Getting swirls out of black Toyota Tundra

[01civic]

I'm working on a 2011 tundra that is in great shape, except that the black paint has swirls. I tried to capture with a camera below. I have a PC 7424, and new orange + white pads. Also have; Meguiars ult.polish, ult compound, Menzerma 400, and HD adapt compound polish. Will any of these help? Any products to recommend for this? Thank you

[Bruno Soares]

You should be able to fix that with the stuff you described. You're going to have to do a test spot and see what will work on that paint.

How to do a Test Spot and then buff out your car! Video Explanation by Mike Phillips (https://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/ask-mike-phillips-your-detailing-questions-/125930-how-do-test-spot-then-buff-out-your-car-video-explanation-mike-phillips.html)

[MarkD51]

Agreed, looks like you have what should work, and agree with BSoars, do the test spot.
Start with the mildest product, I'm thinking that's the Meg's Ultimate Polish, probably the same as Meg's #205, do the section passes, and see?

If for say you see some deeper RIDS here and there (Random Isolated deeper scratches), no foul hitting those areas here and there with a more aggressive product, or Pad-Product combo, then return to finish with a fine polish.

As always, work clean, and in the shade on cool paint, mask where required.

Sometimes, there's no such thing as 100% paint correction, not on a daily driver. You do the best you can, better to do less, than do too much.

You can always then repeat a process at a later point in time.

[Desertnate]

If you paint is similar to the crimson paint on my wife's Highlander, the white Lake Country Pads and the Meguiars Ultimate Polish should be able to correct things quite nicely in one step. I used this combination for many years with success before moving on to a different polish. I still never have to go more aggressive than a white pad.

Toyota paint tends to be very soft, so if you go with anything more aggressive like the orange pad and/or the compound be prepared for compound haze which you will need to polish out with the white pad and the polish.

[WillSports3]

Actually, I use orange pad on toyota paint all the time. I think the trick is to not overwork it and use a good leveling liquid.

[Reno]

with menzerna 400 and Meguires MF Cutting pads ( not the HEAVY ones ) i make wonders! but then i have to use my yellow rupes pad and yellow KERAMIK compound to polish it to perfection and get rid of some micro marring caused from MF pad

[01civic]

Wow thanks everyone for the responses! I'll start wIth a small section using the Meg's polish. Is the white pad sufficient?

[MarkD51]

Wow thanks everyone for the responses! I'll start wIth a small section using the Meg's polish. Is the white pad sufficient?

Yes, start with the white pads. I'm assuming they are flat pads? The white pads work and cut nicely with a finishing polish, or say a polish like Wolfgang Total Swirl Remover (Called TSR by us folks)

The thing is with any pad, how many of each do you have on hand? If it's just 2 or 3, then you're working borderline, and if you watched any of Mike's Vids which were linked to in your thread here, you'll understand what he says.

That over-working a pad will turn it to mush in no time. Over-heating is the usual culprit to destroying any pad.

If you're short on pads, work a couple panels, with wiping, lightly brushing and cleaning the pad on the fly.

Once it starts getting over-loaded with muck, and polishes, that's it, party's over for that pad, take it off, set it aside, and attach a fresh clean one.

Let's just for say all you have is two pads. Do half the vehicle, stop, wash and dry pads. And drying might take more than 15-20 minutes. Rush pad drying, and you'll find problems. If that's the situation you're in, no harm-foul of doing a 1/3rd, or 1/2 the truck one day, and continue on the next day.

Doing my Tahoe once, it just about took me a full exhausting run of a few hours straight just to do the roof, up and down ladders, changing pads, priming pads, wiping, what a nightmare, and I was spent after like somebody beat me up.

But I got the results I was after, perfect! And I stopped with the roof, clean up, re-group and live to fight another day.

Reserve your body, your sanity, and your resources of what you have. Rush through, cut corners, and you won't get the desired results you had hoped for. Pace yourself, take your time, and enjoy the processes, rather than abhor them.

Remember, always start and stop the DA while on the panel. Never lift off with a spinning pad, sling will add much more time to cleaning off all the slung product.

Hope some of this helps.

[PaulMys]

Another thing I never really hear too much about here on AGO is something that Dan (dlc95) turned me on to a long time ago. (Dan has not been on here in forever, and I hope he's OK)

But that is to use a DA with the lightest of touch on the paint in certain situations. You will find that a full 5-10lbs. of pressure is not needed in all situations.

In some applications, and with some products, having the DA whirling at full RPM/OPM while just kissing the paint works wonders.

Mike P just recently wrote another of his many articles about making a machine "Dance on the paint". The "Kissing" technique (my term) I believe falls into this category.

And it works.

[MarkD51]

I'll add to what my buddy Paul says above.

Not sure what PC Machine you have, just regular 7424, or the 7424XP? (I have the newer XP Model)

I have often found speed 5 will get it, slower yes, but if proper pressure is applied, and all is working well, you can often get by with speed 5.

Sadly, there is no speed 5.5 on the Porter Cable Machine, there should've been! Stupid with the Speed Dial design IMO.

Mark your Backing Plate with a magic marker or sharpie pen, and keep constant tabs on pad rotation. No pad rotation, little in the way of correction.

I have seen with the PC7424, no pressure at all sometimes results in just about zero pad rotation, it's just "jiggling". Under pressure, or over-pressure kills pad rotation in most instances.

The Porter Cable DA is not a forced rotation Flex 3401 or a Rotary Polisher.

Maintain level and parallel pad contact as much as you can. With these free wheelers like the PC, sometimes just the slightest tilt kills the machine working optimally. Corners dips, and curves can be a bear at times.

When you notice slowed pad rotations in such areas, then slow up and take your time there, versus the relative ease of working full flat panels.

Get in the habit of starting away from seams and edges when you start polishing a panel. You'll just load cracks, crevices and seams with tons of product which you'll bust your tookus to remove after.

And again, masking, don't skimp on buying yourself a couple rolls of tape, and masking areas you don't want to touch with a DA and products. Trim, Badges, Moldings, Seams, etc.

[PaulMys]

Once again, Mark can convey my idea in a better way. ;)

[01civic]

Yes, start with the white pads. I'm assuming they are flat pads? The white pads work and cut nicely with a finishing polish, or say a polish like Wolfgang Total Swirl Remover (Called TSR by us folks)

The thing is with any pad, how many of each do you have on hand? If it's just 2 or 3, then you're working borderline, and if you watched any of Mike's Vids which were linked to in your thread here, you'll understand what he says.

That over-working a pad will turn it to mush in no time. Over-heating is the usual culprit to destroying any pad.

If you're short on pads, work a couple panels, with wiping, lightly brushing and cleaning the pad on the fly.

Once it starts getting over-loaded with muck, and polishes, that's it, party's over for that pad, take it off, set it aside, and attach a fresh clean one.

Let's just for say all you have is two pads. Do half the vehicle, stop, wash and dry pads. And drying might take more than 15-20 minutes. Rush pad drying, and you'll find problems. If that's the situation you're in, no harm-foul of doing a 1/3rd, or 1/2 the truck one day, and continue on the next day.

Doing my Tahoe once, it just about took me a full exhausting run of a few hours straight just to do the roof, up and down ladders, changing pads, priming pads, wiping, what a nightmare, and I was spent after like somebody beat me up.

But I got the results I was after, perfect! And I stopped with the roof, clean up, re-group and live to fight another day.

Reserve your body, your sanity, and your resources of what you have. Rush through, cut corners, and you won't get the desired results you had hoped for. Pace yourself, take your time, and enjoy the processes, rather than abhor them.

Remember, always start and stop the DA while on the panel. Never lift off with a spinning pad, sling will add much more time to cleaning off all the slung product.

Hope some of this helps.

Awesome advice, thank you! I've currently got 1 lake country ccs orange and one white pad. I'll probably order a few more before I begin this.

[MarkD51]

The White Lake Country Thinpro Pads are usually the best pads to team with a free wheeling DA like the PC7424 Machine. Even Mike Phillips commonly says he prefers a flat pad best for corrections.

Hopefully, we'll assume you're using a 5" Backing Plate and 5.5" Pads as the largest Plate-Pad Combo.
Many say the PC is a slightly underpowered machine, so thinner pads help a good deal with this machine with pad rotation.

I'd say if you buy a 6-pack of pads, buy at least 4 white, and 5 might be even better. Then 1 or 2 orange pads.

For most swirl removal correction on most paints, I'd say 90%, the white pads work just fine, and will finish down well without a need to resort to pads any softer.

The amount of cut and fine scratch removal can then be compensated and adjusted with the aggressiveness of the polish or compound you then team with the pad.

For really hammered and abused paints, then I'd look to an orange Thinpro Pad and more aggressive products.

The theme is to get the correction you need while doing the least amount of correction. Clear coats are thin.

Most usually at least clay before a Polish process to get contaminants off the paint surface also. Baggie Test with your hand inside a thin plastic sandwich bag and feeling the paint will help you determine the amount of contaminants on the paint. This will often surprise you how a seemingly clean paint is often not so clean with this test.

Again hope this helps

[MarkD51]

I wanted to add, that there has been instances where I resorted to Speed 6 with the Porter Cable. Might've been a couple reasons for this, the Pad loading up with too much product, and such can kill rotation. In that speed 5 just wasn't getting it.

The Porter Cable does get crazy loud on Speed 6!

The Toyota Tundra is a fairly large Truck, larger than the Tacoma. I would say to do a correction on the entire truck in one go, you will need a minimum of 4-5 Pads.

Some might even likely advise, 6 Pads would be even better yet to correct a vehicle of this size.

As our forum master Guru Mike Phillips has said more than once, "In a perfect world, one panel, one pad".

Yes, we'll all agree Pads are pretty expensive. And probably most if not all of us have prematurely worn out-burned out a Pad due to our initial inexperience. In that we worked a Pad much too long.

By placing less wear and tear on any single Pad, they will last longer, and in fact can last through a good number of vehicles if you follow such rules of not over-working a pad, and properly cleaning them-drying them when done using them.

That will bring me to yet again one personal tip that I've found. And that is Pad Cleaners. When I first got back in the game, and became a member here, yep, I got all the Basics, the PC Machine, 2 Backing Plates, an assortment of Pads-Polishes, but did neglect the purchase of a good Pad Cleaner Product.

I thought, "Oh, I don't really need that, is it necessary, they seem overly expensive for one, and I have some All Purpose Cleaners, and Dish Soap on hand that should do the trick just fine". Boy, was I wrong.

What I found was none were very efficient of removing polishes and dirts no matter what I tried, Purple Power, Simple Green, Dawn, etc, and the other downside was crazy amounts of soap suds that were then difficult to fully rinse-remove from the pads.

There's a number of good Pad Cleaners sold here specific for the task, will definitely make such tasks a lot easier, and will help to extract the longest life from the Pads.

When I eventually got these cleaners, and then I learned better technique with not over-working my Pads, after use, and then cleaning, the Pads looked brand spanking new. Like I had never even used them.

And yep, I am familiar with the theme and feeling of "Money here, Money there", does it ever end? And costs seem to add quickly, and expensively, and is it all worth it for let's say one vehicle? Well, with proper care of Pads, and your tools, you will have them for more than one correction on just only one vehicle and one use.

There's lots of videos here, and places like YouTube, you can find many of Mike's Vids, and others, and catch tips here and there, cleaning Pads on the fly, and things like that.

[01civic]

I'll look into the thin pro pads, definitely looks like a good fit for the pc polisher.
There is some wax residue on the black plastic door handles. Will back to black or another basic cleaner take this off?