ARGH!!!! Frustrated with Honda Clear

**nrengle** · 01-04-2010, 12:56 AM

Finally doing a polish to my 02 Civic SI after a good year to year and a half (travel a lot for work). Well anyways what started it was I needed to fill some scratches, and then wet sand them (tomorrow). Anyways, I figured I`d start on the opposite side of the car with some Menzerna 106FA. Long story short the 106 is doing what I want, which is removing the swirls, and leaving the severe stuff behind (don`t trust the thickness enough to go any more aggressive in some spots). Well once I start to to IPA a section I just keep instilling more marring, changed towels, same thing. I`m getting frustrated with this. Anyone else have one that it just seems counter productive to work on sometimes?

**blacK20** · 01-04-2010, 01:36 AM

What pad and polisher are you using? Did you clay the car before hand?

**seech** · 01-04-2010, 01:41 AM

Originally Posted by nrengle

Finally doing a polish to my 02 Civic SI after a good year to year and a half (travel a lot for work). Well anyways what started it was I needed to fill some scratches, and then wet sand them (tomorrow). Anyways, I figured I`d start on the opposite side of the car with some Menzerna 106FA. Long story short the 106 is doing what I want, which is removing the swirls, and leaving the severe stuff behind (don`t trust the thickness enough to go any more aggressive in some spots). Well once I start to to IPA a section I just keep instilling more marring, changed towels, same thing. I`m getting frustrated with this. Anyone else have one that it just seems counter productive to work on sometimes?

nrengle, I know what you mean regarding the soft honda paint. Here`s a post of an Accord I did with the very soft paint. Wiping the polish off with a microfiber would scratch the paint so finding a polish to finish it off without holograms was a challenge.

Give the M205 a try. Finish off with slower rpms and very light pressure.

A link to my earlier post:

http://www.autopia.org/forum/pro-det...t-vs-m205.html

**Rickrack** · 01-04-2010, 07:01 AM

When you`re removing the polish from the paint, soak the microfiber in hot water and barely wring it out (leave it pretty wet). Wipe the panel with the hot wet microfiber and spritz a little alcohol onto the cloth. This should help a lot.

**BobD** · 01-04-2010, 07:12 AM

Is it OEM paint or a repaint?

**nrengle** · 01-04-2010, 02:09 PM

Rick, thanks I`ll give that a try this afternoon, gonna go finish the car in a few.

Seech, I`ve been thinking about picking up 205, but I have to finish what i have first before the wife will let me pick up some goodies LOL.

Danase, it`s a combo of both. Front driver fender has been replaced/painted. Rear passenger quarter was repainted due to a break-in. Both bumpers repainted before I got it for some nasty pitting. And then my folks had the hood repainted while I was away as a surprise, well he did a crap job. The clear is especially soft on the hood (Just touching the paint with your clean finger can mar the paint).

**BobD** · 01-04-2010, 02:37 PM

Are you finding it`s only a problem in the repainted areas?

**jDizzle** · 01-04-2010, 03:21 PM

i have a 2003 honda civic ex. i use 3m ultrafina, and a grey finnishing pad with my pc to finnish on my paint. and i feel your pain when it comes to scratching so easily. wash with very light pressure, apply and remove whatever you put on your paint with very little pressure, and always fresh and clean soft microfibers, and you should be able to keep it looking nice for a while. its rediculous.. you can get correction with just about anything on these cars the paint is so soft. ultrafina did my paint very well though.

**Envious Eric** · 01-04-2010, 04:41 PM

FPII, then glaze with danase wet glaze, then seal with blackfire wet diamond = winning situation (got that process from someone else`s routine, works pretty well, however, I usually skip the glaze step!)

softer clears you MIGHT instill some marring of your own...I suggest taking about 4 towels and using all on the final wipedown! As Rick pointed out, during the polishing step, IPA will breakdown the oils faster/better which will require less wiping on your end, which seems to be your issue

**nrengle** · 01-05-2010, 02:42 AM

Well I applied a few of the tips tonight (I`ve done quite a bit of polishing, but man this last one is being tricky as crap!).

Danase, it`s the whole car except the passenger side door. It`s hard as a rock!

What I`ve found is that stepping my pad back down to a black LC pad is working well, but I`m still instilling marring no matter what I do when trying to remove the oils left, so..... I`m gonna foam, rinse, foam, lightly wash, rinse the car again and see how that does.

Oh and I knew some of the clear/paint was thin on my car but when I went to wetsand one of the touch ups, I seriously only went up once, and down once, and was starting to strike through (can see primer). And this with 2500 UNI-grit that soaked for about an hour. I was P(#*(@, I have the rest of the touch ups sanded out fine. But that spot I`m going to have to go pick up a pint of paint to touch up now. Thankfully my father in-law has a paint booth here... And yes the strike through is on a repainted panel, and I know who painted it. I`m going to have a little talk with the guy in the coming week.