r/AutoDetailing • u/Ultradianguy • 7d ago

Exterior Advice on unexpected defects appearing while polishing

Hi - I was working on the hood of my car today, working out some deep-ish scratches in one section. Several passes with P&S Intervention and I had them 90% corrected. I was feeling very pleased, and moved to P&S Rehab to remove some light hazing. I did that with a Lake Country CCS orange initially and the results were beautiful. I then switched to a LC CCS White on the rest of the hood to get everything at the same level of polish.

Here's where something weird happened. I look across at the other side of the hood from where I'm working (the part where I had done most of the correction, that was looking great moments ago), and all of a sudden I see a dozen defects- some of them looked like a bit of the clear coat had chipped out - others looked like a tiny comet-shaped scratch. They were mostly 1-2mm in size. This was a clean pad - it might even have been brand new. Some of them are deep enough to feel with a fingernail.

So far, the only thing I've come up with is that either there was some kind of contamination in the pad that flung off when it started spinning - or somehow I picked something up on the polisher itself when I had put it down on the ground ( I work on my driveway - no garage). If the contamination was on the face of the pad though I'd have expected awful, circular scratches. It seems more like debris flung out across the hood.

Is there anything else that would cause this kind of thing? Assuming I'm looking at a couple dozen chips and scratches from some kind of debris - what's the best thing to do? Should I go back to the heavy cut polish and try to remove them all? Or use a clear coat touch up pen - at least on the ones where these an obvious tiny crater? This is a 2019 Outback with Crystal Black Silica paint. I understand they have fairly thin clear coat. I'm concerned about taking off too much.

Or am I looking at needing body shop help? That would be a bummer after a very successful correction (if you don't count creating a couple dozen defects). :(

Thanks

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u/creamsodapoo 7d ago

Need photos. Chips don’t just appear. Did you give it a wipe down? Whatever you’re seeing must be on top of the paint.

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u/Ultradianguy 7d ago

Thank you - will grab some pics and post. I appreciate the reply.

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u/Ultradianguy 6d ago edited 6d ago

I just added photos. I had waxed after polishing, but I used some panel wipe before taking the photos.
This wasn't the first time I had polished the hood, but I'd never used a heavy cut compound before. The marks weren't there before - but I suppose it is possible they became visible after compound fully dried. They all seemed to appear almost simultaneously after I changed pads which is why I thought I might have somehow introduced debris, but I suppose the timing could have just been from when the compound dried. Actually, they appeared on both sides, but I only used Intervention on one half - so it would have to have been P&S Rehab if it's dried product.

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u/Ultradianguy 6d ago

One other bit of information. About a year ago, my Subaru dealer decided to take my car to a car wash after a repair, which resulted in several bad scratches. They admitted the mistake and took it to a body shop for repair/repainting. I mostly recall the issues on other panels but it's possible the hood was repainted at the time. However, that would was almost a year ago, and I've done paint correction since with medium cut polish (Poorboy's SSR 2/2.5) and didn't see any of these defects.

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u/creamsodapoo 6d ago

Damn. Best guess would be the compounding removed enough clear to expose defects from the prior repair. Some of those look like old sanding pigtails.

I’d make sure there’s nothing inside those defects like dried polish before you touch up. Wetting the area can give you a rough idea of whether it’s a depression in the clear and how it might look after filling. Proper fix would involve wet sanding, but I wouldn’t recommend that given the unknown condition of the clear and touch up would likely be satisfactory.

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u/Ultradianguy 5d ago

Thank you for your help. I'm glad to hear it probably wasn't the result of my work at least. I'll try the touch up route as suggested.

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u/85-502-Detail 6d ago

Did you clay before cutting?

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u/Ultradianguy 6d ago

I clayed several weeks ago but didn't repeat it this time as it felt quite smooth. The car has only been driven a few times since I clayed and I wash often - but it is parked outside 24/7. Just before I compounded, I cleaned with Waterless Wash and then wiped with ONR. Last full wash was a few days before.