Took off too much clear coat.

N

nich0lai

New member
Hi, anything I can do to remedy the dark spot I made on my hood by polishing too much with 3m scratch remover?:wall



Thanks, I really could use some advice, it's driving me nuts.
 
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Upped the contrast. You can see the water spot I was polishing vs the halo of damage. This was by hand in 45 seconds of polishing.:sosad

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I lightly did the rest of the hood hoping it would match after the oxidization was gone, no luck, and I waxed it several times.



Thanks for your time/help
 
hand. I already called 3m to complain, this is ridiculous. It's a 3 year old car. I know how to polish too, I polish glass for a living, not like I'm some noob who doesnt understand how thin clearcoat is and how little room you have to cut it.



In the future I am going to stick to nufinish which seems to be the perfect final polish/remover.
 
Just what are you complaining to 3M about? Sounds like you chose the wrong product and/or applied it incorrectly.



What does polishing glass have to do with polishing paint?????:wavey
 
45 seconds of light buffing with a product labeled clear coat safe should eat through my clearcoat entirely?



Please tell me what I did wrong. My theory is I had some higher grit silica in there somehow, as I saw some scratches before I waxed. I did shake it up, use it in the shade, brand new towel, etc.



Ever polished glass? You start with high grit, you move through finer and finer working the scratches out, til you get to cerium oxide, which polishes it to clear. It's the same process, only a ton more room for error. Plus Ive polished tons of scratches out of cars.
 
Ok, fine, I'm an idiot, you happy? It works fine for me. Someone on here recommended 3m, I tried it heres my results, now you make fun of me, rofl. Though I would be happy to hear your recommendations.
 
nich0lai said:
45 seconds of light buffing with a product labeled clear coat safe should eat through my clearcoat entirely?



Please tell me what I did wrong. My theory is I had some higher grit silica in there somehow, as I saw some scratches before I waxed. I did shake it up, use it in the shade, brand new towel, etc.
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You always start with the least agressive product to remove defects.



What do you mean by "My theory is I had some higher grit silica in there somehow, as I saw some scratches before I waxed."



I'm confused.



I don't know much about polishing glass other than nothing I use to polish my paint will even remotely reduce scratches, pitting, etc. in glass. If you approched polishing paint with 10% of the effort rquired to polish glass, it may have been too much.



Most here try a TEST SPOT when dealing with unfamiliar paint and/or products.
 
Something went wrong in this process. Maybe I messed up but I don't understand how, i did not aggressively polish the spot.



I could see fine scratches in my paint after I polished this spot. It was taking out a lot of clearcoat fast. Myabe I misunderstand this product, but I thought it was a light waterspot/swirl remover, thats what it's labeled as. It took out all my clearcoat in under 45secs.



Reading the back of the bottle, the agent is silica, which can come in many different sizes. I use all sorts in my glass polishing, if the concentration was high, or the size of the particle was large, I coud see the damage I had happen. It's the best Idea I have anyways. School me.



Regardless, I wasn't asking why it happened, I was looking for any advice towards fixing it.
 
STG said:
Most here try a TEST SPOT when dealing with unfamiliar paint and/or products.
Click to expand...



I did. Looked fine. 45 seconds of polishing still took out that spot.



I appreciate your help, sort of, but I have managed to get out plenty of scratches/swirls water marks yada yada on my car over the last ten years, I switch products, I kill my nice new car. I am not a professional car painter, but obviously I did not get out the glass diamond wheel, and I do not know how I could have used the same force as glass polishing even by 1 percent. By hand, 30-45 seconds of light polishing ate my clearcoat. You feel this normal? Say yes, I'll stop arguing.
 
^^Probably a good point. Though I've used plenty of other products on it as I've said. Mainly I feel the 3m shouldn't be labeled clearcoat safe if it's so aggressive. I guess I'm wrong though.
 
I have a feeling there was something wrong with your paint at least in that area. I'm not sure 45 seconds with sandpaper should go through your clear like that, and a swirl remover definitely should not. Its not like you were polishing with paint thinner. I'm not sure why people are coming down so hard on you. Although I'm confused why you polished a hole through your clear, then continued to use the product on the rest of your hood. Unfortunately I don't have any advice on how to fix it other than painting.
 
I use to sand cars at a bodyshop after school, and yeah that was a long while back but my point is, new car paint is tougher than the old single stage. I used 360 grit sand paper and I could not go through paint like that with a 45 second rub. If I were you, I'd take it to a good bodyshop and let them look at it.
 
I am pretty sure that if I took 360 sand paper and rubbed my car for 45 seconds (that is a fairly long time), it would go through the clear coat.
 
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