the flashlight, and the swirls are coming back then you're either washing improperly or aren't using a high enough quality towel. Try a long nap towel like Griot's Garage blue towels. About $4 per towel, in my experience anything less than $3 is pretty much just a janitorial microfiber towel, the kind used on linoleum floors, repackaged for auto stores. These will wreck your paint in only a few uses. If you don't have access to an orbital, try layering a sealant and remove with lubrication (like a detail spray) once the sealant has hazed over. The more layers, the longer it will take for the swirl channels to reflect light once the sealant has worn off from rain, heat, washing, etc.
Larry Kosilla of AMO NYC makes a sealant I've been wanting to try that seems to be pretty durable. He has a great YouTube channel under DRIVE Clean