Help Needed with Paint

[bigme100]

Hi everyone.

I am sort of new to detailing. I have had light colored cars before and have detailed them with no problems, but now I gave a dark gray Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk. They all come with an awful hood decal, which I immediately removed. Talk about a pain in the ass. Well, when i was done removing, there was a lot of sticky residue left over so, took out the clay bar and removed pretty much all of it, or thought i removed all of it. I preceded to wash with Duragloss 901, then proceeded to apply #101,#601,and#105. When i was done, I stepped back to admire my work when i noticed that there was a little hazing in some parts where some of the residue was, and very light scratches. (I will try and post pics when I get home.) I have read that is may be residue from the clay, or remainders of the residue from the decal. I hope its this, and not the clear coat eaten through. So my questions are.

A. Can clay barring eat through the clear coat?
B. If so how do i repair the clear coat?
C. If its just residue from clay or the decal, what is the best method to correct it? would a wash with Dawn be enough to remove the layer of duragloss, then what?
D. If correction is needed, do you recommend just washing the hood and leave the rest of the car alone. I would hate to do the entire call all over again.

Sorry for the long post, but any and all assistance will be appreciated.

[Ronkh]

Did you use lube w clay? If so, what clay? What lube? how much pressure did you use?

And No, I doubt dawn will remove the dg. That`s some stron stuff

[Accumulator]

bigme100- Welcome to Autopia!

Some sorta-random thoughts follow:

-That was the wrong way to deal with the decal (I`d use 3M Adhesive Remover and/or ValuGard New Car Prep). Sorry, I know that saying that *now* doesn`t help much..
-Done properly, claying doesn`t diminish clearcoat. Shouldn`t even mar it unless you use the wrong clay and/or insufficient lube or incorrect techniqu
-I hope that removing the decal *without* an Adhesive Remover or something else to compromise the decal`s adhesive didn`t somehow mess up the clearcoat (as in, decal`s adhesive pulled off clear). That`d be a "repaint the hood"-type disaster
-To remove the marring on the hood you`ll have to use an abrasive polish
-Just washing the hood without having to redo at least the adjacent panels might be tough but I`d *absolutely* only do the polishing on the hood
-Any abrasive that can take off clearcoat (and thus correct/reduce the marring) oughta cut right through the product currently on there (I`ve only had issues doing that once or twice)

[bigme100]

yeah, I was using Duragloss #901 shampoo diluted in a spray bottle and using a lot of it. the clay i used was some Zaino clay i had. I just clayed my gf truck with the exact same type of clay and lube plus her truck is the exact same color, and it came our perfect. I am thinking I might of used a little harder pressure than usual, but that residue was extremely hard to get off. I don`t think i was putting that much pressure to damage the clear coat. any ideas on how to remove the duragloss so i can fix it?

[Accumulator]

.. any ideas on how to remove the duragloss so i can fix it?

I wouldn`t remove it, I`d just let the compound/polish cut through it.

[bigme100]

Thanks Accumulator,

I used a blow dryer on the lightest setting to help soften up the decal while removing it. That helped a little, but a lot of the residue still remained. Word of warning for anyone wanting to remove this thing, its a big pain in the @ss. I don`t think the adhesive pulled the clear coat off, so i think I`m ok there, but I`m hoping its just residue from the bar left under the duargloss. Accumulator, what polish do you recommend for trying to get through the Duragloss? I`m assuming one that is not to abrasive? do you think the #101 is abrasive enough to cut through?

[bswombaugh]

If you are looking for something that you can buy locally, I would suggest that you try some Meguiars Ultimate Polish. It is the consumer version of their 205 and has very mild abrasives. HD Polish is another great choice and is one of my favorite finishing polishes. I think that either one of these would easily remove the adhesive residue without removing only a very little clearcoat.

[bigme100]

Thanks bswombaugh, I`ll look for those around my area.

[Stokdgs]

bigme100-
Welcome to a great Forum !

About the only thing that can safely remove the remaining glue without getting into a mess would be that aerosol can of 3M Adhesive Remover..

If it were me, I would wipe the entire hood down with this product, insuring your towel is turned to a new spot each pass so you dont just spread it around, and then polish it all over again..

And as Bswombaugh above just posted, get some Meguiars Ultimate Polish, some pads light a L/C White, a backing plate that is 5" or so, with the pads sized a little bigger, and go do this..

Lets talk about your claybar technique - which bar, what lube, how are you doing it; this will insure you are taking advantage of all that this can do to help improve your paintwork cleanliness, smoothness..

You are almost there... you learned a heck of a lot with that first project on the hood - Congratulations -..
Now, its just clean this dang adhesive off, polish to remove any defects, and increase the gloss, and put down your Duragloss again..
You got this !
Dan F

[jerry r]

Hi all, interesting dilemma Bigme100 and I think I have seen this before,or at least something very similar,it was on a 911 turbo in black, there is a stick on stone guard on the lower front part of the rear wheel arch which I had to replace,now I went at it with the hot air gun to remove the plastic and then autoglym tar and glue and all was good,but low and behold after I stood back I seen what looked like pitting in the paint,now this could have been impressions left by stones hitting the guard as someone pointed out at the time but I am not convinced I was and am to today that it was a reaction between the glue and the lacquer,i gave it a quick test buff with Feracla G3 without any success so went straight to 1500 onto 3000 wet and dry and then hit it with the buffer and G3 again then autoglym buffing compound and that sorted it out.

[bigme100]

thanks for the great advise Stokdgs. I will do the Meguiars Polish and see how it comes out. I used some Zaino clay I had from my days of using Zaino. The clay was kept cool and in a sealed container. I used #901 shampoo diluted in a spray bottle. I only did small sections at a time, with lots of lube. but it took multiple passes to remove all of it, which i think was my mistake. I did`t want to use any adhesive remover for fear of ruining the paint. In hind site, i guess i should have because the paint got ruined anyway. lol. Well, live and learn. Thanks all for giving me such a warm welcome and some great advise. Before, I do anything else like this again I will definatly get on here and ask some questions.

[bigme100]

here are some pictures to show what I need to correct.

[Accumulator]

bigme100- I never really trust images over the internet (or rather, I don`t trust my interpretation of them), but that looks like it oughta polish out. Might take a while depending on how you go about it though.

[jerry r]

When I zoomed in I thought I could see straight line like marks,as if the clay bar had built up something in front of it as you went true with it,not scratches, just rubbing marks,and if that`s the case you should get a result by polishing as Accumulator has mentioned.Just out of curiosity Bigme100 are the marks confined to just where the decal was or can you tell where you went outside the line with the bar,if you get my drift.

[bigme100]

jerry, it is only confined to the where the decal was. I clayed the entire car with no problem. I`ll just try and polish it out i guess