First time using PC..

[BassMaster]

Well I had a mission to use the PC today, since it was about 68 degrees. Not having much money I was using Meg's UC with an Orange LC Flat Pad. I only got to use it on my hood, but it's pretty obvious that I am going to have to get a more aggressive polish. I got most of the swirls out, but I had to reapply 3 times... Not sure if I was doing something wrong, but I tried to remember everything from Mike's videos. Not sure if the best vehicle to start out on is a black TRUCK but it's all I got.

Here's the only 50/50 Shot I have of the hood. It's kind of hard to see the swirls, but the right side was untouched.
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o39/bassmaster4490/12%2030%2010/IMG_0477.jpg


Oh I tried out the UC on the headlights too and they came out pretty good, I forgot to take before shots. But they were pretty bad. Ignore my taping job, it worked for what I wanted it to do.
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o39/bassmaster4490/12%2030%2010/IMG_0480.jpg


Here's some shots of the truck after applying Power Lock, so far I love the stuff, very easy to apply and remove. At first I wasn't so impressed by the look, but after about an hour it started to show more metallic.

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o39/bassmaster4490/12%2030%2010/IMG_0483-1.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o39/bassmaster4490/12%2030%2010/IMG_0484.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o39/bassmaster4490/12%2030%2010/IMG_0486.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o39/bassmaster4490/12%2030%2010/IMG_0485.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o39/bassmaster4490/12%2030%2010/IMG_0487.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o39/bassmaster4490/12%2030%2010/IMG_0488.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o39/bassmaster4490/12%2030%2010/IMG_0491.jpg

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o39/bassmaster4490/12%2030%2010/IMG_0493.jpg

[BobbyG]

It sounds and looks like you made some great progress and are pleased with the results. :props:

Your truck looks great and as you gain knowledge and experience you'll continue to fine tune your skills making the end result look like glass! :props:

[jlb85]

You can see the swirls in the white truck!

Good job, indeed!


BTW, nice Integra too! I like DAs.

[slickooz]

Great work on the car and the headlight lens! :props:

[BassMaster]

Thanks everyone. Hopefully sometime in the next month or so I can get the entire thing done.

It's my step sisters. It's just an old beater. No tags right now.

[Mike Phillips]

I got most of the swirls out, but I had to reapply 3 times... Not sure if I was doing something wrong, but I tried to remember everything from Mike's videos.

Not sure if the best vehicle to start out on is a black TRUCK but it's all I got.



Read through this list, see if anything stands out as related to technique...


Here's a list of the most common problems

Trying to work too large of an area at one time.
Move the polisher too fast over the surface.
Too low of speed setting for removing swirls.
Too little pressure on the head of the unit.
Too much pressure on the head of the unit so the pad quits rotating.
Not keeping the pad flat while working your product.
Too much product, too little product.
Not cleaning the pad often enough.
Here's a list of the solutions in matching order,

Shrink your work area down, the harder the paint the smaller the area you can work. The average area should be and average of about 16" by 16" up to 20" by 20" or so. You have to do some experimenting, (called a Test Spot), to find out how easy or how hard the defects are coming out of your car's paint system and then adjust your work area to the results of your Test Spot.
For removing defects out of the paint you want to use what we call a Slow Arm Speed. It's really easy to move the polisher too quickly because the sound of the motor spinning fast has a psychological effect to for some reason want to make people move the polisher fast. Also the way most people think is that, "If I move the polisher quickly, I'll get done faster", but it doesn't work that way.
When first starting out many people are scared of burning or swirling their paint, so they take the safe route of running the polisher at too low of a speed setting, again... this won't work. The action of the polisher is already g-e-n-t-l-e, you need the speed and specifically the pad rotating over the paint as well as the combination of time, (slow arm speed), together with the diminishing abrasives, the foam type, and the pressure to remove small particles of paint which is how your remove below surface defects like swirls or scratches. It's a leveling process that's somewhat difficult because the tool is safe/gentle while in most cases, modern clear coat paints are harder than traditional single stage paints and this makes them hard to work on. This is also why people get frustrated, they don't understand paint technology, all they know is their paint swirls easy and getting the swirls out is difficult and thus frustrating.
For the same reason as stated in #3, people are scared, or perhaps a better word is apprehensive, to apply too much pressure and the result of too little pressure is no paint is removed thus no swirls are removed.
Just the opposite of item #4, people think that by pushing harder on the polisher they can work faster and be more aggressive, but the truth is the clutch in the tool is a safety mechanism to prevent burning and will cause the pad to stop rotating, thus less cleaning or abrading action and once in a while this will lead a person to then post on the forum something like this, "Hey my pad doesn't rotate". There needs to be a balance of enough pressure to remove defects and keep the pad rotating but yet not too much pressure as to stop the rotating action. This balance is affected by a lot of things, things like type of chemical, some chemicals provide more lubrication and the pad will spin easier, curved surfaces or any raise in body lines will tend to stop the pad from rotating. This is where experience on how to address these areas comes into play or you do the best you can and move on. It's not a perfect tool, nor a perfect system, but it's almost always better than working/cleaning by hand.
Applying pressure in such a way as to put too much pressure to one side of the pad will cause it to stop rotating and thus decrease cleaning ability.
Too much product over lubricates the surface and this won't allow the diminishing abrasives to do their job plus it will increase the potential for messy splatter as well as cause pad saturation. Too little product will keep the pad from rotating due to no lubrication and there won't be enough diminishing abrasives to do any work. Again it's a balance that comes with experience, or another way of saying this would be it's a balance that comes with hours of buffing out a car to learn what to do and what not to do. Information like what you're reading here is just an edge to decrease your learning curve. Hope this is helping.
Most people don't clean their pad often enough and most of the time the reason for this is because they don't know they're supposed to clean their pad often and they don't know how to clean their pad. Again, that's why this forum is here to help you with both of these things. You should clean your pad after every application of product or every other application of product, your choice, most of the time cleaning your pad after every other application of product works pretty well. It enables you to work clean and enables the foam pad, the polisher and the next application of fresh product too all work effectively. How to clean your pad will be addressed below sooner versus later, but not at the time of this posting. (Sorry, I'm behind a keyboard, not a video camera
The first 4 are the most common.

[BassMaster]

The first "test spot" I was applying to much pressure, I took a sharpie to the backing plate afterward like you showed in a video. Next time I try it I'll try to double check everything.

[Mike Phillips]

The first "test spot" I was applying to much pressure, I took a sharpie to the backing plate afterward like you showed in a video. Next time I try it I'll try to double check everything.

What the pressure does is engage the abrasives with the paint so they begin to take little bites out of it, this is the abrading and leveling process.

Actually looks great for your first time!

Dramatically better results than working by hand and because there are no swirls a better end-result that you sometimes get from places you would think could remove swirls and scratches and return a swirl free finish.

Nice work!


:dblthumb2:

[detaildave]

Very nice work, especially with this being your first time. Looks like your a fast learner.
:xyxthumbs: