mid-detail need some help.

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blackmagicwrx

New member
ok so i'm mid detail with my car but i dont think ill be able to finish all the steps i want. some background on the car. it' an 03 black wrx with 27k miles on it. i never knew much about detail before finding this site about 2 montsh ago. i always washed it badly (sponge) and not very often. never waxed it either. :( i just didnt know!



so now i've turned over a new leaf and decided to really take care of my baby. i've been two bucket washing it and got a ton of MF from costco(now window/wheel duty) and pakshak.



i started friday afternoon:



washed and started claying.

clayed all the way through saturday and finished on sunday morning. seriously like 10 hours of claying!!! the dirt just kept comin! here's my question when i get streaks of dirt on the bar its time to fold it over and find a clean arear right? b/c i swear my arms/hands are sore from reforming the clay so much. also the car felt like sandpaper before i went over, afterwards it was soo smooth that my MF towels fell off the car if i layed them on top. :lol:



so i washed it again today after the last panel i clayed. pulled it back in and decided to try my PC with IP and the orange pad. I have TONS of swirls and scratches.



so i went over the roof with the PC and IP in 2'x2' sections. i'm not sure how to really do this right... i put on the product to the pad around the flat part (its concave in the middle) and tried to smear it around evenly on the section i was working on. if i didnt have enough to applied a little more. I worked it till the product disappeared but sometimes it would cake to the paint and the only way i could get it off is with a litle qd and a MF towel.



finally i worked the IP until it had disappeared but then it was a light residue haze to it. do i keep working it at this point? i tried rubbing A LOT with a MF and it wouldn't work its way off. Should i just turn it to 5 and work the area for 5-10 minutes at a time?



thx.
 
blackmagicwrx- I'm sorta hesitant to comment, since I haven't used IP (have used the FP, though) but I'd like to help if I can. Generally, I'd work a product like that at 5.5-6 until it's almost gone. If you have a residue, it often means you either used too much product or didn't work it long enough. Most people *greatly* underestimate how long they need to work their product and *overestimate* how much product to use. When you mention "caking", I think you probably used too much.



FWIW, the clear on my (silver) WRX was pretty hard, but I hear the clear on the black and yellow ones is different.



As you found with the claying, sometimes this stuff takes a *very* long time. I'd keep working the roof until you get it good enough (for you) before you move on to other panels.
 
thx a lot Accumulator you basically re-enforced some of the ideas i had in mind from other threads.



I will go over the IP more at about 5-6 (this shakes like a mother!) and keep going until i start to see the residue lift off.



people laughed at me when i said i spent almost 10 hours claying the car, but the dirt just kept coming off. I went through 4 bars! though since this is more of an art than a science, i'm not experienced enough to eye something and say it's clean/dirty enough to keep using/throw out so i stayed on the side of caution and started a new bar when i couldnt find a side of the clay that didnt have visible dirt. each bar lasted about 2-3 panels.
 
I take about 5 minutes per 2x2 section. Try putting the product onto the paint and then smearing. I think menzerna actually recommends removing their polishes with a spray of water or QD.
 
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