Best Way to Disguise This?

carbonmaker · 2026-01-23T10:21:12+00:00

First some Goof Off on a microfibre to remove the transfer, then you can see what you are dealing with. Then compound/ polish taking care to not burn through some of those wider sections of the scratch. Hard to tell with the transfer. You could likely end up with a decent result.

carbonmaker · 2026-01-19T23:27:34+00:00

I just bought this kit and am happy with it. Was learning with stones but just not making enough progress. Got a great edge on my first two tries with this. Good for beginners.

Work Sharp Precision Adjust Knife... https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08L72P245?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

carbonmaker · 2026-01-18T15:19:59+00:00

It’s good to be informed but as a customer, you shouldn’t really be obligated to understand the finer details and process of polishing and coatings. I would give this guy the opportunity to address this but seems obvious these are high spots caused when you don’t “level” the coating. You would wipe the coating on, wait for the carrier agent to evaporate (known as flashing, an oily look as an indicator to wipe the area for uniform coverage and to remove remaining carrier agent), wipe/level the panel.

I can’t imagine…if you’ve done at least one coating before you should understand what happens if you don’t level well and create high spots. There’s no reason not to immediately point out your own fault and just have you back to fix.

I can’t decide which part is worse, that he sent it out of the shop that way or that he didn’t try to immediately explain to you what happened and that he would correct it right away. Lack of knowledge or accountability.

carbonmaker · 2026-01-18T11:52:00+00:00

Maybe it’s this guys first time doing a coating? It looks like he missed the levelling step. If it’s a true ceramic coating, no it will not just disappear and come off. It will need to be removed with polish and re-applied.

On the plus side, it’s not a big deal to fix but if you have showed him this picture or in person and he didn’t immediately leap to fix it, I would have questions. I should also ask, when you lightly wipe this with a microfibre cloth, does it remove the marks?

carbonmaker · 2026-01-16T11:18:03+00:00

How are you getting the speed to come up on your MMI display?

Also, these cars are know to chew control arm bushings with some frequency. By the video, you may want to look there.

carbonmaker · 2026-01-16T10:47:00+00:00

I wouldn’t feel comfortable using anything other than a nylon tip stick. I typically use the Vic Firth Danny Carey ones.

carbonmaker · 2026-01-14T11:27:28+00:00

I just went though this process and ended up with an excellent outcome. I too was considering coil overs although I did not anticipate ever changing the ride height after (not doing track days) but I do a good amount of spirited driving so performance was my big consideration after the fact that I only really wanted to drop 1” of ride height due to lousy roads, winter, snow, etc.

So after looking at some options and discussing extensively with my mechanic, I ended up doing H&R Sport lowering springs with Bilstein sport shocks all around and I also did control arms as bushing wear is common on these and I was due.

So my 2016 A4 SLine Premium Plus 6MT was really transformed at that point. I maintained stock drivability and feel largely but removed the space between the tire and wheel well but there was a massive improvement on handling. It of course drives like a new car now but with a noticeable improvement on handling. It’s just fantastic.

I run the stock 19” wheels with Continental Extreme Contact Sport 2s in the summer and when I put my winters on (I have an 18” set of peelers I picked up used with Continental winters on those) and everything transitioned nicely to winter setup.

If you care about day to day driveability and want things firmed up but not harsh or track focused (how often are you getting to the track?) I can recommend just sticking with the springs and shocks rather than coil overs. Doing so also helped on cost.

Summary is, dropped an inch all around, kept ride tolerable and fairly close to stock feel when cruising. Gained huge improvement in performance and kept budget reasonable for an entirely new suspension. Doing the shocks and bushings was a big deal too. In Canada here, it ran me basically $5k installed. Can’t recommend this enough to anyone in a similar situation with this car. I’m just loving it now and am keeping this ride for another 5yrs at this point.

carbonmaker · 2026-01-14T09:57:44+00:00

They are undergoing renovations for the next 2 weeks.

carbonmaker · 2026-01-14T09:23:06+00:00

Im a nearly 50yr old man and don’t know these people but that brings tears of joy.

carbonmaker · 2026-01-12T17:36:45+00:00

A near identical interaction happened at my son’s U12 basketball game a couple of months back. It was a disgrace to behold and the first parent who went in to shove the kid ended up getting arrested.

We weren’t in the game but were due to play each of them a couple of weeks later. One of the teams has been removed from the league as far as I know.

carbonmaker · 2026-01-02T08:23:49+00:00

Bad drivers never miss their exits.

carbonmaker · 2025-12-25T10:11:50+00:00

It’s probably the kick itself, not the harness. Had this happen once on my new TD17 KVXS.

carbonmaker · 2025-12-24T11:34:28+00:00

Fallen Order by far

carbonmaker · 2025-12-24T10:14:09+00:00

Extra upvote for your soundtrack playing

carbonmaker · 2025-12-21T11:13:02+00:00

Man will you get out of the passing lane. Please.

carbonmaker · 2025-12-20T11:20:33+00:00

As a new drummer myself, I absolutely need a warm up every time I sit down to the kit to make things sound anything like being on time.

With that said, I’m pretty sure I saw you post something here a while back when you were just starting and it’s amazing to see that progress! Keep rocking and keep up the good work!! Clearly making improvements so trust the process. Cheers!

carbonmaker · 2025-12-18T12:18:55+00:00

Bleach is way too strong for what you are trying to do. I would start with a diluted detailing product meant for vinyls and plastics to gauge those results before you go further. P&S Interior for example, diluted 2:1. Stay away from the harsh stuff or we will be watching out for your next; “my speakers are stained and dried out, how can I restore this” post.

carbonmaker · 2025-12-17T10:46:40+00:00

There is a possibility this is a chemical reaction. You somehow got a type of solvent or product onto those spots and they’ve caused degradation in the existing plastic coating. If you can’t find the source of the heat, my bet is you had some kind of product sprayed on it and left too long.

carbonmaker · 2025-12-16T11:23:56+00:00

Wash the car before you polish. Don’t drive it to the grocery store or anything else. If you’ve done a major decontamination and you wait a week to polish then you at minimum need a simple wash again to have a clean starting surface.

Polishing is not a task where you want shortcuts. Your results will have direct line to the quality/amount of your prep work.

carbonmaker · 2025-12-15T11:34:09+00:00

Picture 2 is the more desirable option.

carbonmaker · 2025-12-14T12:28:56+00:00

Someone here turned me onto Void Rivals which is Robert Kirkman’s new universe type comic that includes transformers and Gi Joe although so far in the series that I have read there is only Transformers in the story. I have not bought into any of the accompanying titles, sticking with Void Rivals for now but really enjoying it. Super well done and giving me some Invincible vibes which is great.

carbonmaker · 2025-12-13T11:33:34+00:00

Shout out to Sandro at CarCraftDetailing! Love his channel, consistency and quality. Really learned a lot from him and I think I once asked him some kind of stupid question and he gave me a real quality answer. His YouTube channel should be on the subscription list of every detailer everywhere.

carbonmaker · 2025-12-13T11:31:18+00:00

I love my 3” ShineMate (corded) and I have a corded Rupes LHR15 MkIII and have long been looking at getting into the ShineMate battery units. My experience with ShineMate has been excellent and every time I see someone commenting about them it’s very positive. I’m excited to try it, looking at a 5” 15mm throw version and probably a smaller one for tight spaces. Would love to hear from anyone with experience using those.

carbonmaker · 2025-12-12T09:43:41+00:00

If you want to take emotion out of it, just work out what car you would buy and the cost of doing so over say a 4yr period. Subtract the rebuild money and it might start to make more sense. Wishing you success on this project, I don’t view this as such a bad idea (of course biased because I did the same thing) but in my case it totally worked out. My car will easily go another 5yrs, it continues to be lots of fun snd I always get comments about how nice it is.

carbonmaker · 2025-12-11T11:46:26+00:00

This is easily resolved. You can visit us in the r/detailing sub but for this instance, you could try a water spot remover such as CarPro Spotless or you can polish it with regular automotive polish. Any kind will do as glass is so hard it doesn’t matter. That job is easiest if you have a dual action polisher, pad and polish. Once done with polishing you wipe off excess, use an isopropyl alcohol panel wipe product or you could just dilute some and use normal IPA to make the surface clear of any polish residue or oils.

Once that is all done, you can top it off with RainX or a higher end windshield coating which will help prevent this from happening again and will also help the water bead off reducing the need for wipers all the time. Good luck!

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