Can someone explain what may have went wrong?

[mcpp66]

Okay, here it is. I finally have the defects removed from my new Camaro so on Saturday evening I decide to use the Wolfgang Paintwork Polish Enhancer before moving onto sealant. So, thinking that doing a test spot wasn't necessary (yes, I do know better but I was dumb) I go ahead and do my entire hood using my PC with a gray Lake Country pad. To my horror, the entire hood was marred. There were circular tick marks all over my hood....it wasn't just a few pigtails either. The tick marks were all over the diameter of the pad and followed the rotation as well. This is with a gray pad no less. Luckily I was able to get them all out by using some 85rd on a gray pad so I decided to prep the paint by simply using IPA.

Now the bottle says that it's non-abrasive, but something went wrong. Since this strips wax I normally would think that the defects were always there but are now just being exposed because of the wax being stripped. But, I know that's not the case because after my initial polishing of the hood I did an IPA wipe down and there weren't near that many rotational tick marks. Any thoughts? Is it possible that my paint is just so soft that I should minimize my use of the PC to just polishing out defects? What could have went on here?

[CieraSL]

I'm thinking you probably had a piece of dirt or lint or something foreign on your pad and that's what made the marks. You could step down to a blue pad and see what happens. I doubt it was the type of pad, because 85rd with a gray pad is more aggressive than PPE on a gray pad, and I take it that 85rd on a gray pad did not leave any marks of its own? I suspect there was just something on the pad that you missed.

[Dubbin1]

If that paint is anything like whats on my Malibu then it is very soft.

[Da Fats]

Sounds like something rough got into the pad and you dragged it all over the hood

[jpegs13]

Originally Posted by Da Fats

Sounds like something rough got into the pad and you dragged it all over the hood

[mcpp66]

No, I don't think that's it. If it were I don't think I would have seen tick marks throughout the diameter of the pad.....just some pigtails. There would have had to have been something foreign throughout the entire pad for it to cause these kind of marks. The tick marks were concentric and ranged from the center to the outer edge of the pad. I think there was too much of a pattern for it to be a foreign particle in the process.

[Mike.Phillips@Autogeek]

Originally Posted by mcpp66

Okay, here it is. I finally have the defects removed from my new Camaro

What products and steps did you use to get the defects removed on your Camaro to a point that you were happy with it?

[mcpp66]

Originally Posted by Mike.Phillips@Autogeek

What products and steps did you use to get the defects removed on your Camaro to a point that you were happy with it?

Originally I used a combination of UC, ScratchX 2.0, M205, and 85rd with a PC and white and gray LC flat and CCS pads. After applying the PPE I used 85rd to eliminate the marring that occurred this past weekend. Luckily that was all that was needed. I did an IPA wipe down after the 85rd to make sure it eliminated that marring and didn't just cover it up and it did. Well, there were some very, very slight tick marks left behind but they're very faint and the wax takes care of that (we discussed that before). I hate to say it, but it does seem like the PPE marred my paint. Perhaps it was user error, but I read your how-to article on that and am sure I followed it to the letter. I think the paint job on my car is just EXTREMELY fragile, which is very upsetting to me. I'm not blaming AG at all, I'd just like to have an idea of what the issue is but I think we've already nailed it. I wonder if it's possible to harden my existing paint?

[ASPHALT ROCKET]

Originally Posted by mcpp66

Okay, here it is. I finally have the defects removed from my new Camaro so on Saturday evening I decide to use the Wolfgang Paintwork Polish Enhancer before moving onto sealant. So, thinking that doing a test spot wasn't necessary (yes, I do know better but I was dumb) I go ahead and do my entire hood using my PC with a gray Lake Country pad. To my horror, the entire hood was marred. There were circular tick marks all over my hood....it wasn't just a few pigtails either. The tick marks were all over the diameter of the pad and followed the rotation as well. This is with a gray pad no less. Luckily I was able to get them all out by using some 85rd on a gray pad so I decided to prep the paint by simply using IPA.

Now the bottle says that it's non-abrasive, but something went wrong. Since this strips wax I normally would think that the defects were always there but are now just being exposed because of the wax being stripped. But, I know that's not the case because after my initial polishing of the hood I did an IPA wipe down and there weren't near that many rotational tick marks. Any thoughts? Is it possible that my paint is just so soft that I should minimize my use of the PC to just polishing out defects? What could have went on here?

I have had the same problem when using the pc/gray pad applying paint cleaner on my vette and a few others. I doubt you did anything wrong, it is that type of pad with your paint that is the cause.

[mcpp66]

Originally Posted by ASPHALT ROCKET

I have had the same problem when using the pc/gray pad applying paint cleaner on my vette and a few others. I doubt you did anything wrong, it is that type of pad with your paint that is the cause.

I don't think I did anything wrong either, but I do consider all possibilities. The gray pad is pretty soft, I'm surprised it would have done that. Should I have used the gold, blue, or red pad? I decided to prep the surface with IPA and then apply the sealant by hand......I'm a bit afraid to use my PC on this car for anything other than paint correction now.