fire1701

The SI I just bought has 170k on it and looks great from about 15ft. When you actually touch the paint it feels very rough, including the glass. So far I have tried a turtle wax polishing compound, didn't really do anything that I saw.
I also tried the clay bar, started to work very well but turned black very quickly and left smudges all over the hood. I know how to use one it's not operator error. I think I would need a 5lb block of clay and a gallon of detailer spray to do the whole car.
I gave up on the bar after I did the hood, it just got too dirty too quickly to help. It did begin to get rid of the roughness though and bring out some shine.
I eventually just waxed it with meguiars gold class and left it be. The wax made the paint feel much smoother, but after seeing how dirty that clay was turning I know there is still comtaminants under there. So how do I get rid of them. Compounds and a buffing wheel? I'd like to get it looking as good as it runs.

spin_r_g

I say a really good wash, then keep at it with a couple of blocks of clay. The clay is obviously pulling out all the contaminates, there's just a lot of crap stuck in your paint. Using compounds and a buffing wheel isn't the correct way to get rid of them. If you do that you'll actually be abrading the paint along with it. Plus with the amount of dirt stuck it the paint using a buffer would just cause more damage then good at this point as you'll be rubbing the dirt back into the paint. You could try using a paint cleaner, something like Meguiars Deep Crystal System Paint Cleaner.

How are you going about using the the clay bar? I've never had any problems using clay no streaks or anything. I even worked on a car that had hardly ever been washed since the day it was bought. It was parked outside it's entire life and worst part near the beach. The car wasn't that old but the paint felt like sand, extremely rough. After a good wash I went at it with the clay bar. It took a long time but I got the grittiness out of the paint with no problem.

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fire1701

I have used the bar before on other vehicles, ones that were as bad as this one with excellent results.
In this particular case It acts almost like I do not have enough liquid on the hood for lubrication even though the hood looked like I sprayed it with a hose it was so wet. I would get two short 1ft passes and it would stop and stick to the hood, once I moved it there would be a greasy looking spot where it stopped. Looking at the bar it would be almost completely black in that short a time! Obviously it was removing the debris but I would need pounds of clay not the little bar you get in the kit to make any progress.
The glass also feels simliar with a very rough finish.