Water Etching

[TundraPower]

A friend of mine pays me to keep his Lexus LS460 in prime condition which I do. A few weeks ago he bought a barely used black 2010 Mercedes. This car has the worst water etching on the hood I have ever seen. I gave it a shot with the following: wash with CG Citrus, clay with DJ lube and WG clay, then polish with Power Finish with Cyclo and yellow pads. This process helped a ton but the deeper etchings remain. I would like to try Power Gloss but I am afraid to. Should I be afraid? And I for darned sure am not going to wet sand a car worth that much money.

Opinions?

TP

[Rocket]

I had several bad ones on my Trans Am. I used Menz SIP with a LC orange pad and I got them out. I had one that left a slight outline but you can only see it if the lift is just right and you have your head real close.

[SuperBee364]

While it`s always a good idea to go with the least aggressive method first, here you kinda went big game hunting with a pea shooter.

The chances are very good (darn near 100%, really) that the Mercedes has very hard clear coat. Using Power Finish on a cyclo for water etching on a hard clear coat like that just isn`t going to cut it.

While you could go the Power Gloss route, even that probably isn`t going to get you the results you want on clear coat that hard (with a Cyclo).

If you want to stay with Menzerna polishes, multiple applications of SIP would probably give you better results than PG, as SIP will finish down much better than PG will. PG can leave nasty compounding swirls.

Since you`re using a cyclo, you may find yourself getting a bit frustrated with the Menzerna polishes on clear coat that hard. You would probably have much better success with Megs M105 and M205.

[Old Pirate]

If any of these don`t do the job for you, then I recommend using Mark V Splash. I got a small sample send to me last year and was blown away on how this product work.

[TundraPower]

While it`s always a good idea to go with the least aggressive method first, here you kinda went big game hunting with a pea shooter.

The chances are very good (darn near 100%, really) that the Mercedes has very hard clear coat. Using Power Finish on a cyclo for water etching on a hard clear coat like that just isn`t going to cut it.

While you could go the Power Gloss route, even that probably isn`t going to get you the results you want on clear coat that hard (with a Cyclo).

If you want to stay with Menzerna polishes, multiple applications of SIP would probably give you better results than PG, as SIP will finish down much better than PG will. PG can leave nasty compounding swirls.

Since you`re using a cyclo, you may find yourself getting a bit frustrated with the Menzerna polishes on clear coat that hard. You would probably have much better success with Megs M105 and M205.

Truthfully I am an amateur and I always pass on projects that I feel are beyond my level of expertise. But this time I`m going to go out on a limb. I want to do this. If I screw it up and have to pay to have it resprayed then so be it. I have a Flex L3403 but I rarely use it because the Cyclo has always done a great job even on bad swirls. So I am going to start with the Flex, a light pad, and Power Gloss, and see how things go. Then I will use Power Finish to remove the compounding. I`ll let you know with pix how it turns out unless I jack it up. Thanks so much for your guidance.

[Todd@RUPES]

Truthfully I am an amateur and I always pass on projects that I feel are beyond my level of expertise. But this time I`m going to go out on a limb. I want to do this. If I screw it up and have to pay to have it resprayed then so be it. I have a Flex L3403 but I rarely use it because the Cyclo has always done a great job even on bad swirls. So I am going to start with the Flex, a light pad, and Power Gloss, and see how things go. Then I will use Power Finish to remove the compounding. I`ll let you know with pix how it turns out unless I jack it up. Thanks so much for your guidance.

Hi Mark,

There are a lot of times that it is impossible to remove water etching with just polishing alone (unless you are using a rotary polisher and high speed). Because water etching`s are so big (perhaps a couple of inches vs. a swirl mark that is sub-micron in width) you actually polish the low spot as well as the surrounding area. This removes material fairly equally from the depth of the water etching as well as all of the paint around it. Often times (unless you restore to high speed polishing or wet-sanding with a stiff backing) it is best just to round the edges of the etching and live with the rest.

A high speed rotary (at high speed) will use centrifugal force to pull the pad outward, which creates a planing effect, allowing you to remove just the material on the outside of the mark. The same goes for wet sanding with a stiff backing plate.

So aim for good but don`t damage the paint going for great. The Flex in combination with Power Gloss will definitely do a better job of blending the edges and making the marks less visible, but I would caution against trying to get 100% removal. You may need 2 passes of Power Finish to fully remove the compounding haze but the results will be worth it.

Best, and let us know how it turns out!

[TundraPower]

Hi Mark,

There are a lot of times that it is impossible to remove water etching with just polishing alone (unless you are using a rotary polisher and high speed). Because water etching`s are so big (perhaps a couple of inches vs. a swirl mark that is sub-micron in width) you actually polish the low spot as well as the surrounding area. This removes material fairly equally from the depth of the water etching as well as all of the paint around it. Often times (unless you restore to high speed polishing or wet-sanding with a stiff backing) it is best just to round the edges of the etching and live with the rest.

A high speed rotary (at high speed) will use centrifugal force to pull the pad outward, which creates a planing effect, allowing you to remove just the material on the outside of the mark. The same goes for wet sanding with a stiff backing plate.

So aim for good but don`t damage the paint going for great. The Flex in combination with Power Gloss will definitely do a better job of blending the edges and making the marks less visible, but I would caution against trying to get 100% removal. You may need 2 passes of Power Finish to fully remove the compounding haze but the results will be worth it.

Best, and let us know how it turns out!

Well a few weeks later here I am to reveal the results. Better late than never. I did not burn the paint praise the Lord. I would say I got 80% correction on this project. I used my Flex lightweight with a yellow pad and PowerGloss at 1500rpm max (keep it moving keep it moving). It did an amazing job but as you said left some wicked trails and haze. It took three passes with the Cyclo and PowerFinish to clean it up. Some of the worst etchings are still there, but are rounded. A friend of mine who works at a body shop said he couldn`t have done any better. He said to get rid of them all you`d have to wet sad or respray it. Coming from someone that does this for a living I`d say I did pretty darn good.

Thanks again for your support and encouragement.

Tundra