Vinyl Stripe Scratches/Swirl Marks

[DFB5.0]

No doubt most of us feel the same way, John. Not sure if I have quite fifty but certainly close.



<laughing> I had a feeling you might post a photo, D! :=)



Who can keep up?!! <REALLY laughing now>

After MANY trips to the CarPro site, I never noticed Reflect (again, typical on my part.) Took a looksee just now but CP only has one small paragraph for the description that gives no details.

As usual, I asked Mr. G. and found an excellent review of Reflect that, including to yours, had some very helpful tips on how to use it.

To date, I have yet to make a dedicated "finishing pass" with the polisher and making another with Reflect will obviously increase the job time but, after reading that review (and especially your very positive comments on the product, I'm sold and will pick up a bottle before the Spring re-coating.

I can't wait to see photos of the new S650 after you've given her the "DFB Treatment". <smile> Please post full rez photos when you do, too. (You know how I nutty I am about digital images.) ;-)

I'm a single step kind of guy, as long as its glossy and relatively defect free, I'm good with that. I have never bothered with two-step polishing, or more to the point, have never needed to. So yes, if you plan on using Reflect as a secondary "jeweling" step, you are basically doing the job twice.

I have to say, while I love using Reflect, it does have limitations in terms of correction. The thing is, I like to try it first as its the least aggressive polish in my rotation and is so nice to work with. If it works, great! If it doesn't, at least I tried the least aggressive method first. Having said that, I have used Reflect on some paints that corrected to perfection with it, namely my XR8 and the boss's Mazda CX-5. So, you never know.

(Check the buckets in the "Reflection")

DFB5.0 Thanks for the reply and info. Looks like I need to wade into your posting history and log a few points of college credit. One thing, though, can you please organize your cabinet into alphabetical order for the rest of us with CDO? (CDO is like OCD but the letters are in the correct order lol).

I see you're from down under- which coast? I've spent time on both sides and under from down under in Tasmania. Aussies are the greatest hosts on the planet. Bar none.

So, you could be reading for YEARS in that pursuit, so the shortcut to that is the below thread, which has my go-to products listed for each task. Any on that list will be a winner.

DFB'S LITTLE BLACK BOOK OF DETAILING 2023 | 2015+ S550 Mustang Forum (GT, EcoBoost, GT350, GT500, Bullitt, Mach 1) - Mustang6G.com

As for Australia, I'm on the eastern seaboard, two hours north of Melbourne in country Victoria.

Australia has its quirks, it seems everything here is generally two years behind the rest of the world, and when it does arrive, its twice the price. And NEVER cross a bogan or Karen, unless you want to be verbally abused in the most vicious of ways.



But then, we have one of the richest cuisines in the world, with excellent quality fruit and vegetables (I live in the fruit bowl of Australia), the best coffee in the world (Melbourne in particular), some the most delightful variety of climates and scenery. I love the beauty of the Victorian high country, made many road trips through those mountains, an excellent workout for any car and a joy in the Mustang.

And of course there is Bathurst. After watching cars race around there on TV for years, to drive the track was pretty special. It's waaaay steeper than it looks on TV. I may have done several laps.......................

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[kilobravo]

..and log a few points of college credit

..can you please organize your cabinet into alphabetical order for the rest of us with CDO? (CDO is like OCD but the letters are in the correct order lol).

HILARIOUS, John!

Aussies are the greatest hosts on the planet. Bar none.

I've never visited down under but that is a most complimentary statement, John.

KB- thanks for that link. I wonder how many folks tried using that CP product and got frustrated not knowing the finer details of application.

I had the same thought, John.

(Check the buckets in the "Reflection")

Now THAT's what I'm talking about, D!

Thanks for the inside scoop on Reflect. but I don't know if I'll do the second pass next time or not. My plan is to try it out on a test section and see if the juice is worth the squeeze. <smiling> However, I hadn't thought about trying it out FIRST which is a great idea.

Sarah has only a few small areas that need corrected and Reflect just might do the trick. If it does then I'll avoid the extra work. Fingers crossed but based on what you said, I'm betting that the odds are pretty good.

 

[DFB5.0]

Thanks for the inside scoop on Reflect. but I don't know if I'll do the second pass next time or not. My plan is to try it out on a test section and see if the juice is worth the squeeze. <smiling> However, I hadn't thought about trying it out FIRST which is a great idea.

Sarah has only a few small areas that need corrected and Reflect just might do the trick. If it does then I'll avoid the extra work. Fingers crossed but based on what you said, I'm betting that the odds are pretty good.

Last time I polished the Mustang, I tried out Reflect on an intermediate blue pad, but I didn't get the level of cut I wanted and swapped to Perfect Final. But then I towel dry the car, which naturally inflicts some love marks here or there. In your case and your method of air drying, you might be get away with using Reflect on its own.

 

[kilobravo]

..you might be get away with using Reflect on its own.

That's the plan and it would make my WEEK if that's all I have to do, D.

 

[skinnyb]

I'm glad to hear a light polish worked well on a CX5 I will be correcting mine soon and I really hope the KCx Microcut will do it in one pass. I have heard good things about it so hoping for the best. I have the Fine cut to step up to if it isn't aggresive enough. I'm all about improving gloss and making it realtively swirl free, it's a daily driver that gets the wheels driven off it, so perfection won't be my goal

 

[davidkrocks]

My recent acquisition of my first GT350 came with long to-do list of upgrades and elbow grease to get it where I wanted it. I've been using Sal Zaino's products for 20+ years although none of his products will 'fill' micro marring like a good can of carnauba wax can with far less effort. But carnauba just doesn't last/won't protect nearly as well as today's advances in coating technology.

So I've read both sides of the argument for using products on the stripes and I'm curious if any of y'all have a go-to product that will fill/hide the micro marring on our stripes. TIA.

Side note: Is that a Porsche I see on the lift in the background? Pics, please!

 

[DFB5.0]

I'm glad to hear a light polish worked well on a CX5 I will be correcting mine soon and I really hope the KCx Microcut will do it in one pass. I have heard good things about it so hoping for the best. I have the Fine cut to step up to if it isn't aggresive enough. I'm all about improving gloss and making it realtively swirl free, it's a daily driver that gets the wheels driven off it, so perfection won't be my goal

That Mazda paint was so easy to correct, literally everything was removed with a single set of passes using a moderate cut pad and mild abrasive in Reflect. In other words, its soft paint.

 

[kilobravo]

Alex, I did a double take when I saw your photo..I thought it was D's hand holding the bottles! <laughing>

D: See the influence you have on us? <BSEG>

 

[TeamGomez]

And NEVER cross a bogan or Karen, unless you want to be verbally abused in the most vicious of ways.

and I thought it was only us Yanks who unleashed a horde of Karens...what nobody ever told us about the Covid vax is that it turned Cathys in Karens (apparently everywhere lol).

My Detailed Image package should be arriving soon. Felt like Rodney Dangerfield in a Pro Shop; about the only thing I didn't pick up was a box of those naked lady tees.

Side note: Is that a Porsche I see on the lift in the background? Pics, please!

That'd be my black steed I'm currently working on that turns out to have a slight metallic to it. I was unable to see the true depth beneath the decayed ceramic. It now has the pop and depth I was hunting for but it will get one last flash with the inbound CP Reflect to remove the really fine pad marring. I've never had such a difficult time in the finish phase as I have with this one.

Off for a wash day after a week of rain in SoCal. After the 2 fam cars are done, the Shelby will get some work done on the vinyl stripes. I inventoried my detailing artifacts and have a couple ideas; I'll post up the results later this weekend. Cheers!

 

[kilobravo]

Felt like Rodney Dangerfield in a Pro Shop; about the only thing I didn't pick up was a box of those naked lady tees.

HILARIOUS! :=)

I've never had such a difficult time in the finish phase as I have with this one.

No surprise, John, polishing the clear over black is both difficult and frustrating, good luck.

 

[TeamGomez]

Swing and a miss with product on hand and vinyl stripe swirl mark removal. I have a couple carnuba products that I really thought would fit the bill but came up short. Very little minimization of existing swirls.

I also tried a couple of my spray waxes that profess the ability to mask swirls but no joy. The P21S polish also failed.

I am reticent to use heat at this point but may lean on the ROB to help out. But I am unclear on how ‘deep’ the vinyl is and how much of the surface can be removed b/f irreparable damage.

 

[TonyNJ]

@TeamGomez as a test, try laying a piece of PPF over one of the marks and squeegee the water out from under. You'd be surprised how much it hides. If it isn't up to snuff, take it off. If it looks good, you can decide to cover the stripes with a full piece.

 

[TeamGomez]

@TeamGomez as a test, try laying a piece of PPF over one of the marks and squeegee the water out from under. You'd be surprised how much it hides. If it isn't up to snuff, take it off. If it looks good, you can decide to cover the stripes with a full piece.

Makes perfect sense. Hmmm…I have PPF on the front quarter…just have a wrapper PPF the stripes. Problem solved! Thanks TonyNJ

 

[TeamGomez]

@DFB5.0 and @kilobravo a quick note of thanks for the steer to the Sonax and CarPro polishes. I was able to get the black car to where I wanted it (sans any correction swirls) and while the dustless element of the polishes is very nice, the fact that I got near the end of the job b/f realizing I was still using the same MF towel (530gm edgeless) blew me away.

The pad clean-up was even more impressive. The product easily rinses out of the pores although this may be a second order benefit to keeping the pads from loading up. Used a brush on the black pad between applications of Reflect per KB's link that spoke to use protocols.

The Perfect Finish didn't get the black where I wanted it, but the Reflect sure did. Very happy with the results.

I also jumped into the coating world and attacked the black plastic on the Tundra, polished the glass/coated it, and just did the wheels/barrels/calipers on the 350. Which now means all the other cars will be in line for some of the same lovin'....thanks, guys....lol

Next step on this journey will be laying down a ceramic on the black car. Doing the wheel barrels gave me a sense of how it lays down, how to evenly spread it, and how little it really takes to do the job. Took about 4 hours to wash/clay/get that damned baked on Ford weight tape off the fronts (had to resort to the Dremel with a nylon brush wheel...YGTBSM).

Thanks again for taking the time to document all your trials, tribulations, and lessons learned.

 

[DFB5.0]

@DFB5.0 and @kilobravo a quick note of thanks for the steer to the Sonax and CarPro polishes. I was able to get the black car to where I wanted it (sans any correction swirls) and while the dustless element of the polishes is very nice, the fact that I got near the end of the job b/f realizing I was still using the same MF towel (530gm edgeless) blew me away.

The pad clean-up was even more impressive. The product easily rinses out of the pores although this may be a second order benefit to keeping the pads from loading up. Used a brush on the black pad between applications of Reflect per KB's link that spoke to use protocols.

The Perfect Finish didn't get the black where I wanted it, but the Reflect sure did. Very happy with the results.

I also jumped into the coating world and attacked the black plastic on the Tundra, polished the glass/coated it, and just did the wheels/barrels/calipers on the 350. Which now means all the other cars will be in line for some of the same lovin'....thanks, guys....lol

Next step on this journey will be laying down a ceramic on the black car. Doing the wheel barrels gave me a sense of how it lays down, how to evenly spread it, and how little it really takes to do the job. Took about 4 hours to wash/clay/get that damned baked on Ford weight tape off the fronts (had to resort to the Dremel with a nylon brush wheel...YGTBSM).

Thanks again for taking the time to document all your trials, tribulations, and lessons learned.

OMG!! I'm in love with this post! Well done that man!

Wheels are the perfect place to start with ceramic coatings, as you discovered, it gets you into the groove. Those GT-350 wheels are THE S550 wheel in my opinion, they are just perfection. And red Brembo's are timeless!

I'm impressed what you got out of Reflect on that Porsche, they are usually have quite hard paint.

Well done!

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