Got a bit of a problem...

Astra estate in white, washed with poorboys slick'n'suds then clayed with megs clay and lube. Everythings fine up to when i tried the hd cleanse, it went on and buffed off ok but seemed to leave a brown tint on the paint.

I washed the bonnet off again and tried some menz fmj, this seemed to soak in in places and leave a patchy effect even after 5 coats.

The rest of the car looks kind of pasty, especialy the roof.

Any ideas? the only thing i can think of is that its had a moody paint job somwhere along the line.

time for some retro T-cut?

any ideas when the car was last polished? how much muck did you get off with the claying and was the claybar coming up clean and flowing freely over the paint before moving onto the next section? sounds like there's still some serious contamination on the paint.

wash down with soap liquid and clay again to remove what's been put on. then give it a good polish. the hd cleanse it only a paint cleaner not a "restorer" so it'll need polishing to bring the paint finsh back. then hd cleanse and apply your lsp.

Dirty wasn't the word for this car, the guy was happy just to see it in white again :D

Hmm, as Matt says, sounds like there may be contamination left on the paint, but why the patchy soaking in I'm not so sure. Could be oxidation effects, meaning the paint will indeed need an intensive machine polish. On sound clearcoated white paint HD-Cleanse doesn't usually leave any tinting, and I wonder here whether the paint is single stage? Any idea about this? If so, could be the product soaking into (and tinting) the oxidised layer.

The paint on the colour coded bumpers seems to be of a different quality to the rest of the bodywork (plastics have more shine) if thats any help. I think it might have had a cheap spray at some time.

Hmm, could be... or it could just be severe oxidation. Time for a paint thickness test and hard rotary polishing session methinks. :)

let me know if you need a paint thickness test done. my gauge only gives overall thickness but far better than just attacking it without knowing :thumb: