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Minor swirls and scratches on hood decal?

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I try to keep my car immaculate but i just oticed swirls and scratches on my hood decal apparently from using quick detailer with a towel on it. Any idea how to fix this?
 
What type of towel? I'm sure Justin or one of the other guys will be along shortly with some suggestions for removing the swirl marks.
 
I'll try to keep this brief. I was at a coffee and cars yesterday and a sea gull took a crap on the center of my hood, it covered an area the size of my hand. I realized it after taking a couple of pic's of a 13 boss next to mine. I cleaned it off with some quick detailer and it left a stain about 3"x3". I was pi$$ed because I spent hours waxing it the night before. I had recently used this Griot's One-Step sealant that I got from the auto parts store to clean a stain off my hood from last year. Nothing I tried worked except for this stuff, I wasn't very agressive, being carful and doing it by hand so I didn't make it worse. When I wiped it off I notice a big improvement, the stain was almost gone and no micromaring. I used the DA on it until the stain came out, and it worked great on this bird bomb too. Took the stain out and removed most of the scratches except for the deep one's. I have 13k mile's on my car and like Justin said, you look at these decals and they scratch. I took a pic of the result and tried to show as many scratches as I could by shining a 1000w halogen light on it. Real happy with the result.

hooddetail2_zps5f858bef.jpg

hooddetail1_zpsb71faf4d.jpg

Can't beat the result for $15 a bottle.
 
Mine is a RR 12. I used a very soft old bath towel that I have used for a while. That decal is going to be a PITA!
 
dale5150 said:
Mine is a RR 12. I used a very soft old bath towel that I have used for a while. That decal is going to be a PITA!
Save yourself some headaches and get quality microfiber towels.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2
 

Justin

Save the dawn for your dishes!!!
yeah I use adams single soft or griots blue and greens or any number of quality microfiber towel that can be found on sites like autogeek.net or a place like chemical guys. they have some good sales going on right now.
 

DEye

You can't get there from here...
G'Day

First post,
I use BacktoBlack for the Black plastic bits , but not sure about what to use for the hood/Boss decals ?
Should you wax/not wax the decals ?

Thanks
Don
2012 Yellow blaze #663
 
DEye said:
G'Day

First post,
I use BacktoBlack for the Black plastic bits , but not sure about what to use for the hood/Boss decals ?
Should you wax/not wax the decals ?

Thanks
Don
2012 Yellow blaze #663

You can glaze/wax over the 2012 decals no problem, they're already shiny and don't streak. I'm not a fan of back to black, I don't feel it really does anything. I'd look into VRT from Adam's.
 

Justin

Save the dawn for your dishes!!!
ForceofWill said:
You can glaze/wax over the 2012 decals no problem, they're already shiny and don't streak. I'm not a fan of back to black, I don't feel it really does anything. I'd look into VRT from Adam's.
+1 on the VRT. Back to Black....
 
The dealer left horrible swirls all over the car, especially the decals. I finally got the chance this week and tested some Meguiars Ultimate Compound with a white pad and a Porta Cable 7424xp. It looks 80% better, I just have to go over it again tomorrow and see about 100%. If you use UC you may have to use a polish afterwards. DetailedImage has nice package deals on a buffer with your choice of pads. Just don't hit the decal edges with a clay bar, it is a pain to fix. And never lift the buffer off while it is spinning ::)
 
I've been to 2 car shows with this car a got crapped on twice. First time I posted about it above. The second time was 2 weeks later, I'm done with car shows. This time, I was going to get the stripe painted on there if I couldn't get the stains out. I figured I'd be more aggressive for that reason. I used Meguiars 105 and 205 with a DA, white or orange pad, I used orange. Unlike the Groit's there is no filler, so it's not going to wash away, which I discovered after my post above, it's just polish and it works and has a decent amount of cut. I didn't go for 100% but it took the minor swirls, scratches and stains out. I've used this stuff for a couple of years too smooth scratches out of my paint but now I found another use for it.
 

Justin

Save the dawn for your dishes!!!
racered302 said:
I've been to 2 car shows with this car a got crapped on twice. First time I posted about it above. The second time was 2 weeks later, I'm done with car shows. This time, I was going to get the stripe painted on there if I couldn't get the stains out. I figured I'd be more aggressive for that reason. I used Meguiars 105 and 205 with a DA, white or orange pad, I used orange. Unlike the Groit's there is no filler, so it's not going to wash away, which I discovered after my post above, it's just polish and it works and has a decent amount of cut. I didn't go for 100% but it took the minor swirls, scratches and stains out. I've used this stuff for a couple of years too smooth scratches out of my paint but now I found another use for it.
So you used orange and one pass 105 and one 205 on the vinyl? any before and after pics?
 
Actually 2 with 105 and 1 with the 205. I was to pissed to document anything. I would have peeled the stripe off if it wouldn't have cleaned up. I was pleasantly surprised.
 

Justin

Save the dawn for your dishes!!!
racered302 said:
Actually 2 with 105 and 1 with the 205. I was to pissed to document anything. I would have peeled the stripe off if it wouldn't have cleaned up. I was pleasantly surprised.
what did you put on them to protect them? I found Zanio has worked well for me. currently testing the 22ple on them. not sure if the 22ple will bond with them or not
 
Justin said:
what did you put on them to protect them? I found Zanio has worked well for me. currently testing the 22ple on them. not sure if the 22ple will bond with them or not

Meguiars NXT 2.0, I'm not sure how well it holds up, I haven't washed my car since then and it really needs it now.I'll let you know. I still need to order some Zaino.
 
Justin said:
what did you put on them to protect them? I found Zanio has worked well for me. currently testing the 22ple on them. not sure if the 22ple will bond with them or not

Meguiars NXT 2.0, I'm not sure how well it holds up, I haven't washed my car since then and it really needs it now.I'll let you know. I still need to order some Zaino.
 
Just washed my car and took some pic's to show how the stripes held up. The photobucket thing is a pain in the butt so I'm posting a link to the album. I did the best I could to show the worst which wasn't that bad.

http://s1174.photobucket.com/user/racered302/slideshow/Hood%20stripe

The album sucks but if someone has a better idea I'm all ears.

IMG_0444_zpsc75e22fe.jpg
 
Justin, have you tried the 105 yet? I didn't additional swirls or scratches from when I polished them with Meguiar's and the wax held seems to hold up pretty well. I know what to do now to take care of the bird shiznit stains and the scratch's that seem too appear out of nowhere , very satisfied with the result.
 

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