What am I doing wrong? Clay bar

[section525]

I bought one of them fancy Meguiar's kits with the clay bar in it to clean up the Super Duty. Washed with some Armoral Car Wash, dried, then tried the bar + spray thing. I'm trying to get rid of some water spots and its not even doing that? It seems like the clay is either too lubed up or not enough. What am I doing wrong? Will this even get water spots off?

 

[tmds3]

I think the water spots are under the wax that is on the truck, try washing it with dish detergent to strip all the wax off, then use the clay bar, and then apply a new layer of wax.
Just my 2 cents

 

[section525]

Copy. Thanks.

 

[Joe Dirt]

HERE is a thread that may help...

Usually clay will not remove the water spots entirely, best bet is some cleaner wax, or the like... Water spots are a b***h!

 

[section525]

Back at this problem. Just ordered:

-Meguiar's G110v2 Professional Dual Action Polisher

-Meguiar's G17216 Ultimate Compound

-Meguiar's G18216 Ultimate Liquid Wax - 16 oz

-Meguiar's G10307 Scratch X 2.0

-Meguiar's W9006 6.5-Inch Soft Buff Foam Finishing Pad

-Meguiar's W7006 6.5-Inch Soft Buff Foam Cutting Pad


Amazon was out of stock on the Polishing Pads... but should I find one locally? Anything else I should get to make the Super Dooty look new again?? Thanks!

 

[Joe Dirt]

I usually only use the 7006 and 8006 (polishing pad) pads anymore, I don't use the buffing pads.

Actually, I've even moved away from the pads with Ultimate Compound and gone full bore into the microfiber system... If you haven't opened everything, might consider it instead. It's taking over MOL and a lot of detailers are starting to move over to it.

My Deuce MF thread if you haven't seen it: CLICKETH

You can still use your G110 with it...

 

[section525]

Thanks Joe. Amazon hasn't even shipped yet so I'll get that stuff swapped today!

 

[section525]

Joe which microfiber pads do you reccomend?

 

[Joe Dirt]

There will be two sets with the kit, one is for the compound (cutting disc), one for the polish (finishing disc)...

This is the kit I got for my G110...

CLICK ME

Notice that it also comes with a backing plate, which you will need... It's a different one than comes with the G110...

They have a 5" and a 6" backing/pad kit, I like the 5" plate for the size/contours of the Ex.

 

[section525]

Booyah, Joe

 

[BigRondo]

How did you know that Joe is crazy about bananas?

 

[section525]

How did you know that Joe is crazy about bananas?

 

[section525]

Okay... I'm not getting Joe Dirt results. Yes, this paint has been abused. But I'm hoping I can get her nicer than this.

Before

After

Before

After

Still have water spots

Little scratches....

BIG scratches.

I did the front door and fender. As you can see in the picture it does look waaaay better than before. That scratch went all the way from the fender down both doors (dang christmas tree hunting). But I'd like to get it a little cleaner. Especially since the water spots on the drivers side are way worse.

I haven't tried the Scratch X yet. Should I give that a go? Do I only use the two products that came in the kit with the MF pads? Here is what I have to choose from:

 

[Joe Dirt]

Are you using the pad with the red backer?

Make sure you're running the G at about 4, and not using too much product on the pad. If you're using more than this:

You're using too much. It's completely opposite in your mind as to how much product you should be using. The pad itself is doing a lot of the work. If there is too much material on the pad and the fibers "lay down" you won't get correction.

One thing I don't see there is a cleaning brush for the pad. I just use something like this:

CLICK ME

That little brush is way important, it will clean the excess product and fluff the fibers on the pad. I clean the fibers out after every square I do. For example, the front door on my Ex, between the window and the center trim strip, is one square. After I work that spot, I'd clean the pad. Otherwise, the fibers just lay down, and you won't get results.

I was a hard learner (it does take a learning curve on the MFDA system) and used one pad until I figured out that it was saturated with product (passenger rear door, passenger front door, and 1/2 of the front fender) before I put on a new pad, used way less product and did the entire rest of the truck and re-did the other 3 panels again with the next pad. That pic above is after I did 3 panels, it's really tough to grasp how little of the product you use. When I had the pad saturated, it looked exactly like your results, might check that out.

Check THIS thread out- It's got a lot of info that I can't type twice, or I might get fired for not doing any work today...

 

[section525]

Thanks for the help thus far, Joe. Still can't get rid of the spots. I'm using the brush to fluff every section. Even using compressed air once in a while.

Here is my pad and the amount of juice I'm using.

Driver's Before

Driver's after

Look at these dang spots!

The bed side came out good. Before.

After.





What do you think? Do I need to get more aggressive on these spots? They make me unhappy.

 

[Flounder]

More aggressive. They have etched the clear fairly severely.

A situation like that might require wet-sanding, then hard, medium, and finishing compounds.

 

[Joe Dirt]

Since you already have them, I would try the Swirl-X first, then if it doesn't come out, step up to the Ultimate Compound. Are they hard water stains, rain, or...?

Flounder is right, they've etched pretty good if that's how much spot-edge is left after MF-ing them. This could be a fun project...

It'll get there, this one just won't be easy.