I damaged my paint on new car, fix it myself?

J

jrouvier

New member
I recently (16 days ago) purchased a new black '03 Saab 9-3 Vector. Last sunday I washed it for the first time. Early in the morning, while the car was still in the shade, I washed it with meguiar's soft wash gel and a sheepskin mitt, as I usually do. My fiance had bought me a pack of cheap detailing cloths, so I used them to dry the car. (Not using 'em wouldn't have been a good idea, ;) ) The cloths didn't pickup water very well, but I continued to use them, not paying too much attention, and finished drying the car.



A few hours later, after the sun was fully up, I saw what had happened to the car: hundreds of thousands of micro-scratches over the entire car. :eek: The scratches are very light, only in the first layer of clearcoat, but on an otherwise perfect car with only 300 miles on it, looks very bad. Especially since on friday it looked perfect and barely needed a wash:



side.jpg




Needless to say, these cloths (which I now see are 100% polyester) will be used in the future for cleaning grease off my tools and drying my hands, but what should I do with the car now? Should I try to fix it myself? Or should I take the safe route and have a professional detail the car?



Obviously I'm not the best at caring for my cars paint, but I'm motivated and willing to spend as long as it takes to get the job done right. However I'm afraid I'll only damage my paint more.



I haven't told my fiance about the damage to the paint, and she thinks I'm a little crazy when I spend an hour or two washing a car. (actually, she thinks I care way to much maintaining cars in general, ie only using Mobil 1 oil and changing it every 3k miles when the manual calls for every 7k) Spending several hundred dollars to have a pro go over a 16 day old car would be a hard sell.



So, what do I do, try and fix these small scratches myself? If so, what do I use and how do I do it? Or should I not use a brand new car to learn how to polish out scratches, and get a pro to take care of it?
 
First, I'd like to say, congrats on the Saab! I think the new ones are absolutely beautiful, especially in the color you have. I wish I had looked at them when I went to get a car...instead I ended up with a silver Accord. Admittedly, it's easier to clean.



Anyway, I poked around Autopia quite a bit, and here's the Detailing Tips section, which deals with exactly the problem you have and how to care for it properly.



http://www.autopia-carcare.com/detailingtips1.html



I beleive it's under "Swirl Marks and Water Spots"

Good luck! :xyxthumbs
 
Welcome to Autopia jrouvier! :welcome



As said, be sure to check out the online articles here, and be sure to use the huge pool of knowledge available through the Search feature.



I think that you could, and should, attempt to fix them yourself. Hopefully the damage isn't all that great. There's little chance of you damaging the paint much as long as you use safe applicators and choose an appropriate product to polish them out with. One cardinal rule is to be sure to try a milder product first by default if you are unsure of how to proceed. :up In a case like this, this usually means a swirl remover, but such a product is quite mild by hand, so a stronger product is sometimes needed to get results.



Here is a thread I thought had some good hand polishing suggestions: http://www.autopia.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=249455#post249455



HTH and good luck!
 
Start off with 3M's SMR or Meg's swirl free polish. It actually shouldn't be too hard to fix ;) . Make your job a little easier and pick up some of the applicator pads that are sold on this site. Probably wouldn't be a bad idea to clay the car as well so you don't just rub in the rail dust that's on your car.
 
Nope, right now I don't have anything other than a hose, a bucket, a mitt and a few chemicals (wash, window cleaner, etc.)



One of the reasons I'm considering having a pro do it is that if I'm going to do it right, I'd have to shell out a hundred or two on good shampoo, pre-wax cleaner, clay, polish, wax, towels and applicators. If I buy a kit with all of the above in it, I'll probably be able to get it for about $120. Adding a orbital polisher would add about $200, + pads for it = about $240, bringing the total to $360



If I am going to do it, I want to do it right. In my mind there isn't any point buying 2nd rate equipment and getting a 2nd rate result. If I'm going to spend $50 on a cheap off-brand wax or polish, I'm just going to end up having to get a pro to strip the $50 chemicals off and do it right. Buy the same token, I don't want to spend $360, screw it up, and have a pro fix it.



For $360, I assume I could get a pro to do a bang-up job. However, in a month I'll want him to do it again, and the month after that, and the month after that... If I buy the stuff it's a large initial investment, but I'm guessing the chemicals will probably give me around 6 full polish and wax jobs before I have to buy more, the PC should last indefinitely. Eventually I'm going to have to get over my FUD and learn how to do this anyway....



Perhaps it's a good idea to go ahead and buy the stuff to do it myself, but practice on my finances 2000 Silver honda civic. She has never had this car detailed, only a trip through the gas station carwash every week or two. So, I probably won't do much damage to that car, and since it's silver, it will be more forgiving. But perhaps there might be too much buildup on it for a novice to do it right???
 
The wax and polish should give you way more than 6 jobs. More like 20 or 30, depending on the chemical and the size of the one you choose.



You can't go wrong with fixing it yourself, as long as you know you will continue to detail yourself.
 
Well, 6 jobs before I have to replace *something*. Probably I'll need to buy more clay first. Or I'm going to be washing it more than I'm waxing, so maybe I'll have to get more shampoo...



In any event, we all agree the cost of the chemicals would be very low in terms of cost-per wax
 
I almost come down to San Francisco to get out of this heat and take care of those swirls for you. Anyway, light swirls are not hard to take out with a PC and SMR.
 
My suggestion would be to go to Lowe's Hardware and pick up a Porter Cable 7336. It comes with one polishing pad. Pick up a Meguiars polishing pad at your local paint supply store and also get some Meguiars DACP and Clay detail kit. Now go to a Harley Davidson shop and pick up some S100 SEC and some S100 Paste wax. Last thing you will need is about 6 microfiber towels (Walmart has these fairly cheap) and some foam applicator pads (around 4 to start).



Cost:



PC 7336 $109.00

Meguiars Pad $12.00

S100 SEC $10.00

S100 paste was $16.00

DACP $17.00

Microfiber Towels $10.00

Foam Pads $6.00

Meguiars Clay Detail Kit $10.00



Total outlay for materials is about $200.00 and this will last you probably longer than you'll own that car.



1) First thing is wash the car, dry it and then clay it following the directions



2) Now use your PC and DACP and follow directions. Start with it on the 4 speed and it should take care of any scratches. Do a small section at a time and clean of the residue with a clean microfiber towel. There will probably be some sections that will be a little easier to do by hand.



3) Now switch to the Meguiars pad and use the S100 SEC using the same method as above.



4) Use a foam hand pad (or the applicator)and put a very light coat of S100 paste wax and clean off with a clean microfiber towel.



One hint, it's a good idea to take any tags off the towels and also prewash them.



This should leave your Saab in better than new condition and you should be very impressed with the results. Good luck and don't be afraid to tackle it your self as the PC is very user freindly. The initial outlay may seem a little expensive, but the cost will be spread out over several jobs and the joy of doing it yourself is worth the reward. There are other products that will give you equally good results, but this is what has worked best for me so far. look for posts by Scottwax as he has many years of experience and does some of the finest looking cars I've seen:D



Wow! I am now an enthusiast detailer instead of an apprentice.:bounce
 
Yeah...do yourself, you can't mess up with any of the products mentioned, and you are way over priced on your estimate, even w/o a PC. Try the SMR products mentioned ($15), foam pads ($5), microfiber buffing towels ($25 for several), a better mitt ($10), and read about the perfect drying technique on this board. I count $55 bucks and some elbow grease. If that doesn't work, then consider the big guns of the PC.
 
OK, I'm going to do it myself. However, my fiance did have a good idea, which I'm probably going to follow:



The spiderwebs on the car aren't going anywhere, and aren't in danger of permanently effecting the paint. Assuming that I shampoo the car regularly, the paint should only slowly degrade, with a few more spiderwebs appearing each wash, mostly depending on the quality of the towels I use. So therefore it might be sensible to wait until the paint get's a little worse until I detail it...
 
One more question:



The exterior plastics seem to be crap, quickly turning white. Especially the door handles. Any thoughts on slowing/preventing/reversing this?



Thanks for all your help and advice guys, I really appreciate it.
 
Just a note: an old car trick is to glaze a car before selling. Of course after the first washing the glaze is removed and the true condition of the paint is discovered.



good luck
 
jrouvier said:
One more question:



The exterior plastics seem to be crap, quickly turning white. Especially the door handles. Any thoughts on slowing/preventing/reversing this?



Thanks for all your help and advice guys, I really appreciate it.
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Yeah, you need to give them a good cleaning and protect them. After a good scrubbing during a car wash, and drying, scrub them again with some IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol). This should remove all waxes and oils on them. Then use a protectant/treatment on them. There are many choices: 303, EO Protectant, Mother's Meguiar's, etc., etc. Final choice is up to use. I use EO Protectant Lotion and really like it.
 
You're making this way more complicated then it has to be LOL, you sound like me when I first got here.



First off, there's no point in waiting to detail the car, because if you wash it and care for it properly, you wont introduce more scratches or spiderwebbing. Basically you just need to wash and dry the car properly (read here on the perfect washing and drying technique with two buckets and such) and you wont get any more swirls.



No point in waiting, do it now and enjoy it. If you get more marring, do it again. It'll become a relaxing outlet for ya.
 
rightlane said:
Just a note: an old car trick is to glaze a car before selling. Of course after the first washing the glaze is removed and the true condition of the paint is discovered.



good luck
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This is likely. When I bought the car it's build date was 5 months in the past, so it had probably been sitting on the lot for 4 months and was damn filthy, so one of the requirements was that they detail it before I drive it off. They may have had a really cheap job done on it, just so it looked good when I drove it off the lot...



I also paid for perma plate, which I know is crap, I just bought it for the 7 year warranty that comes with it. (not knowing that the car comes with a 10 year paint warranty) Anyone know if the above will strip perma plate off? Do I want to strip it off?
 
2wheelsx2 said:
After a good scrubbing during a car wash, and drying, scrub them again with some IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol). This should remove all waxes and oils on them.
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Won't IPA will also take off car wax?

So I should do that before/during a polish & wax the car?
 
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