So I’m new to detailing and I wanted to get some haze marks off my paint ASAP because there’s a car meet today.I washed my car first then added some meguiars ultimate compound followed my meguiars polish all applied by hand with a micro fiber pad.I was desperate and did not have a cool place to work with or a garage so I added it on my hood in the direct sun.Its is 85 degrees out and the hood was hot to the touch when I was working on it.Anyways it did get rid of the marks but it left a little residue around the hood that I had to vigorously scrub with a soft terry towel.Is it safe to polish car in the direct sun?? Any paint damages could be caused or would it just leave streaks and will need to be buffed by a pro? Thank you

 

It's just really hard to get product to not haze in the sun if it's hot outside, it flashes off in less than 1 second usually which is too quickly to work with properly.

It's not the SUN it's the SURFACE TEMPERATURE that matters. You can apply in the morning when it's cool without issue in the direct sun but when the surface temp is over about 90 degrees it starts getting difficult.

A popup shade will help tremendously if you can't otherwise get the vehicle into shade.

 

It's never a good idea to wash or wax your car in direct sunlight! And then there's the products you used, not surprised the results weren't good! Here's what I discovered years ago that made my rides stand out way beyond others, www.griotsgarage.com. Invest in one of there basic Orbital kits along with their paint cleaning clay and you'll have a product that will last a life time! Kit comes with a video, watch and follow it and you'll have great success/knowledge plus a perfect shine on all your rides! Remember, never wash or wax your car in sunlight or when the surface is even warm!
Good Luck & enjoy the ride...Gary

 

Also and I didn't catch this until Gary mentioned it, those products that you used are for removing swirls or scratches but you MUST use a machine polisher (preferrably a DA orbital) unless you are a trained professional and know how to properly do this kind of work by hand (and have about 8 hours to burn and are willing to pay the price physically for the next 2-3 days). You would only ever hand polish a very small area that needs it, I've never actually seen someone polish an ENTIRE VEHICLE by hand, EVER. It also needs to be done after a full clay bar so you aren't taking embedded impurities that don't wash out and scratching them over the rest of the paint.

What exactly are you trying to achieve with the surface of your car. Are you trying to remove swirls and scratches, or are you trying to make it shiny, or are you trying to protect it from UV damage?

 

It wouldn’t burn the paint right?

 

I was trying to remove haze on my hood caused by smearing of bird droppings on my Hood ONLY not the whole car & yeah I’m a noob I never clayed the hood before hand I just washed the car

 

Thank you I’m going try to re polish it when at night time when it’s cooler

 

Bird poop is extremely acidic depending on what they ate, you are using the correct product to remove the chemically acid eaten part of the clear coat.

 

It wouldn’t burn the paint doing this in the hot sun would it?

 

Not a chance.

EDIT: Unless you were applying product with a flamethrower or something. Car cleaning products produce no heat therefore it won't burn paint unless you did it with friction and you would blister the skin off your hand before you damaged the paint by hand buffing it.

 

Thank you I was just worrying because the hood was super hot and so was the microfiber pad I was using.The car looks better now after I used a quick detailer to clean the polisher streaks it left by sitting in the sun