So late last week I saw Mattfeet post pics on another forum i'm on outlining some detail work he did for a couple cars. I felt guilty that in 112k my car'd never seen any love... between his post and a friend harassing me, i finally said okay and got to doing a basic wash/clay/wax on the car. 5 hours later I was left with two basic questions.

1: how the hell did people get swirls out before swirl remover? My car's got swirls for DAYS even after finishing and I don't have a PC or any swirl remover to work with.

2: The cleanup exposed a nasty clearcoat bubble/run all down my driver's quarterpanel. You could feel it before. Now you can see it, and it annoys me even more. Other than a razor blade with guides and an agressive polish, how can I fix this?

Here's a pic of what i'm talking about, I'm thinking the blade is it, i'm afraid to wetsand for fear of taking the surrounding areas down, too. Any ideas for me? You can see what i'm talking about in the vertical reflection, it caught a "3" shape, but that run goes forward about 8 more inches, and back maybe 2.



I suppose i should outline what i used, it seems to be the standard around here, even though I can't remotely hang with you guys. Once I move back up to Seattle, the car'll get Zaino'd, but for now I had to do it on the cheap and easy for lack of supplies and lack of random orbital. My roommate has a non-random orbital he uses, but i don't trust my skills on something that can burn right though, though it worked MAGIC on the fresh black paint on a friend's Grand National last week.

The Bucket: 5 gallon. Green in color.
The Soap: Meguiar's Gold Class.
The Mitt: my trusty 3.00 Microfiber mitt.
The Clay: Mothers.
The Wax: an ancient bottle (easily 8 years old) of Zymol I had kicking around.
The Cloths: Cheap looseweave terry, fresh from the package.

The wheels got the clay after it was done on the car surface (it's about dead anyhow, seemed a good use before I threw it out.) and cleaned with one of my beat up microfibers since they work better than a sponge.

Before:

After (yes, i managed to find SNOW on a 95 degree day today):


Anyhow, on topic; (How'd i jack my own thread?) does anyone have any good ideas for that run?

 

Was your quarter panel repainted? I would find it hard to believe the factory clear would run. Wet sanding is typically how you would make that go away if it was a clear coat run. Other than that it looks good.

 

IMHO, that kind of damage, and your inexperience (no offense, just trying to give good advice)....bring it to a pro detailer to just do that part. If they are honest people, they won't charge you more than $100 bucks.

 

IMO, this is good advice.

 

car looks very good from the before and after pics! haha are you some where near snowqualmie to find snow or wenatchee?

 

Thanks for the compliments.

Yeah, Professional correction is probably the best bet, i'd agree. No offense taken on that count.

Here's the thing. When I bought the car, the carfax reflected no accidents. The previous owner said it'd never been wrecked. I theorize that maybe it got damaged pre-delivery and the dealer never disclosed that... of course it could be as easy as the PO lied to me.

Then there's the Hollywood option; their teenage son lied to them about never driving the car. We've all seen movies that end up that way with a fevered trip to the body shop before the parents return to town, right?

 

Glad I could be of inspiration. Good work on your car from what I can tell, and I also agree that taking it to a professional is your best bet. Check out www.autopia.org and look around to see if someone local to you would be willing to toss out a good recommendation or something of the sort. If youre anything like me, I have to do my homework like whoa before I let someone else touch my car.

-Matt