[EJR8402]

Meg's #85 is fairly aggressive- are you sure the water spotting isn't left over from another time and you just noticed it? The #85 should be enough to remove fresh water spots just polishing by hand - in fact, for that it really should be way OVERKILL.

I would definitely go with an entry-level DA polisher. You're not going to damage the paint unless you do something infinitely stupid like go after it when it's really dirty or has other obvious contaminants. Just make sure the surface and the pad are clean, apply your product, and start off slow.

Get a light cutting pad, a polishing pad, and a finishing pad to start your kit off. I like Lake Country pads but there are other options. For the DA, you can't go wrong with a Porter Cable 7424xp.

[m6-lt1]

If I take pictures, the water spots won’t show up on camera as they are the kind that have left a “ring” imprint in the paint. My detailer actually instructed me to buy a griots orbital polisher. Based on my research these devices seem to be on the safer side versus say a normal rotary. Not sure if it’s as safe as a DA.

[EJR8402]

Originally Posted by m6-lt1

If I take pictures, the water spots won’t show up on camera as they are the kind that have left a “ring” imprint in the paint. My detailer actually instructed me to buy a griots orbital polisher. Based on my research these devices seem to be on the safer side versus say a normal rotary. Not sure if it’s as safe as a DA.

Check this out for a description of the different types of polishers:

https://www.autopia-carcare.com/how-...-polisher.html

The Griots your detailer recommended and the PC 7424 are in the same category.

[m6-lt1]

Originally Posted by EJR8402

Check this out for a description of the different types of polishers:

https://www.autopia-carcare.com/how-...-polisher.html

The Griots your detailer recommended and the PC 7424 are in the same category.

Thanks, I feel more confident giving it a go myself now based on this devise being a DA. Everyone seems to imply that it’s pretty hard to burn through the clear with these. Might try it out this weekend In small sections

[MrChevyDC3]

Curious as to how it went with the soft-but-effective DA... I have NO polishing skills but want to put a good shine on my Maro. Don't know if I should take it somewhere or try to do it myself. But the more i wait, the more luster the paint loses right?

[serper3]

Originally Posted by MrChevyDC3

Curious as to how it went with the soft-but-effective DA... I have NO polishing skills but want to put a good shine on my Maro. Don't know if I should take it somewhere or try to do it myself. But the more i wait, the more luster the paint loses right?

I just got into polishing and am 50/50 split on it. I got a Griots G9 maybe 2 months ago. I did my daily driver first for practice. Working on my camaro now. I would say after polishing my daily driver, I feel pretty good about it, also feel like I need a smaller polisher to get into tighter areas.

I definitely spent enough to have gotten a good detail and correction done professionally, but the goal is in a few years, I have a lot of the stuff and experience. Might just need a few pads and some polish.

There is a whole slew of stuff you need to know and buy before you get into it. The investment time wise is pretty extensive for just polishing alone.

Also if you are going to polish a brand new car, you need to make sure you only hand wash it going forward, and have good washing technique or you are just going to swirl and micro mar the paint the first time it is washed.

[KirkH]

I’m a pro detailer and I want everyone to know that you won’t damage your paint with a dual action polisher and a foam or microfiber pad. You could possibly burn the clear coat with a DA and a wool pad, but thats unlikely. A simple way to test is to feel the temperature of the pad and paint with your hand. A DA will not create enough friction heat to burn the clear.

If you have hard water in your community (water high in minerals such as calcium and sodium) and you leave it to dry on your paint, you will have water spots. Ceramic will get water spots. Carnauba is the best to protect against water spots.

The solutions are:
-Water softening systems, from consumer level like Simple Chuck to professional $1200 deionization system
-flooding rinse when you wash with open hose to minimize spraying and quick drying
-regular polishing to remove water spots

[m6-lt1]

Originally Posted by MrChevyDC3

Curious as to how it went with the soft-but-effective DA... I have NO polishing skills but want to put a good shine on my Maro. Don't know if I should take it somewhere or try to do it myself. But the more i wait, the more luster the paint loses right?

I finally got around to doing it 2 days ago. The main parts of my car that had water spots were of course the top sections (hood, roof, trunk, tops of quarter panels). I managed to get out about 80% of the spots. I am a newb so that’s why I didn’t get them all out. Safety was my number 1 goal. That being said I’m satisfied with my water spot removal effort. The spots I couldn’t get off were on the center of my hood and quite honestly it’s because I am short and had a hard time reaching that far over the hood.

I spent around 6 hours washing my car, drying it, claying the above areas mentioned and then compounding, polishing and applying wax.

Something I was not satisfied with was my fine scratch removal. Not very many fine scratches got removed. I suspect I went too fast over them or I did not push down hard enough on the device as safety was my goal. If you pros have any tips please tell me them. I am going to continue to do the doors, quarters, fenders and bumpers later this week.

Question for you pros. You know the body line on the top of our quarter panels? I have been a little paranoid because I went over them with my DA since I read it’s hard to damage paint with a DA. I did move a little faster over it and I also lowered the speed. I used a microfiber and orange foam pad. I don’t see any clear coat damage on it so I think I’m good. Should I not have went over that line? I switched to a 2 inch pad for it. Was that the right thing to do?

[KirkH]

Originally Posted by m6-lt1

Something I was not satisfied with was my fine scratch removal. Not very many fine scratches got removed. I suspect I went too fast over them or I did not push down hard enough on the device as safety was my goal. If you pros have any tips please tell me them. I am going to continue to do the doors, quarters, fenders and bumpers later this week.

Question for you pros. You know the body line on the top of our quarter panels? I have been a little paranoid because I went over them with my DA since I read it’s hard to damage paint with a DA. I did move a little faster over it and I also lowered the speed. I used a microfiber and orange foam pad. I don’t see any clear coat damage on it so I think I’m good. Should I not have went over that line? I switched to a 2 inch pad for it. Was that the right thing to do?

If you can catch your fingernail in the scratch, it requires sandpaper. Sometimes I use different combinations of pads and polishes to get scratches out. For some reason, some polishes work better on some paint. Sometimes you have to go over the scratch 2-3 times. If you need sandpaper, you start with 3000 grit sandpaper soaked in water, and you very lightly hand wetsand the scratch. 3000 grit is followed by compound and an orange pad, followed by polish and a white pad. Even without sanding, you can usually make the scratch less noticeable.



You won't damage the clear on body lines with a DA. You will with a rotary.

[serper3]

Originally Posted by m6-lt1

I finally got around to doing it 2 days ago. The main parts of my car that had water spots were of course the top sections (hood, roof, trunk, tops of quarter panels). I managed to get out about 80% of the spots. I am a newb so that’s why I didn’t get them all out. Safety was my number 1 goal. That being said I’m satisfied with my water spot removal effort. The spots I couldn’t get off were on the center of my hood and quite honestly it’s because I am short and had a hard time reaching that far over the hood.

I spent around 6 hours washing my car, drying it, claying the above areas mentioned and then compounding, polishing and applying wax.

Something I was not satisfied with was my fine scratch removal. Not very many fine scratches got removed. I suspect I went too fast over them or I did not push down hard enough on the device as safety was my goal. If you pros have any tips please tell me them. I am going to continue to do the doors, quarters, fenders and bumpers later this week.

Question for you pros. You know the body line on the top of our quarter panels? I have been a little paranoid because I went over them with my DA since I read it’s hard to damage paint with a DA. I did move a little faster over it and I also lowered the speed. I used a microfiber and orange foam pad. I don’t see any clear coat damage on it so I think I’m good. Should I not have went over that line? I switched to a 2 inch pad for it. Was that the right thing to do?

I am not a pro, but since no one else responded yet, I will give it a go.

Couple things come to mind:

1. Do a test spot before you do the whole car. If you don't get the corecction you want, you can change the compound, pad, pressure etc., to get more cut. You don't end up doing the whole car then realizing you want to go heavier. Ofcourse you can spot correct some areas, as needed.

2. Make sure you are getting pad rotation. if your pad doesn't rotate, you are wasting your time. Mark the backing plate with a few marks so you can clearly see when it stalls.

3. To continue from point 2, DAs work best when the pad is flat on the paint. If you try to work an area that isnt flat, or lift a side of the pad, it will stall. this is basically why DAs are safer. Harder to heat up an edge or body line and burn through. You dont want to hit the body line straight on, but I am sure it is fine. You want to hit one side with the pad flat, and then hit the other side. Make sure you feel the paint to make sure it isn't getting too hot. I think you don't want paint to get 20ish degrees hotter than ambient.

4. Seems kinda like you went fast for the amount of work you did. How big are your sections? I usually do 16x16 inch sections and mark them out with little blue tape marks as references or i drift and work too big an area. I would say just a single step polish on the camaro not including prep before starting to polish, would take about 10 hours alone. Pros are faster for sure, that is what I read. I am probably on the slower side, but yea you are probably going too fast, on too big of sections would be my guess.

What compound are you using? I think for us amateurs, the cost vs how much time we spend really helps using the best products I think. Not worth your time to save a few bucks. Someone who is a pro, might make sense to deal with a product that is cheaper, debatable I guess, but at least they know what they are getting into.

[m6-lt1]

Originally Posted by KirkH

If you can catch your fingernail in the scratch, it requires sandpaper. Sometimes I use different combinations of pads and polishes to get scratches out. For some reason, some polishes work better on some paint. Sometimes you have to go over the scratch 2-3 times. If you need sandpaper, you start with 3000 grit sandpaper soaked in water, and you very lightly hand wetsand the scratch. 3000 grit is followed by compound and an orange pad, followed by polish and a white pad. Even without sanding, you can usually make the scratch less noticeable.



You won't damage the clear on body lines with a DA. You will with a rotary.

Thanks Kirk. Most of the fine scratches I wasn’t able to remove you can’t feel them. They did get less noticeable. I think my issue is even though I was working with a DA, I was still trying to be on the safe side so I did not redo sections after my first pass. Next time I probably won’t be as scared and will rework sections if they aren’t too my liking. I’m guessing I barely removed any clear coat since only the water spots got removed (and some scratches)

There are a couple scratches that do need to be sanded but for that I’m going to buy a practice panel first before wet sanding my own car.

[m6-lt1]

Originally Posted by serper3

I am not a pro, but since no one else responded yet, I will give it a go.

Couple things come to mind:

1. Do a test spot before you do the whole car. If you don't get the corecction you want, you can change the compound, pad, pressure etc., to get more cut. You don't end up doing the whole car then realizing you want to go heavier. Ofcourse you can spot correct some areas, as needed.

2. Make sure you are getting pad rotation. if your pad doesn't rotate, you are wasting your time. Mark the backing plate with a few marks so you can clearly see when it stalls.

3. To continue from point 2, DAs work best when the pad is flat on the paint. If you try to work an area that isnt flat, or lift a side of the pad, it will stall. this is basically why DAs are safer. Harder to heat up an edge or body line and burn through. You dont want to hit the body line straight on, but I am sure it is fine. You want to hit one side with the pad flat, and then hit the other side. Make sure you feel the paint to make sure it isn't getting too hot. I think you don't want paint to get 20ish degrees hotter than ambient.

4. Seems kinda like you went fast for the amount of work you did. How big are your sections? I usually do 16x16 inch sections and mark them out with little blue tape marks as references or i drift and work too big an area. I would say just a single step polish on the camaro not including prep before starting to polish, would take about 10 hours alone. Pros are faster for sure, that is what I read. I am probably on the slower side, but yea you are probably going too fast, on too big of sections would be my guess.

What compound are you using? I think for us amateurs, the cost vs how much time we spend really helps using the best products I think. Not worth your time to save a few bucks. Someone who is a pro, might make sense to deal with a product that is cheaper, debatable I guess, but at least they know what they are getting into.

Thanks for the pointers. I did do a test section however that section only had water spots (no fine/lite scratches). I mainly did it to make sure the clear looked fine after going over it and wanted to see if they’d come out with only polish (instead of compound) since I learned to test the least aggressive method first.

I will check pad rotation next time. For the most part I did try to stick to flat portions of the car. I’ll definitely feel the paint next time I work on between body lines.

I agree I probably went fast. I used about the same size sections as you. I think a big issue was I only went over each section once meaning after I wiped off the remaining residue I did not compound that section again. I did about 4 passes with the machine on each section (2 up and down and 2 side to side). I’ll go over it a second time when I do the rest of the car.

I used meguiars ultimate compound and polish. I figured since I was a newbie I should start with the basic stuff. I do have their stronger mirror glaze (ultra cut) stuff but I read your supposed to use that with a rotary instead. Not sure if that’s true or not

[serper3]

Originally Posted by m6-lt1

Thanks for the pointers. I did do a test section however that section only had water spots (no fine/lite scratches). I mainly did it to make sure the clear looked fine after going over it and wanted to see if they’d come out with only polish (instead of compound) since I learned to test the least aggressive method first.

I will check pad rotation next time. For the most part I did try to stick to flat portions of the car. I’ll definitely feel the paint next time I work on between body lines.

I agree I probably went fast. I used about the same size sections as you. I think a big issue was I only went over each section once meaning after I wiped off the remaining residue I did not compound that section again. I did about 4 passes with the machine on each section (2 up and down and 2 side to side). I’ll go over it a second time when I do the rest of the car.

I used meguiars ultimate compound and polish. I figured since I was a newbie I should start with the basic stuff. I do have their stronger mirror glaze (ultra cut) stuff but I read your supposed to use that with a rotary instead. Not sure if that’s true or not

I am not super familiar with the meguiars stuff, but from what i remember the ultimate compound, a lot of people need to go back over it with a lighter polish and a softer pad. It doesn't finish as great on black/darker cars. A lot of people say this is not the best option if you want a one step correction. also, i think a lot of people do use the ultra cut on a DA.

4 section passes is okay.. depending on who you listen to, 4-8 I think is pretty common guidance. I totally agree with using the least aggressive compound/pad, however, I think too many people go with not aggressive enough, and then you end up needing to do 6-10 heavy pressure passes to get the correction you need, and this increases heat. You could have just gone with a more aggressive compound, less passes, less pressure, less heat, done faster, less potential issues with your clear.

Good luck though and post some pics when you are done!

[Jverado]

Originally Posted by Gunkk

Most ceramic coatings are bad for water spots & often make it worse, not better.

Some light water spot deposits can be removed with something like Carpro Spotless water spot remover. The quicker you get to these (i.e. right after a wash) the easier they come off. Waiting hours or days is bad.

Never wash a car in direct sunlight. Find some shade, a cloudy day, do it under a pole-tent, or indoors. Rinse with distilled water. A few $1/gallon jugs can do a pooled rinse on the entire car.

If the paint is truly etched, then only mechanical polishing will cure the defects. Lots of threads on this here. Even more youtube videos.

I recommend you hire a pro to teach you how to DIY, before attempting yourself with random equipment that may be wrong for the job.

I found this out the hard way using ceramic wax. I couldn't figure out why all of a sudden I was having issues with water spotting and it appears that the "micro beading" dries faster or differently than the bigger beads from conventional wax. Now have to get out the DA and go over the whole car with polish and re wax.