AvianaMehrdad

Sometimes as your paint expands and contracts, those stains can really work themselves in deep. I would try some meguiars M105 on a meguiars microfiber cutting pad and dual action polisher to see if you can compound it out. Something else you can try is wiping with denatured alcohol (ethanol). Ethanol is a much smaller molecule so it will penetrate deeper. Try in an inconspicuous area first as it will also pull out any polish or wax, making your paint look dull.

Start with a largo throw (21 or 15mm) dual action polisher. Yellow foam rupes polishing pads, bottle of Optimum Hyper Polish, then for coating Gtechniq Panel Wipe, Gtechniq C1

Hey all, Mehrdad here with Aviana. Someone pointed me to this post and I thought I'd take the opportunity to answer any questions. I'm here not to sell (my neck is still stiff from the last Mooney!), but genuinely to help answer questions, guide some DIYers or bust some myths. As @carusoam mentioned, these artifacts are from the paint and polishing process. In part you have polish fillers that cover them up, but also fresh paint can contract as it cures and reveal paint defects that were temporarily covered up by swollen paint (paint can swell from heat and solvents in polish) @aviatoreb You certainly could do it yourself! Although my videos are not really instruction step by step, you do get the gist of the process (some videos are more time-crunched than others so have less details). As @Denver98 mentioned, it is all in the prep! Poor prep can leave the finish cloudy, hazy, or impact the durability of the coating. As you have researched, there are many different products proclaiming to be ceramic coatings. Some are, some are actually waxes or sealants that may have ceramic nano paricles such as Quartz in them for added slickness. They are in my book not a coating. @Mark89114 $600 is way cheap for a paint correction and coating on a car. I am not surprised by the outcome. It could very well not have been an actual coating, the timeline of a couple of months makes me think it was a ceramic sealant. Although @Daneshgari mentioned that It took me two days, you have to consider that a work day for me is typically 8am-midnight, and I have coated 100's of planes and this is my specialty with tools and chemicals honed in. I am not trying to dissuade you from trying it yourself, I just want to give you a more realistic impression of the amount of work it takes. You will need to do a paint correction to prepare the surface to properly bond the coating, regardless of if you see paint defects or not, (and I will promise you that you have paint defects, you may just not see them since the wax is filling in the defects) The step prior to coating is wiping with Panel Wipe which removes and waxes or polish fillers so you can see the true paint condition. If you are more interested in adding ceramic protection, then you may overlook some of those paint defects, but if you are looking for perfect, this can be a frustrating process as you will see all sorts of defects pop up after you think they are corrected. See paragraph below on some entry level coatings that are easy to install DIY. Since you have sample panels with the exact same paint, you can certainly practice on relevant paint. (different paints behave differently) @ArtVandelay This particular coating can be challenging to install, especially in humid conditions. I had some streaks and hazing on the plane I just worked on in Dallas due to the humidity. It took a rather aggressive compounding to remove the streaks to redo the area. Gtechniq C1 is a very easy coating with long work time, you can top it with Gtechniq EXO for more repellency. That would be my recommendation to start off. Crystal Serum Light is a very serious coating that is available to the consumer, however, if you screw it up enough, you may have to wet sand that one off as well. Sanding on an airplane with exposed rivet heads is not a good time (see https://youtu.be/f1XbHXfNh2c) You are also spot on with the reason why Gtechniq's flagship coating requires solid requisites of skill and reputation. @Hank and @Eight8Victor by the time you factor travel you are more between 3 and 4 AMUs. you can certainly find cheaper, but YMMV. Many Auto detailers aspire to coat a plane or two for the selfie value and may offer you a great deal for the exposure. As Carusoam alludes, factor your time spent supervising, and also consider that generally auto detailing insurance specifically excludes aircraft ( I have a car coating company as well and had to separate the aviation business out as my car insurance people were freaking out.) @0TreeLemur Thanks for the shout-out. Let me know if you have any specific questions! The process for a chalky old PA-46 will be different than a newer aircraft. As for the efficiency aspect brought up by @Blue on Top. Boeing did a study and found that surface roughness accounted for less than a percent of total drag on their jets. I imagine on a Mooney it would be a yet smaller factor. If I could sell this is a speed efficiency mod, I totally would