Extreme Watermark Correction and OptiCoating on a Honda Civic

The owner of this new Civic had called my buddy KC to come and rescue his ride but due to some unfortunate events which KC explained in his blog http://thedetailers.blogspot.com/2011/07/is-pain-necessarily.html he was unable to carry out the work.

The Civic's owner had waited over a month and so I was roped in to help out with the heavy work... but seriously, many thanks to KC for inviting me to assist in this detail.

Let's get started.

Doesn't look too bad from here.

Upon closer inspection, the windows had some pretty severe watermarks. The owner noticed these marks just after buying the car. When he brought it up with Honda Malaysia they told him basically that it was his problem and this could not be fixed under warranty....

The driver's side windows and the front windscreen were the worst affected.

Click the link below to find out if the watermarks could be removed:



The front windscreen...

We decided to remove the marks with the Flex 3401 with a foam cutting pad and Optimum Hyper Compound. We decided against using a rotary with a wool pad as the rotary may caused some visible scratches to the glass. Due to the forced rotation dual-action capabilities of the Flex, it has enough cutting power to remove even severe watermarks but is still able to finish off perfectly due to its orbital rotation.

Was in a rush to complete this job and didn't manage to take a picture of the Flex. Here is a picture that I took earlier of the Flex 3401. Not cheap but worth the investment.

The severity of the watermarks and the difficulty in removing them really did surprise me. It required multiple, multiple, multiple passes to remove them. Here is a picture of the Optimum Hyper Compound being worked onto the glass.

Despite his medical condition, my buddy KC also helped out with the removal of watermarks around the edges where the Flex could not reach.

Before:

After:
Crystal clear.

The glass was then prepped for coating by cleaning with Optimum OptiClean and an IPA wipedown to completely remove any polishing residue.

A layer of Optimum OptiCoat was applied to provide additional protection against watermarks and also for long-term water beading abilities.

Thanks for looking.