A Turtle Wax Detail - Part II HARD clear coat

[Don]

Saturday, I did an exterior on my brother`s 2012 Civic SI. It is is decent shape, but had its share of moderate/deeper swirls from non-autopian care. I used the same process/products as on my MIL`s Ford Edge: Turtle Wax Clean Finish Polishing Compound, Seal N Shine and Wet N Black Tire Shine.

The car was DIRTY ... plus it had a ton of brown staining from wet leaves etc. After the wash, the water on the surface was dead flat, absolutely nothing on the finish. I started with the polishing compound on a polishing pad @ speed 6, but after doing 1/2 the hood, decided I needed to use a cutting pad. The swirls weren`t being affected. More of them faded out with the cutting pad, but there were still plenty remaining (IF you were Autopian enough to know how to look for them). To the average person, I`m sure it looked perfect. Don`t get me wrong, it did turn out great, it looked miles better than before I started, but if you know where & how to look, you can still see the deeper swirls. I probably could have used a heavier compound, but I`m still playing with the TW polishing compound and wanted to see what it can do. Now I know - on abused Honda clear - use a compound.

I followed the correction with two applications of Seal N Shine. I dressed the tires before polishing, that way any overspray mist on the paint could be dealt with during the polishing stage.

I only took one picture of the finished product, because honestly, the pics didn`t show the actual POP the paint had after correction and waxing. The most important thing - my brother LOVED the results. So much so that he posted on a Civic SI forum and bragged about how good it looked ... mission accomplished!

[Accumulator]

Don- I bet it *did* look swell! Good on you for doing your brothers car.

I found it interesting that you deemed the Honda clear "hard". I haven`t had one since the `80s, but I always thought Hondas were supposed to be softer than, say...Audis.

Good contrast between this one and your MiL`s Edge..and again interesting to me in that the Ford clear was so much softer.