2005? Hyundai Sonata

[jrock645]

Not sure on the year, but this car belonged to my mom`s fiancée- he died 3 years ago of complications from leukemia. It`s sat in the driveway and been weather beaten ever since. Has about 118,000 miles on it. Oh, and it`s black. I saw the state of the paint and thought "man this is in bad shape." My next thought was that this would be kinda fun.



So that`s the car at the beginning of this mess. My wash/decon process was the Finish Kare 3 step kit, added a foam down with citrus wash. Paint felt relatively smooth so I skipped claying- the FK kit did a good job of clearing away the grit.



Decon`ed and taped up. For the record, my goal was purely to get the paint back to life. Dirt in the nooks and crannies and such.., don`t care. Future owner can deal with that. I`m polishing the paint because I enjoy it.

Step 1- compounding

Obviously, this paint was pretty eff`ed up and would require some aggressive methods to get it back. This is a multi day process as I work outdoors around the heat. I began last night, did step two tonight, and will finish tomorrow as the weather forecast seems agreeable.

Anyway, I began by compounding with 3D AAT and blue HT pads with the PE14 at 1200rpm`s. This worked well for everything except the hood. I wasn`t happy with the result today with better light(I`ve been working in the evening), so I went back and re-compounded again with the AAT but with LC white cool wave pads- I would have started with these but didn`t realized I`d packed them(I`m home with my mom for the week before I start a new job). I`ve used this pad and product combo on heavily oxidized paint before with good results. This paint appears to be water and UV damaged pretty severely. It`s improved, but not as much as I`d like. Rest of the car compounded without incident. The AAT doesn`t require or allow for many passes on the rotary, allowing you to cut in 2-3, which is a real time saver.

After compounding:


Hood after the first compounding(was redone on 2nd day):



Step 2: heavy polishing

This took some trial and error. I`d set out to go all rotary, and began with HD Adapt on an orange Kompressor pad. This seemed to just instill more swirling. I tried a couple of test spots with different combos, but arrived at the Rupes 21 being the tool of choice- I`d only packed it for use with the nanoskin pad, but it came in handy.

I used a couple of combos, including orange HD orbital with m205, orange with pro polish 2, but I really found my stride with the blue HD orbital and HD Adapt. I did opt for the pro polish 2 on the roof and hood, as those areas seemed to have chemical damage- this helped cut through that. At any rate, I worked Adapt on speed 4.5 for 5-6 passes. Left me with a good result. Some minor swirls still left here and there, but the gloss is really returning to the paint. Hopefully step 3 tomorrow will clear up the remaining swirls.






Step 3 will be done tomorrow... I`ll post pics and progress notes as I go.

[Lonnie]

Sometimes you gotta let it go and just accept that the paint is-what-it-is.
From your photos I can see WHY even after your herculean (IE, trial-and-error) best efforts, the paint finish is so-so, by your OCD standards.

Keep us updated. Your detailing work and photo posting is more than appreciated and commendable (at least to me).

[Ronkh]

Looks like a nice start.

[jrock645]

No final pics just yet, but here`s an update on today`s efforts.

I discovered I packed a couple of wool pads, so I started the hood over. Did a section with a mix of HD Cut and m101 at 1200-1500rpm`s on the rotary. While, of course, this instilled some swirls I could tell immediately that I was finally getting down into the good stuff. I followed that up with HD cut and AAT on a blue HD orbital and the R21. I added the Cut to increase work time, which I needed in the heat(was only up to about 80 today but the sun came and went, had to do a lot of priming and such to keep polish workable in the sun). I worked it a good 6 passes and eliminated the swirls.

Gain, I`d set out to do all rotary, so for my final polish I began with a couple test spots. One was with orange HT pad and m205. Started at 900rpm and worked down to 600 over the course of 4-5 passes. The result was ok, still a couple swirls though. So I tried a test spot with a white LC CCS pad and m205... Good god wow, hologram city! My technique was no different but this really messed the paint up. Then the sun came out from behind a cloud and I could see how bad it really was. So, for S`s and G`s I got the Rupes out... And this was the ticket.

So I did a final polish of m205 on orange HD orbitals and HT`s. Speed 4.5 on the Rupes, working down to 2 over 6 passes. Looks like respectable paint again! It`ll never be a show car, but mom should at least be able to sell it now.

Only thing left is to give a quick wash to remove any polish residue, and give her a coat of 476. It`s too hot and the sun is too bright for that right now, so later.

[pmdr85]

I`m surprised after years of sitting in the elements it didn`t need clay. What does that 3 step kit you used include?

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[jrock645]

I`m surprised after years of sitting in the elements it didn`t need clay. What does that 3 step kit you used include?

Sent from my SM-S820L using Tapatalk

Accumulator can explain it better than I, but it works better than clay. It`s a bit harsh, though.

Step 1 is a soil and coating remover. Reading the description on it, it`s for industrial fallout. Like iron x on steroids. Step 2 is an acid based cleaner you apply and allow to dwell. Step 3 is a shampoo that neutralizes the ph after all this mess.

Accumulator is a real guru with this stuff and swears hat chemical decon methods like this work better than clay. He prefers the valugard ABC system because it`s a bit cheaper and less harsh, though I`m not sure where you can buy it.

[pmdr85]

Cool sounds interesting. Il have to look it up and check it out. By the sounds of it I`d be kinda scared to use it. Lol. Good work so far. Keep it up

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[Lonnie]

To buy ValuGard Decon system please see:
A B C Neutralization System

To buy Finish Kare`s Decon System please see:
Finish Kare Paint Decontamination System

Jrock645:
It would seem that your using a large-throw orbital Rupes polisher worked better than the rotary polisher in this situation. I am just wondering if you find this to true in other paint compounding/polishing situations as well, OR is the rotary polisher your tool-of-choice for compound correcting and finish polishing??

[rlmccarty2000]

Rupes 21, Meg`s x-tra cut microfiber pad, and Menz 400 is what I used on a 2003 Buick LeSabre in bad condition. The paint on the Buick was very hard though. The paint you are working on is probably much softer. Good luck and I`m glad you`ve got the cajones to tackle it!

[Stokdgs]

Jrock645 -

Thank you so much for doing all this work for your Mom... I am sorry to hear about her Fiance` passing away..
This alone says so much about you - really a great thing to do -

I am glad that you got such incredible results outside in the sun to begin with !!!

See - a good Detailer like You will always have several methods to accomplish the task and Back Up for everything too...
You were prepared and definitely learned a lot about how hard Hyundai paint was, right ?

Sometimes when I have a paint that is not wanting to give up the defects easily, I will put a lot of downward pressure on the Rotary at slower speeds, so the product will work with the pad and the paint more and keep it going until I start to see the results I am looking for..

It will always take a lot of time to clean the pads after each pass to get all the contaminated stuff out - until that pad is no longer working and you have to change to a clean one..

That looks like a 8-10 L/C Hydro Shred Cyan Pad job to me, a bunch of small white towels to clean the pads, and a whole lot of Pad Conditioner spray to keep it all moist enough to handle the heat AND the outside temps which I am sure were not the greatest all the time..

The last pics looks great !!!! What a difference !!!
Thanks again for all the hard work - really hard work - and then all the extra time you took to make right and still after all that, the pics, editing and post up!!
I am so proud of you!!
Dan F

[Irkie500]

I have had many years of personal experience with the Valugard system and all I can say is that its terrible. Every single time I was forced to use it I felt like it was a waste of time since you could still feel contaminates on the paint. I much prefer the nanoskin wash mitt myself.

[jrock645]

Rupes 21, Meg`s x-tra cut microfiber pad, and Menz 400 is what I used on a 2003 Buick LeSabre in bad condition. The paint on the Buick was very hard though. The paint you are working on is probably much softer. Good luck and I`m glad you`ve got the cajones to tackle it!

Hyundai paint is notoriously hard, and after this car I can see why it has the reputation it does. I hadn`t planned to use the Rupes at all, really trying to get more time on the rotary, so I didn`t even pack my MF pads or the UHS pads or polish. MF pad with HD cut would`ve probably worked wonders here. Most likely could`ve two stepped most of the car with that combo. I was able to clear up a lot with Adapt and he mf cutting pads on a black Mercedes. Oh well.

[jrock645]

I have had many years of personal experience with the Valugard system and all I can say is that its terrible. Every single time I was forced to use it I felt like it was a waste of time since you could still feel contaminates on the paint. I much prefer the nanoskin wash mitt myself.

The last time I used the FK kit, it was on a 94 Mercedes and I still had to use the nanoskin because the paint felt rough afterwards. I was pleasantly surprised with the result I got with this.

[jrock645]

Ok just finished up... By the time I had my coffee and worked up the gumption to get out there, the car was getting warm. Gave it a nice long rinse with cold water to cool it off, then a quick once over with ONR.

I forgot got to pack a wax applicator, but had a red HT pad. So, I used a spatula and spread the 476 over the pad and applied with the Rupes. The thin machined coat made for easy wipe off, and I worked a couple panels at a time and wiped away right after applying due to the heat.

Overall, the car looks much better but it`s far from Autopia standards. Still some swirls and blemishes but it`d take a lot more than the 12 hours I put in to level all of it.

[Stokdgs]

Dude - You Killed it !!!!
Man, that is beautiful paint !!!
I go back to the "Before" and its like not even the same car...

Keep the pad absolutely flat on the work with the rotary and move it around the area so it gets time with the center and the edges of the pad...
Don`t be afraid to put a lot of downward pressure on the pad...

You already know this - look at the work !!!
Thanks again for all this !
Dan F