need help with my 1999 ford escorts paint

[uadetailing]

hey i just bout the pbs pc724xp kit from you i recived it ive neevr used one lol kinda noisey lol anywyas. i have a few scrathes and i used the ssr2.5 with a like 2 passes alot came out but not all of it iwas told to get m105 and to polish it with ssr1. but long story short i used the 2.5 and made a few passes wasnt happy with the result so i decided to wetsand ima noob at but this is my practice care i used p400 wet/dry sand paper from walmart and it did all come out iwht the 2.5 so i wanted to see if i can use the 3m rubing compund i got from walmart with the pc if so what color pad should i use and then can i follow the compund with the ssr2.5 then to the ssr1 followed by the lsp nattys blue. sorry for the long write up ima newbie

[Mike Phillips]

hey i just bout the pbs pc724xp kit from you i recived it ive neevr used one lol kinda noisey lol anywyas. i have a few scrathes and i used the ssr2.5 with a like 2 passes alot came out but not all of it


First, besides buying the tool, there's a lot to be said for correct technique and that usually takes a little while to get dial-in, not one or two passes your first time.

Also, the deeper scratches usually won't come out because in order to get the 100$% out you have to grind off a lot of paint, that's usually not a good idea for a daily driver.



iwas told to get m105 and to polish it with ssr1. but long story short i used the 2.5 and made a few passes wasnt happy with the result




How did you use the tool?
Speed Setting?
Downward pressure
Arm Speed? (This means how fast you moved the PC over the surface, you should have done this very slowly)
Pad Rotation - The pad needs to be rotating all the time in order to remove paint. Did you mark your backing plate with a permanent marker to be able to tell when it was rotating.
How big of an area did you tackle at one time?

Have your read through this,

Tips and Techniques for using the PC 7424XP Dual Action Polisher to remove Below Surface Defects (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/expert-tips/20021-tips-techniques-using-porter-cable-7424xp.html)




so i decided to wetsand ima noob at but this is my practice care

Luckily this is a practice car!



i used p400 wet/dry sand paper from walmart

Wow! That's really aggressive! I don't know anyone that uses that low of grit to sand a top coat of paint.

Just out of curiosity, where did you get the idea to sand down a factory finish?

You see, 90+% of all wet-sanding is done on FRESH PAINT after a car is painted in a body shop, not case-hardened, baked-on at 300+ degrees, THIN factory paint.

It's too hard to get your sanding marks out of as compared to working on fresh paint and it's incredibly thin.




and it did all come out iwht the 2.5 so i wanted to see if i can use the 3m rubing compund i got from walmart with the pc


It would be faster to re-sand the area with a higher grit paper like #2000 and then try to remove these more shallow scratches but the problem with this is when you sanded with #400 grit you removed A LOT of paint, now to re-sand with a higher grit will remove more paint.

Buffing out the sanding marks will remove MORE paint and you just don't have very much paint thickness to work with. Luckily this is a practice car and not something that's important to you or worse, a customer's car.



if so what color pad should i use and then can i follow the compund with the ssr2.5 then to the ssr1 followed by the lsp nattys blue. sorry for the long write up ima newbie


PC's aren't strong enough to be used to remove sanding marks.

Can it be done? Sure!

But if you're serious then the right tool for the job is a rotary buffer. But again, it's not a good idea to sand down factory thin and case-hardened paint, sooner or later you will sand through the clear, or burn through it trying to remove your sanding marks.

As to your question about what pad you should use to do an incorrect procedure that will likely end up with removing too much paint? Kind of hard to tell someone how to do something wrong. Can you take a picture and post it to the forum?

This will be a great learning experience!


:)