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Power washers and stone chips


jamesR
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Recently got to spend a little time with my VW GTI. I've just bought a 10 L/min powerwasher and a RO polisher. I snow foamed, clayed and tried XMT360 for the first time.

Couple of things I noticed:

- more stone chips than I thought I had. I don't think they were just more noticeable, I think there were more of them, both small pinhead size and small/med size ones.

So can a power washer exploit paint damage of existing chips so they enlarge and can they cause new chips where paint has been weakened by stone strikes? All chips / new chips were on the bonnet.

- swirls had been sig reduced but were still there. XMT was described as as being able to remove minor swirling with a green pad, as I applied it with a white CCS pad should I try again with a green light cutting pad or change products to a dedicated polish?

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Hi James

If you have damaged paintwork then putting a power washer on it can make it works. I once had a nasty stone chip on the bonnet of my 5 series which left a spot an obvious "chip" for getting it was there one winter i blasted the car with PW and of course, had a much bigger chip afterwards. Lesson learnt.

PW'ing can also clean quite well so when you might see more afterwards, certantly once you have used a chemical paintwork cleaner which is found in XMT 360 you will probably notice alot more minor defects that were covered with "dirt".

XMT 360 can remove some fects, it has minor abrasives but is also pretty pad dependant. I have it and use it between details before laying down another product or on cars like my sisters where its ideal for a quick clean up and protect. The white pad is about the weakest you want to go, with that pad its really just a very effect paintwork cleaner rather then a full abrasive.

Regardless of the pad you choose, XMT 360 really wont do anything but remove minor wash induce marring and bring back to life a well maintained finish or it will improve a tarnished finish but it certantly wont offer 100% or even 50% correction on anything that has anything but minor defects.

How old is your Golf? Do you have pics of the swirls? I would suggest picking up something like Menzerna Intensive Polish (maybe badged SIP in OZ) and then 106FA.

Powerfinish 203s is perfect polish for medium amount of defects even on hard paint, it finishes out really well and is pretty much a one step solution.

Meguiars 205 is also worth considering. Pads wise light cutting would be good for 205, IP/SIP and 203s. The white pad works really well for low level correction with 205 and bringing up a good finish with 106FA.

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