Heijneker

Thanks, Ron! A paint expert also stated the same, saying it's caused by a sputtering spray gun. Very strange I hadn't noticed it earlier though, I inspected this paint/panel up close numerous times.

Question for Dr. G So I recently tested some products from other companies on my car. After washing my car with ONR, I lightly polished my car using Menzerna 400 on a DA, and wiped it clean with ONR. I thought it had worked very well with a great finish. Afterwards I applied some Bilt Hamber Double Speed Wax. Very slick paint and great beads. I figured the only downside for Menzerna compared to OPT polishes would be VOC's and not very eco-friendly. But I guess I found another downside: damage to my car..... These very tiny, but very noticeable, spots are all over 1 of the 3 panels of my car on which I used above products. Could these be caused by the Menzerna polish somehow? And what component of this polish could have caused this? Hope Dr. G could find the time to elaborate on this very interesting subject.

@Setec Astronomy I would skip to sanding to keep panel temperature down and save time. Compounding 6 times the panel got wat too hot. My Flex XFE 7-15 has too high a offset for sanding. I used my FLEX pe 14-1 on speed 2-3, an 8' wool pad and Optimum Hyper compound. Hyper compound is indeed very gritty, has amazing cut and works very well. This was the worst case of oxidation I have seen on clear coat.

Hey all, I've been working at a used car dealership for the past couple of weeks now. Of course as a detailer and I'm enjoying the work. It's great! Largerly thanks to Optimum (and Yvan), I can make very decent money doing these jobs, since I'm twice/three times as fast as competing detailers, with superior results. Right now, I can complete 3 cars inside and out per day, to a good/very good (for dealerships) result. Soon this will hopefully become 4! So thanks for that!! Yesterday however, I met my match! An older white van, with heavy oxidation. Here's how bad it was: Yikes! After I tried my Rotary (FLEX PE 14-1 Speed 3), a 6.5' Lake Country wool pad and Hyper Compound, I was left with this: WARNING: Non-Optimum polishing action ahead. Yup, I'm thinking that that needs sanding! Sadly I did not have the equipment to sand the whole car, so I decided to try what I see everybody else doing: 164.537 step polishing and a full day's work. Eventually, after getting the panel so hot I could fry an egg on it, I got it looking good!: But what would be the Optimum way to fix this paint? Obviously sanding would be the way, but what would be the process? Would I start with 3000 grit or lower? Would I finish with 3000 grit or higher? How would I know if the sanding would be sufficient? What device would be recommended to sand with? What I'm thinking would be the Optimum way: Sanding with 3000 grit (or first lower if required), then follow up with 6000 grit and polish to a shine with a DA and Hyper Polish. Hyper Polish should be able to handle that, right? I'm hoping a high quality electric sander would suffice. Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for the reply. I'd understand if this was too much too ask.

@LostVulpine If you already have great polishes, stick to them. Time for new polishes, get OPT! So after a bit of time, I got to compare OPT intensive Polish to Menserna 2500. Menzerna 2500 came second in a comparison test from Forensic Detailing Channel, so a high quality polish. Application, the spray polishes on average are much easier to apply. Both to the pad, as on the panel, since the pad doesn't have to be primed. This saves around 10 seconds per polishing set, which adds up. However, the sprayers sometimes don't co-operate, which loses quite some time. However, OPT polishes just DON'T dry out! They are so very nice to work with during polishing. A win for OPT! Correction, both used with a Rupes 6' Yellow foam pad on a FLEX XFE 7-15. This was about the same in my experience. Maybe a slight edge to Menzerna. The finish, both used with a Rupes Yellow Foam 6' pad. Menzerna did finish down nicer without micromarring. Intensive polish had a bit of micromarring. So a slight edge to Menzerna. Removal, the difference here is MEGA. To me, no other polish, has come even close to the wipe-off of OPT products. This saves an incredible amount of time and (mental ) energy. A BIG win for OPT. As for the Hyper Compound: I have since changed my wool pad from the 8' meguair's wool pad to the Lake Country 6.5' foamed wool pad. (The Meguair ones are awesome for the Nathan Flannal Rotary Seat cleaning method!) The Lake Country one is a lot easier to control on a rotary and made a huge difference in finish, without diminishing cut as far as I know. Also works a lot better in combination with Hyper compound. The products starts out looking very chalky, but as you work it, becomes a clear film. It spreads around very well and wipe off is incredibly easy. Leaves a lot of holograms, which to me shows that it's working very well! It does dust up for me, but I don't use a pad washer for the wool pad, just a spur. Using a pad washer would reduce that for sure. Glad I've got a gallon, cause I LOVE to use it this way!

So after using the polishes some more, I've really enjoyed the experience so far. Especially Intensive polish has been great to use, sprays beautifully, working time is astonishing, cuts well. Haven't compared directly to say, Rupes fine, but I think it's a bit more difficult to get a comparable finish with intensive polish. Hyper compound I now often use with a FLEX PE 14-1, RPM always below 900, with an 8' wool Meguair's pad. Cut is absolutely in-sane. I think comparable to 5000 grit sandpaper, with matching finish. Have a look at the finish it leaves behind on a BMW metallic black paint. The car, bad picture... (after polishing): The state: The finish: Sadly, my distributor has not been able to supply Hyper polish yet. But I wonder if this would have removed this finish? Either way, I'm very eager to try OHP! I followed this up with the FLEX XFE 7-15 and Intensive polish on a 6' rupes yellow pad. This left micromarring, which would be largely removed using Rupes UNO Protect. I'm having some trouble with Hyper Compound though, with somewhat inconsistent cut (from a fresh pad), and sling. Also it doesn't spread around as oily/nice as Intensive polish? I would like to hear other people's experience with OHC! How do u use it? What finish does it leave? How do you correct that? Thanks!

Hello everybody! Just now, I might have discovered a nice glass cleaning trick with ONR. Testing of course has been very limited, but I would like to share it ASAP, maybe get some feedback from other people. The trick: You probably already have what you need. A bucket ofwarm/hot ONR at standard dilution and the UBS or BRS, and a twist loop manageable drying towel, like The Rag Company's Double Twistress. I feel these do a way better job than dedicated glass towels. Take the sponge out of the solution, wring it out as much as possible. It will feel like you're tearing your $20 sponge apart, but they're very resilliant (do be carefull though haha). Then hit the glass with the sponge, and it should barely leave a smear on the glass. The crazy thing is, these smears will basically completely disappear, and the glass will be pretty slick to wipe with the towel afterwards. Take extra care near the edges of the glass, where more water will be present from the sponge. So nothing major, but it seems to work very well! And added benefit in my experience, is that your sponge will get softer from this as well. My BRS is CRAAAAAZY soft, probably due to me wringing it out when I'm cleaning it. This will likely do the same! I'm eager to hear if this works for others as well!

I recieved a clear bottle of Intensive polish as well! And I like it, very easy to see the amount left and just looks cool. Would love to have to pink Car wax!!!!! I use the IK sprayers, I now have a yellow/orange Power Clean, green Angelwax Vision and pink would look great. I had a blue one as well with ONR @ QD, but no need for it. Would make it very easy to seperate, since I have misused some products before.

Thanks for the reply, Outback! Sure makes sense that the Self Serve carwashes are neglected. I just visited the third one, and probably the nicest one. Sadly similar results to the second one. For good measure I tested a second car this time, and only ONR'd half the car. Thinking that maybe that could have been the problem, but it seems the spotting is the same. Thanks for the advice on the spot-free stuff. I'm currently looking into it, but I don't really understand how it works/what I would need yet.

While the above posts were helpfull, they didn't really apply to my question. What I was wondering was; After washing the car with ONR, rinsing the car with DI/Spot-free water, what would the result be? Does anyone have any experience with this. I did some testing myself, using self serve carwashes. One gave SEVERE crusty waterspots after baking in the sun lol, luckily ONR made short work of it and removed it all. The second one left small, hard-to-see watermarks on the car. Boy was it the quickest wash ever though haha. Just sponge it up and rinse it off. Such a pleasant and easy experience, with awesome beading afterwards (OOS & OCW). Results below. Will be testing a third one later today.

Thanks for the reply, Setec. I haven't heard of those etchings being caused in such a short timespan. I was under the impression that whatever the case, if you got the dropping off within a few days, you would be fine. It would leave a mark yes, but that would disappear within a few days as UV rays break it down. In my very limited testing, this has been the case anyway, but like you said, lots of different variables. Maybe I could remove the mark (mostly) with OPC? To my understanding, etching happens largely due to the clear coat expanding and contracting around the bird droppings. Which would take a couple of days as the car heats up and cools down during the day. I don't think I could do anything about etching, but maybe OPC could also improve the look a bit somehow, when removing those longer sitting bird droppings.

Preferably, I would like to hear Dr. G's take on this one. So to raise money for a good cause, and test the products, I washed cars in my village, using ONR, OCW, OPC and the UBS. Naturally, most of them are neglected. It's been hot as well, and bird poop (which people don't even remove) is the name of the game over here. Bad combo that is. I soaked the bird poop with some ONR wet towels, before going over it with the sponge and the towel. Most of the poop came off with a bit of extra effort. What I found was, that bird poop left incredibly visible marks on the paint. Everything was off of the paint, but it was very clear to see where the poop was. I feel like, that an automatic car wash would have done a better job in removing those marks. Wouldn't be so strange either, since the car is blasted with strong soaps and beaten to a pulp, you probably can't expect ONR to get the same kind of clean. On regular road grime though, it leaves absolutely nothing to be disered, even on neglected cars. So my question is; what could I improve on to decrease those bird poop marks? Maybe spray a little bit of Power Clean on it beforehand or after the gunk is gone? The idea being that doing so, I remove the remaining acids on the paint. Cars just get washed too little. In a perfect world, everybody would ONR their car every couple of days. Just takes maybe 15-20 minutes. Or at least remove the bird droppings. Oh what a world would that be.

(New formula) No rinse works great on bugs too! Just ONR @2561:1, Ultra Black Sponge, TRC Double Twistress and OCW as a drying aid. Just a rinseless wash, no pre-rinse, on a hot car in 25°C, fully in the sun. Most of the bugs came off with the towel. For the rest of the car, just took it slow and worked panel for panel, came out looking great. For the wheels, which weren't that dirty, OPC @6:1, brush with TRC W&B Brush dipped in ONR, wiped with a towel. Followed by OPT Tire Shine. No streaks, smears or watermarks. Awesome! Both of the cars washed this way:

Like the title says, I recently got my first order of Optimum polishes, beinig Hyper compound (A GALLON!) and intensive polish. My experience is limited to using Mezerna 300 and the new Rupes line-up for the past year, for about 40 cars or so. So first time using Optimum polish; HOLY $#@&! A totally different experience, MUCH easier to work with. Where the traditional polishes are often difficuilt to evenly spread around, and can dry out or dust, OPT polishes are amazingly foolproof. I genuinly think it cuts my polishing time in half, or even more. Very easy to spread, easy wipe-off, great working time, little dusting (hyper compound MF Pad), fast application, to name a few. My IK trigger sprayer did seem to struggle a bit with Hyper compound. Haven't compared cut yet, but you can feel the grit in the Hyper Compound. The car I worked on today had basically unscratchable paint. Hyper Compound on a 6' MF Pad, XFE 7-15 speed 3, didn't do a lot. On the black pillars, it did cut very well. I was flying over the car, this is a(nother) game-changer for me. Thank you, Dr. G!

Again Off-topic on the Rags to Riches as MF Detergent. Smells nicer, seems to leave no residue (smell) on the towels. However, have not noticed a difference in hydrophobicity, and it does a worse job on stains it seems. Compared to Power Clean.