Brand new white car. Scratched all over!

2 days after we had this discussion and this is what the car looked like. Had a storm front hit the car while parked at work. It got covered in dirt and sprinkled with water. At least I got it to bead pretty nice!


It sounds like I am better off just leaving it alone and worry about other things. I'll work on it in the Spring as it'll get all covered in salt and dirt through the winter anyway.

Peacemaker, I used ONR on my last car exclusively. No marks what so ever. Used 2 bucket method and kept my washing sponge and dry rag clean by avoiding them touching anything other than the car paint.

 

actually...... now would be the time to worry about it especially if you have salt on the road during the winter (correcting the paint can wait)

If I was in your shoes, Id worry about the polishing till spring like you said, but I would atleast wash, clay and apply some sort of durable sealant like Menzerna Power lock or Black fire wet diamond to give it some protection during the winter, I know allot of guys here use colinite products as it lasts. Road salt is not something you want sitting on your cars paint during the winter.

 

This sounds like a good idea. Would anyone else endorse this method?

Are you working by hand? How is polishing by hand? Sounds like a nightmare....

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I'm polishing with a Porter Cable DA polisher. Polishing, or applying a sealant by hand os no big deal. Correcting on the other hand...

You don't have to correct all at once, the important thing is to prep the paint properly before sealing it and sealing it to protect the paint from contaminants. Since the paint prep to correct the paint is the same as for applying sealant, you may want to do both at the same time. Also, you have to seal the paint after correcting it, but you don't have to correct before sealing it.

Yes, that's what I did. Washed, clay, menzerna power lock and called it good. I did that to the whole car after I tried correcting the hood.

 

Ive done cars section at a time..............

How did the hood come out?

 

Haven't done it yet. That pic was taken a few days ago when I originally tried working on the hood without much success.

 

great option..... what did you use for polishing when you detailed it?

 

but then you are reapplying a sealant each time you correct a panel which doesnt make much sense. Also, you want to strip off any previous sealant/wax prior to correction work. Kind of making it hard on yourself here. The only way id say doing a section at a time is ok is if the car were to sit in a garage and not move until completely done.

 

Claying will remove the wax.

 

normal wash + clay + polish will strip the wax/seal and allow you to correct and reseal. It doesn't need to be garaged for this process. You're thinking of removing wax every time you do a panel, which is not the goal there.

 

Do you do this for a living? Coming from a professional standpoint that is not the approach one would take. And my point being... You are wasting product and putting more hands on the car than necessary. Plus it would personally drive me insane to have one section done and be driving it around.

Claying is for removing contaminants, not stripping lsp.

 

No I don't. Nor do I have the luxury of doing big details whenever I want. I live in an apartment with limited access to a (friends) garage. If I had the luxury to detail the entire car in my own garage, then I would do it in one sitting rather than drag it out.

I already looked into having Phil detail it, but I already own products and supplies. I can't get myself to dish out $600 for a full detail when I can do it myself (albeit little-by-little).

 

VW paint is not single stage. It is white with clear coat over the top. I have a 2012 Candy White Tiguan and work at a VW dealer. I deal with paint issues all the time and most are caused by the customers using the wrong products or methods.Here are some photo with Collinite 845. The one that looks blue is because it was a very clear blue sky day and part of the hood was in the shade.

 

Missed this one..... definitely not a single stage paint.... not sure where you got that information

 

yep that is the downside. I love making cars shiny but I keep buying silver and white cars for some reason. It is less fulfilling spending hours and hours on them but still can make you feel good at times. Like when my silver truck was parked next to a co-workers identical truck and I pointed out to someone that they were the same paint color and they asked "really, what do you have on yours?"

I do miss really making the paint look incredible like you can do with other colors. Heck, before buying the white car we rented a red Jetta and I washed and spray waxed it before our trip. It took all the self control I had not to take the DA to it just to see what I could get the paint to look like.

Now I just opti-coat the new car and pretty much forget about it.

 

The dealer offered to detail the car. They'll have a VW regional manager there as well due to other problems with the paint. I may end up getting a full detail for "free" out of this one. I say it in quotes because there's a chance I may have to fix even more problems in the spring.

Thanks for all the info. This late in the season I think I still better off waiting until spring to correct it. Maybe taking a day off from work so family is not around to distract me and just taking it nice and slow and giving it plenty of time and patience is the way to go.

Now another problem showed up, there's a white film on the black interior door panels by the windows. None of the other black plastic panels have this. It's like a film and it smudges off when I rub my fingers over it. It should clean easy but I hope I can get all the crevasses in the textured finish to clean up as well. THAT is something I can do in the non-heated garage in the winter without neighbors looking at me funny because I'm washing the car in the 27 degree cold.

 

Reviving an old thread. Well, I was planning on fixing the pain in the spring but life got in the way so I just waxed the car with Collinite 845 and called it a day. I am glad I did that! I got a scuff on the driver's side door during the summer while the car was parked. Scratches did not get to the primer but are deep enough that after washing I can see dirt inside the crevasses of the scratches.

So, here's my plan of attack:
- ONR wash
- NanoSkin Autoscrub 6 inch Pad Kit (instead of clay bar)
- Menzerna FG400 with a foam pad (the ones sold at Detailers Domain)
- Menzerna Power Lock with a finishing foam pad

I will use the DA for the entire process to try to cut down on time. I am both hesitant and curious to see the results, I've never really used a compound with the cutting pad before. My choice for FG400 and a foam pad is simply because I've seen quite a few reviews and the foam pads are readily available. I could use a microfiber pad by hand on the heavily scratched areas. Should I get something more aggressive for the damaged panel?

I now have a car available to me on an as needed basis so I can start the process, leave the car in the garage and finish another day. No need to do one panel at a time and I can give my back some rest time in between steps if needed.

 

Alright, finally had time to post results. I am both pleased and disappointed. Lol The menzerna fg400 left a nice finish, very glossy, I did not even need to use the sf4000 I got. The bad part is that it did not remove any of the scratches and swirl marks. I used a foam cutting pad with it. At least it seemed to have rounded off the edges of the deep scratches from a parking lot incident on the driver's door which hide them very well.

I think at this point I'll just leave it as is. Don't want to spend too much time and money on my DD when it'll get all beat up anyway.

 

It will not be single stage and even if it was you would still have enough paint to work with.

 

Tdekani, thanks for the reply. Single stage or not, that paint is hard as hell!! That, or I have no idea what I'm doing. Lol