How to remove streaks from rubbing compound?
 

My car currently looks like crap in direct sunlight. I have no idea how to remove the rubbing compound streaks. It's like it is still on the car and just won't come off. Can anyone help me out?

What product & process did you use on the car, that left marks behind?

I used turtle wax. The bottle said it was clear coat safe. All I did was wash the car, park it in the garage and then apply using a microfiber towel. I just rubbed it firmly back and forth and then used a fresh towel to rub of the excess

I'm not sure how you would get streaking from that. I would say you may have marred the paint. Our Z's have a fairly soft clear, so you do need to be gentle when working on them. It's hard to make recommendations with out seeing the car, but try re-doing a small area with light pressure to see if that takes care of the problem. You may also want to try a mild polish to see if that helps. The Turtle wax you used probably contains a very mild abrasive (mild polish) as well, but a dedicated polish with micro abrasives will be a better option for removing defects in the paint. Let me know what's available to you and I can make some recommendations.

I'm just gonna guess that the TW has fillers. So what you might be seeing is streaking from the silicone fillers. Try a little car wash soap and see if the streaks go away. Certain QDs might work as well.
After polishing, I usually wash my cars even though the polish I use doens't contain fillers.

What were you trying to accomplish with the rubbing compound?

Typically rubbing compound will have to be followed up with a finer grade polishing product to remove the damage introduced by the more aggressive compound.

My guess is that its less streaks, and more marring and swirling.

Sorry to bring up an old thread but this just happened to me. I was using the same Turtle Wax rubbing compound with a slight abrasiveness to it. I was initially using it to get rid of some faint hairline scratches but instead I added more light scratches and/or swirl marks. Lucky for me it is in a small area. How should I go about repairing this? I realized that I failed to apply the product with a damp cloth and I may have been using way too much pressure. I've also trying using some spray wax to cover it up and this didn't work.

Please help!

Doing it by hand is usually trouble. A good polisher and some Adam's swirl & haze remover followed by the fine machine polish will take the dull right out. Or, bring it down to a pro for a spot fix.

thanks! any other recommendations? I don't have a machine polish but do you think using some polish and/or some swirl and haze remover should do the trick by themselves? Those product's aren't abrasive are they?

Yes, they are all abrasive to a greater or lesser extent based on their purpose. Think of it like sanding, you start with the coarse grit to get the hard work done (removing material) and then you work your way down to the finer grits to remove the marks caused by the course sanding.

You could try some swirl/haze remover by hand but it will take a lot of elbow grease, the results from a machine polisher will always be the best.

Use a clay bar before doing any polishing with rubbing compound (or any thing else). You may have drug some embedded dirt around when using the rubbing compound. Other than using the clay to remove all dirt, go with what others have said about polishing.

And, yes, machine buffing/polishing is sooooooo much easier and usually ends up doing a better job since you aren't as worn out near the end of the job. But there is a certain "Zen" to hand polishing. :)

Edit: As stated by others, all polishes and rubbing compounds are abrasive. The comparison to sandpaper is very accurate. Rubbing compound is relatively coarse and polishes are very fine. Something called "swirl and haze remover" is probably somewhere in between.

Yep, You've scratched your paint with thousands of little scratches. It needs to be finished down with much finer polish.

Your first mistake was TW! Don't ever put a product that's sold at Walmart on your car.

Read some of the posts about detailing your car. There's a ton of them out there. Buy a quality product from a reputable source. Learn how to do it before you ever touch your car again!

:iagree::iagree::iagree:

You need to watch the JUNKMAN videos.....

Canadian Tire actually! LOL same sh*t different pile.

I usually use McGuire's. Works well for me but I agree that TW isn't the greatest. Also, I've never done this sort of thing before so I probably could have used some more research rather than taking advice from the guy at the store :shakes head: Live and learn. At least its a really small spot and seems as if it shouldn't be too difficult to repair.