My headlights are perfectly clear when the haze is removed, and I do not want to go through the sanding process. My car has always been garaged. I have been using Plexus. It works great but the haze returns pretty fast. I've heard good things about Meguiar's Plastx although one user metioned a discoloration after using it with the lights on. I've used Liquid Glass polish and it also works fine, but the haze returns. My lights are not yellowed at all and when clean they look new. What is the best product to keep the haze off for a longer period of time? Meguiar's Plastx? Claybar? Thanks very much.

 

Hi I am about to place an order on your site for the poor boy Natty Blue Wax, and was wondering if you could guide me in the right direction on the process and other products I may need.

My car has terrible paint with tons of spider webbing and is in desparate need of a wax.
Will wax alone remove the webbing or will I need to clay bar as well?

Can you give me a general direction on this as I have never clay bared and waxed a car with this much damage on the paint.

Do you think this alone will restore the finish?
Thanks! Much appreciated

 

The problem you are experiencing is that Plexus merely fills in imperfections in plastic, it doesn't remove them. You need to use an abrasive product to actually remove the haze and prevent it from coming back. PlasticX is a mild polish you could start there and see what type of results you get. If that doesn't do it, keep moving up to more and more aggressive options until the lights are permanently cleared up. The haze shouldn't return if you are following the proper washing and drying techniques and not taking the car through automatic car washes.

Natty's Blue is simply a wax. It won't do anything to correct spider webbing, just protect your paint from the elements and add a little more gloss.

What you need to do to remove the spider webbing is to polish the paint. I'd highly recommend reading over our polishing guide to get a better idea on what that consists of. It's a timely and expensive investment compared to other steps of the process since it's best applied with a quality buffer, multiple pads and usually a multi-step polishing process.

A clay bar will not do anything for the spider webbing, if anything, you may add more imperfections to your paint while using a clay bar, but you are removing all of the surface contamination that typically remains after a wash. Using a clay bar is useful prior to polishing, here's a guide on clay.

Properly polishing is going leave you with the best results. If you want to take the next step in restoring your car, that's where I'd invest my money.

Let me know if there's anything else I can give you a hand with.

Cheers,

George

 

George thank you so much for the clarification.
Obviously I would have been lost with out your guidance!

 

Anytime. Also, if you don't want to perform the paint correction with yourself, I have a detailer in your area I can highly recommend to you. Once you get the paint in the condition you want, it's much easier to properly maintain it.

Keep us posted on what route you end up going and how things turn out.

George

 

George- I will definitely take the recommendation. This is a bit over my head..
Once the paint gets restored I think I can handle the standard maintenance.
You can send me a PM with the info.

Thanks Again!
Michael

 

George
I am about to get my driver side door fixed where someone hit me. It will be painted along with some of the front fender and back door. My question is I was just about to clay and polish my car but I'm not sure about doing this on the new painted area. What do you recommend I do? I'm not sure if it is ok to do it after or if I should do it to my car before it gets fixed. Thanks for the help.

 

Hi George,

sure this question has been asked before in some form or another.

have a black 03 Passat wagon. paint is in very good condition for a 6 year old daily driver with 50K miles.

first week of June did a complete detail. polished with Menzerna FF, sealed with Klasse AIO and topped with Wolfgang Fuzion.

washed car this past Sunday with Maxi Suds (true to its name) and decided since it was a nice day to add a coat of Natty's Blue...just got from you. car looked great and the Natty's is so very easy to use...smells good too!

long story short, came home from work last night to a bird bomb on the roof. sprayed with PBW's Spray & Wipe and let soak. wiped up with MF, but there was still a ghost stain left behind. tried some Menzerna with a basic foam pad...no luck. tried PBW's Polish w/Sealant on a red pad...no luck. tried ScratchX 2.0 with white pad...no luck. still have the stain where the bomb had baked in all day. can't believe I have a stain with all that protection!

have a polishing pal kit for spot work and it has the red, white and orange pads. the orange is very stiff and have never used this. was going to try that next, but thought I would ask if you had any suggestions to try to remove. in the past the ScratchX/white pad combo has always worked.

Thanks.

 

PM coming your way after I finish this post...

Personally, if I were in your situation, I'd tackle the detail after you got the car back from the shop. Most of the time body shops don't do a good job detailing the car and you'd have a better chance of blending the paint by doing it after. Also, if they give you a "courtesy" wash and add swirls, by waiting on the detail you can remove them.

Thanks for the detailed information, it helps assess the problem much better. Unfortunately with bird droppings, it really depends on what the birds diet was for the day. Some insects and berries are very acidic any no matter how much protection your car has it can eat through the protection and clear coat very quickly. Sometimes you can have bird crap sit for days and simply rinse it off with no remains.

You've been taking the proper progression to try to remove the marks. You've started with the least aggressive approaches and worked your way up. The next step from what you've listed would be to try the orange pad with a medium cutting polish. Do you have anything more aggressive than the PO106FF? You can certainly try that first, but chances are it won't do much if the FF on white didn't do much.

Let us know if things get any better when you try the more aggressive option.

Cheers,

George

 

[QUOTE=Detailed Image;4412318]PM coming your way after I finish this post...



Personally, if I were in your situation, I'd tackle the detail after you got the car back from the shop. Most of the time body shops don't do a good job detailing the car and you'd have a better chance of blending the paint by doing it after. Also, if they give you a "courtesy" wash and add swirls, by waiting on the detail you can remove them.



Thanks for the advice.

 

Anytime, keep us posted on how things turn out for you.

George

 

God only knows what this little bastard ate, but it had to be something with some powerful acid to sit for only a couple hours and eat through all that protection. birds, pollen, salt, hail, rocks, leaves, acid rain and don't forget the sun. we just don't stand a chance.

I am going to try the orange pad with some SSR1, but that is similar to FF. next will be the ScratchX 2.0. if that does not do the trick then I will need to get something more aggressive.

Thanks.

 

Sounds good. Be careful using an orange pad with finishing polishes (all 3 are). You may introduce some hazing and marring on your paint since you aren't matching the aggressiveness of the polish with the aggressiveness of the pad. I never use more than a white pad with any of those polishes mentioned. If you see hazing / marring, then follow up with the same polish with a lighter pad (white).

Cheers,

George

 

exactly why I did not want to use this pad. think I will keep trying different polishes with the white pad first and see if something hits. need to get on a step stool so I can get more even pressure. thanks George!

 

Pm'ed