This thread is for the attention of the detailing geeks - you know who you are. I believe given the specific nature it merits its own thread rather than me tagging questions onto Tango Man's generic thread.

I've been planning a correction session on the Subaru for a while now and made my first attempt today with the Dewalt a meguiars yellow pad and meguiars #80 Speed Glaze. My results were less than satisfying so I bailed out to take advice.

The car basically requires all over correction as the body work is riddled with swirl marks and light scratches (light IMHO, but clearly too heavy for my approach). I should also say I have no frame of reference, what I regard as light swirls or heavy swirls could be a world different from what an experienced detailer would consider them.

First off I washed the car with a strong detergent to lift any old wax/sealant. The car was clayed a few months ago and has done less than 1000 miles since and is stored under cover so I skipped that stage (passed the fingertip test).

They key cause of the scratches is a (alifdjlakljflsj**

 

I think this paint correction think seems to have earnt itself a cure for all status. Lots of people post lots of stuff all over the forums about how awesome this, that and the other are on their paintwork. How all of their really deep, down to the primer scratches have vanished, you know the sort of thing.

I certainly thought that paint correction would cure all the scratches, swirls etc on my paint from such postings.

I think you need to be realistic with what can be achieved. My paint was like yours, maybe worse, it seemed that a troop of monkeys with brillo pads had been cleaning it for ~5 years before I bought the car.

Paint correction has certainly improved the paint on my car by a large factor, what it hasn't done is return it to a factory finish. I am of the opinion that paint correction wont do this. It is bloody good if you have light/medium damage to the paint, but heavy damage will only lessen, not be removed.

I hasten to add this is all in my opinion and could well be wrong. Expectations really do need to be more realistic, I think you have done a good job, unfortunately I can not advise on what further steps could be taken to improve it further. If it can be improved further by paint correction alone.

 

You certainly raise a very valid point and I agree that it'll never be perfect. I'm pretty sure, despite my limited knowledge, that I can do better - I just need to figure out how. Certainly seeing some of the before and after pictures you see from Tango and other detailing geeks I know that far worse cars have been put 95% right.

 

I can't remember if the Subaru paint is hard or not but technique, pad and polish choice comes with experience. Megs 80 doesn't have a lot of cut and needs to be worked for a long time because it is oily.
Ideally you take a section of the bonnet (for instance) and work out pad an polish choice until you get the finish you want, I'm not familiar with the Dewalt but if it's a RO like the Porter Cable then you probably need to work it longer and at a higher speed. It's the heat/friction that causes the abrasives in the polish to break down, if you don't work it hard enough then it doesn't do it's job.
Start with the lowest pad/polish choice that you think is acceptable on the test area, say polishing pad and Megs 80, if that isn't any good try a light cut pad and Megs 80, if that isn't any good the up the polish abrasiveness on the light cut pad.
It is possible to achieve a better than factory finish in the right hands (not me). Spend some time over on detailingworld.co.uk, look in the Studio section of the Forums to see what can be done.
Here's a couple of Suburu details, also see what can be done with some wet sanding
http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/show...ighlight=subaru

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/show...ighlight=subaru

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/show...ght=wet+sanding

 

Long time no visit Kenny

Does yours have that red fleck in it?

 

Kenny, Scooby paint needs to be hard as I'm told the paint is SERIOUSLY thin on it, I would suggest you be careful and if you can get someone with a thickness guage to get an idea of how thick the paint is before increasing the cut level.

If you get really stuck give Rich at Polished Bliss a mail/email for advice he's done a fair few scoobs and is always friendly.

 

Thin it is.

 

Yeah its got the red fleck you can actually make out the speckles in some of the pictures. From a quick re-read of Rahul's site I'm leaning towards giving #83 a go with the yellow pad and keeping a burgundy just in case it's required. If need be I could then go over the car again with #80 on a yellow or finish pad to remove any marring or other blemishes left by the #83.

It seems that I've taken the right road in trying something that isn't overly abrasive. It clearly didn't work so I assume the next step is to up the ante and see how I got on with a test area.

 

It looks a lovely colour.

I have a Porter Cable & use 83.

Apply it & grind away for gaes until it's all gone, bar a mist coat, since it breaks down into a finer grit.

After about three goes (I generally blitzkrieg & wax the cars twice a year) the S2000 has that 'glass' feel and the Civic & teh 'Lude are on their way to it. The factory-installed swirls & orange peel are all but gone now.

You won't get them all out first go, but the finsh does get better over time. Also, the wax (I like Collinite) acts as a filler.

Also, you don't wanna take all the paint off first go; supposing you pick up a scratch after you've done it & need to get it out?

 

Its all down to compromises, you can get rid of those scratches by rubbing the paint off to that level or you can round the edges off a scratch so it does not catch the light. If you had 200 microns thick of paint and the scratch was 10 microns deep the I would recommend the former, but in reality you are likely rubbing off 70% of your clearcoat which is not a good idea. Round it off with Megs No 83 and then fill it in with Collinite.

Another option would be to fill the result in with clearcoat paint but that gets a little complicated.