Stutopia Posted January 3, 2020 Share Posted January 3, 2020 Doing a big winter detail and came across this. I had to mess about with the image a bit to show it but it’s a pretty fair reflection of what it looked like. It was on the bottom 3 inches of the passenger door, about half way down. Around 8 inches long, running from front to back. It looked like the residue from a sticker or decal, but I’ve never had one there. It had no discernible different “feel” from the surrounding area, when running my fingers over it (that is to say it felt smooth like the paint). Neither neat APC nor a BH auto clay bar touched it. In the end I broke out the Rupes and shifted it with a yellow pad and fine polish. Anyone seen anything like this before? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G1en Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 Complete guess but could possibly be something like brake fluid or fuel thats splashed up from the wheel and sat there for a while so eaten slightly into the clearcoat? when i spilt a little brake fluid onto barrel of an alloy wheel and left it i was suprised how it went through the gtechniq C5 applied and made a similar thing to your pic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stutopia Posted January 4, 2020 Author Share Posted January 4, 2020 Decent shout that Glen, could be a goopy sort of spill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilogikal1 Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 If you couldn't feel it, it looks like liquid etching in, and trapped moisture under, the clear coat to me - likely caused by something acidic splashing up the door and sitting for a bit. My suggestion would have been a light polish and report back, but you've beaten me to that already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stutopia Posted January 4, 2020 Author Share Posted January 4, 2020 1 hour ago, ilogikal1 said: If you couldn't feel it, it looks like liquid etching in, and trapped moisture under, the clear coat to me - likely caused by something acidic splashing up the door and sitting for a bit. My suggestion would have been a light polish and report back, but you've beaten me to that already. I treated myself to a Rupes LHR 75E Mini not so long along ago, but haven't had the combination of good weather and free time required to do the whole car. Naturally I've been itching to have a play with it, so this seemed like an opportune moment to have a bash. There was no way it was going to make it look any worse!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilogikal1 Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 Oooh, how did you find the Rupes? I keep meaning to upgrade mine, but everytime I have the thought PB are out of stock of the one I want so I sort of took that as a sign that I didn't really need it... then I didn't even clean my car for an entire year. Although I might still treat myself in time for the Easter detail though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stutopia Posted January 4, 2020 Author Share Posted January 4, 2020 41 minutes ago, ilogikal1 said: Oooh, how did you find the Rupes? I keep meaning to upgrade mine, but everytime I have the thought PB are out of stock of the one I want so I sort of took that as a sign that I didn't really need it... then I didn't even clean my car for an entire year. Although I might still treat myself in time for the Easter detail though. Hmmmmm, hard for me to really say TBH, I'm relatively inexperienced and my first and only machine was the Meg's G220 which seemed ok at first (if a bit short on torque and noisy and heavy) until I had that few days working in the detailer's place and I got to try quite a few different offerings from Rupes and Flex (which were in a different league). Given I have a small car and only do this for the pleasure (I don't need a huge pad to save time on an endless line of vehicles) I found the 75E machine was so much more manoeuvrable, controllable, less tiring to use and easier to work into tighter spaces (even though the throw is relatively large, the slightly tapered pads are nice and forgiving if you get too close to things). So far I'm super happy with it, it's a huge upgrade from the G220 as it just doesn't bog down, even when I really leaned in. I've not tried to really mow anything down yet, but that's not in my wheelhouse anyway. The only down side I can see so far is the proprietary pads but, to be honest, having fewer choices to make is not really such a bad thing for a novice like me. It means I've got to learn to make the tool work properly instead of fannying around trying new combos. As I get more experienced, I'd be tempted to add one of it's bigger brothers or probably just man up and go straight to the Flex and take my chances! One of the reasons for picking it was that if I got it wrong, it would still be useful for tight spaces and I could buy something else - but unless I get an SUV, this will be plenty of polisher for me for the foreseeable. For someone like you, I think you'd either need to have a specific need for the smaller tool or just entertain one of the other bigfoots - but really I'd say go Flex and feel the rotary power. I'd love to know what @Ricey uses day to day. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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