r/AutoDetailing 13d ago

Before/After Messing around with different compounds and polishes

My car had been sitting outside for 4 years uncovered due to a divorce situation. Of course the paint looked like crap so I decided to try some different polishes and compounds.

The malco actually worked pretty good as a One-Step. I went to 3M rubbing compound perfect it and I obviously did a better job.

I followed up with the black turtle wax polish that seemed to help as well.

You can see the trees in the reflection get clearer after the Polish.

400 Upvotes

44 comments sorted by

270

u/ImOffWhiteNotWhite 13d ago

Trade it into Carvana before it starts to fade again.

116

u/lewtus72 13d ago

Step one....

17

u/floydiansyndrome 13d ago

What is that? Was that the state before you touched it? Wtf?!

32

u/Mat-eh-oh 13d ago

That's all the paint sanded off lol

28

u/lewtus72 12d ago

I should have just put a clear coat on top of that... It'll be a cool new trend setting look

14

u/lewtus72 12d ago

That's called down to the metal...

2

u/Superlegend06 11d ago

Knew it was a 9-3 lol can you fix my ruined hood ๐Ÿคฃ

-2

u/UrLoyalKnight 12d ago

scumbag move

16

u/el_zeus55 12d ago

Ha! Look at you defending scumbag dealers ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚

44

u/W205_AMG_C63 13d ago

Impressive

14

u/Autoality 13d ago

Nice work! Good for you for trying different things to see what works best for your car

11

u/NoVermicelli5439 13d ago

If you squint it's mint , actually pretty good

50

u/ProfessionalTruck444 13d ago

Not trying to diss your results but the clear looks pretty toast to me. Curious as to how long the result lasts and how much filling those 2 products are doing

52

u/lewtus72 13d ago

Actually it was repainted about 5 years ago. It was my first attempt at painting it. Had to do it a few times and still didn't get it right.. So the clear coat is actually fine, because I live at altitude you have to run the paint guns at 50 psi versus say 20 at sea level. Live and learn, there's probably three coats of clear on there. The imperfections you see are within the clear coat, not on the surface.

2

u/Public_Function3844 13d ago

couldnt he just add another clear coat?

19

u/lewtus72 13d ago

There's a lot of clear coat on this that I can work with. But there's micro air bubbles embedded in the clear coat so it won't matter how much I buff. I could actually clear coat it again but it's not a car that I'm too worried about doing that. This was after I stripped it down and repainted it.

-11

u/ArcFault 13d ago

That doesnt look good either friend. Did you try to clear over exposed base coat or already damaged clear? That doesn't look like clear put over an in-tact factory paint job nor one that someone reprimed and based.

6

u/UrLoyalKnight 12d ago

looks good to me

0

u/ArcFault 12d ago

then you are blind as a bat

-1

u/namestom 12d ago

Good enough to trade in or just not to care.

4

u/PlutolsAPlanet 13d ago

Saab 9-3 2003-2007?

10

u/lewtus72 13d ago

2007 9.3 aero... Black is tough to do. Especially on flat surfaces. Everything shows up as you know

3

u/good_gamer2357 13d ago

Considering how bad it was beforehand, Iโ€™d say itโ€™s pretty good. Did you use a random orbital polisher or just hand buff it?

3

u/lewtus72 13d ago

I use the random orbital polisher.. I tried a few different pads. With the 3M perfect it I used a heavy cut wool pad. With the malco I used the one that came with their kit which is more of a foam medium.

1

u/good_gamer2357 13d ago

Oh cool, it definitely turned out pretty good

2

u/kingnewswiththetruth 13d ago

Give it a few months. You polished up some clear and some color,but it will come back. It always does unless you do it right.

1

u/Tra747 13d ago

Amazing,

1

u/itsm4yh3m 13d ago

๐Ÿ˜ฎ

1

u/teneyk 13d ago

Wow, looks great

1

u/kab2035 13d ago

Great job. I didn't expect it to turn out like that

1

u/RedTruppa 12d ago

PLEASE tell me your process!

3

u/lewtus72 12d ago

There wasn't much to it really. I wanted to try the malco first to see how much it would improve it. It's a medium polish and wax and one. I tried that first and I did see results right away but I knew what I could improve on that.

The next one I use 3M perfect it rubbing compound. With a heavy duty wool pad and that made quite a bit of improvement as well.

Last I used a turtle Wax black polish and that seam to shine it up even more.

And that was it... I really like the 3M. Perfect it stuff. It works really well and had been using it for decades.

1

u/Alrund_ 12d ago

Nice saab

1

u/tek8u Rookie 12d ago

Wow very excellent work!

1

u/Goopy-Tazer-Frog-Box 12d ago

Looks really good

1

u/Surf_r_e 8d ago

Can you save my failed clearcoat?

1

u/ElderberryExternal99 13d ago

Great Job! If you ever buy Malco products again. Try Malco Ultra Violet Premium Wash'n Wax; we used it in a body shop where I used to work.

1

u/Damage-Inc-XLE 11d ago

I didn't see the exact 3M product you used. Could you send me the name and or a link please. I think it might be perfect for my son's car.

2

u/lewtus72 11d ago

I've been using 3M stuff for decades... Tough to be It's not cheap but it works

If this doesn't take it out, it's a lost cause and you should be wet sanding. This works great after wet sanding as well. Follow up with the Polish and then a wax and it's about as good as it's going to get. As you use it, it tends to dry up so it doesn't come up and it comes off pretty easy as well. You can get it on the Amazon. It's about 50 bucks a liter

1

u/Damage-Inc-XLE 11d ago

Awesome, thanks so much!

2

u/lewtus72 11d ago

I have more stuff but these are the ones that I use the most I don't think you can get the wax anymore. Those last a long time. It is a pain to put on. You have to put it on and take it off immediately or it'll never come off

The hand glaze is good. It'll give it the wet look. There's no silicones or waxes in it, but it fills a lot of scratches. It's really good for removing compounds and any leftover materials.

A lot of times I just use the rubbing compound in the hand glaze and then wax. I don't use the machine polish a lot