If my paint is single stage or not? '94 Jetta...thanks.

 

take a MF towel, or a terry cloth, and some paint cleaner, like Meguiar's Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner (DC1) and rub a little spot, if there is color on the towel, it's Single Stage. I'm going to bet that your 94 Jetta is base coat/clear coat.

 

Well, I wouldn't use any terry cloth on my paint. Now I do not know a lot about the Meguiars consumer grade products like the one he mentioned .. Is the DC1 a polish or a cleaner? If it's a cleaner, I'm not too sure you're going to see any kind of paint being removed. My suggestion is to go with a light polish, apply it to a sight unseen spot with a microfiber hand applicator, and remove it with a microfiber towel. If the applicator turns the color of your Jetta, than you've got single stage. If you don't have any color on the applicator than you've got a base/clear coat paint.

 

That's a bit too picky - if you are just doing a test spot, terry is fine. You can use any cleaner or cleaner wax for this test, they will all have some abrasives.

 

and the car being 14+ years old...i dont think a terry towel is the worst its seen.

 

Personally, I still wouldn't use it, that's all.

 

Hahaha it's alright guys I don't even own any terry towels...MF all the way!

I'll probably just test it with #80 on the hood. The whole car is getting #80 anyway so why not?

Thanks for the advice.

 

Honestly, I'd go with troberts and glc on this one-- sorry Thump.

But, since he has no terry, #80 will work fine.

Interesting: I was trying to do the same once... on the test spot, S-X never turned the pad a color, neither did DC1. It wasnt until I pulled out #80 that all the sudden the entire DA pad (previous to this it was by hand) turned blue...

 

That's fine. It's all personal preference and opinion.

What do you mean? Regardless of him having terry clothes or not, #80 would be fine. Are you posting out of it again?

 

Wow I didn't know this would be come such a big issue, lmao.

I'll be using a white MF and Megs #80!

 

While it is all personal preference, there's ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG WITH USING TERRY TOWELS...

Remember, MF towels really have only come on to the scene in the past 5+ years. Many of us have been utilizing terry cloth on vehicles for longer than some here have been alive. While I'm not an old fart (like troberts -- hahahahaa! Couldn't resist, bud...hahahaha!), some of us have seen the DISTINCT ADVANTAGES that terry can bring to the table with certain vehicles.

While I'm not a huge advocate of going to terry for just anything, in this case, a little higher degree of 'cut' may be necessary to determine if the guy has clear/base or just high-pigment color. A terry towel provides just that -- a little better cut (especially with most consumer-level products that are typically very 'user friendly' and thus, don't provide a high level of abrasives).

In short, use the terry towel (hell, I still use a terry applicator for LOTS of applications on client cars)... you're not going to hurt a thing here as some have indirectly suggested... of course, I'd caveot that statement by saying to not use one that you just cleaned out the kids' sandbox with or one that you recently used to clean off the vehicle that you drive to the gravel quarry -- but, I think most of us assumed that you were above that... well, most of us did. LOL!

Good luck... odds are that it's clearcoated but, you are somewhat close to the breaking point between modern two-stage and old-skewl single-stage... plus, it's German. Let us know and terry-away!

-RP-

 

Thanks for posting RP as always!

I've got real pads with some cut if that would be better. Unfortunately I am doing this paint resto all by hand but I can do some alright work with that I have.

I think whatever I do I will find out soon enough if it's SS or not. It doesn't really make a huge difference in what I am planning on doing with it anyway but I was just curious. I would bet it's clear coated (or at least I hope so )

I have been toying around with the idea of picking up a few terrys to try lately, any ones in particular you would recomend/avoid?

 

While on the subject of SS. Can you clay a SS (I don't see why not) but if you do will it turn the color of the paint?

 

In my opinion, a high-pile terry towel - like the one that you'd use once getting out of the shower - is the best route. Meg's actually made a really nice one many moons ago... not sure if it's still available but, I picked up about 12 when they were out... Ultimate Terry Towel, maybe? They were smaller (not having to drag around a bath towel) but, they were very nice (kind of linty -- that'd be my main complaint).

 

Sure you can...

Special attention should be paid to the paint as it's going to be a softer substrate than what most are used to dealing with on a dual-stage (color/clear) paint.

Yes, you'll note that the clay will turn a slight hue of the color that you're working upon...