Sam N.
11-26-2008, 01:00 AM
So a little back story on what happened with the car. I`ve had it for about two months and up until a week ago all I had done to the paint was some clay and Griot`s paint sealant (btw not impressed). I bought it from Tempe Honda so I have no idea about the cars past but from what I`ve seen I`ll assume that it lead most of its life in the Arizona sun without any protection from the sun. My hints to that would be that the car has quite a bit of hazing and the clear coat has worn through on the leading edge of the bumper. I also have no idea what the dealership did to it, nothing that was painfully obvious though (surprisingly enough).
So moving on a little. At the end of October I flew home to Seattle to see my family and while I was gone I left my car parked in my apartment complex. Well when I came back I discovered that I was parked next to a sprinkler that had sprayed down the front half of my car every morning for a week with the water then being baked into the paint by the sun every afternoon. So needless to say i had some horrible water-spots when i came back that were well etched into the paint.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3188/3009062989_afbda0e897.jpg?v=0
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3293/3009900046_a9ff34b30f.jpg?v=0
so i tried all that i have in my very limited detail arsenal at this point which was some Griot`s clay, Griot`s machine polish number 3 (i was given a griots gift certficate at one point) and some Klasse AIO. Well the machine polish had a little affect but not enough for me to be willing to do the whole hood by hand. So I called up my Grandpa who lives in Phoenix to see if he could help. So i drove up there and we spent a little time with his rotary and some Meguiar`s polishes that he had. So I think what we ended up using was some Diamond cut (?) with a soft buff pad followed by the Griot`s on another Meguiar`s soft buff pad. this managed to take most of the water spots off but before they were completely gone I started to notice little cracks in the surface of the paint that I thought I remember meaning that the clear coat was starting to fail. So I stopped there but I`m still not particularly happy with the results.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3059/3058987697_16efc87636.jpg?v=0
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3065/3059824628_ba29bb583f.jpg?v=0
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3157/3059824750_8972bc0921.jpg?v=0
Is there something that I can do to save the paint or am I pretty much SOL short of a respray?
So moving on a little. At the end of October I flew home to Seattle to see my family and while I was gone I left my car parked in my apartment complex. Well when I came back I discovered that I was parked next to a sprinkler that had sprayed down the front half of my car every morning for a week with the water then being baked into the paint by the sun every afternoon. So needless to say i had some horrible water-spots when i came back that were well etched into the paint.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3188/3009062989_afbda0e897.jpg?v=0
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3293/3009900046_a9ff34b30f.jpg?v=0
so i tried all that i have in my very limited detail arsenal at this point which was some Griot`s clay, Griot`s machine polish number 3 (i was given a griots gift certficate at one point) and some Klasse AIO. Well the machine polish had a little affect but not enough for me to be willing to do the whole hood by hand. So I called up my Grandpa who lives in Phoenix to see if he could help. So i drove up there and we spent a little time with his rotary and some Meguiar`s polishes that he had. So I think what we ended up using was some Diamond cut (?) with a soft buff pad followed by the Griot`s on another Meguiar`s soft buff pad. this managed to take most of the water spots off but before they were completely gone I started to notice little cracks in the surface of the paint that I thought I remember meaning that the clear coat was starting to fail. So I stopped there but I`m still not particularly happy with the results.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3059/3058987697_16efc87636.jpg?v=0
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3065/3059824628_ba29bb583f.jpg?v=0
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3157/3059824750_8972bc0921.jpg?v=0
Is there something that I can do to save the paint or am I pretty much SOL short of a respray?