Cleaning over vinyl lettering

[Ron4543]

My PC is about to arrive today and I would like to use it a few times this week. I have 5 vehicles lined up two of which are my company trucks. On the two truck we have caps that have our company information and logos. The paint on the cap is in pretty bad shape when comparing it to the truck. I would think a swirl remover would be fine to fix it but I am afraid that the buffer may remove the letters. Are there any tricks or tips to this? I guess I could go by hand but I don't have a lot of experience and would rather use the PC.

[greatwhitenorth]

I find you can easily go over most vinyl lettering with a swirl remover if you don't push too heavily but to be safe just tape the letters off

[Ron4543]

Should I tape individual letters or just block it off? The lettering takes up over 75% of each side is why I ask, it would be extremely tedious to do individual and not very efficient to block it off. I may just hold off and wait until I have more experience if there is a chance I could mess up the vinyl with just a swirl remover and only do the rest of the truck.

[greatwhitenorth]

You could tape off the individual letters for best results, but to be honest I've polished over hundreds of letters using a white pad and swirl removal and it works fine. It even brightens up the letters

[Ron4543]

Well I'll do one of the trucks on a small portion of the cap and post the results. I may have to head out of town for a couple weeks so it might not be until the week after next.

[Pureshine]

I Would be safe than sorry and just tape over them.

[bsmith0404]

In the past I would have told you to stay away from them after the dealership damaged the vinyl stripes on my wife's camaro (left a dull spot). However, based on recommendations from fellow geeks, against my better judgement, I machined polished them during the last detail I did. They came out great! Of course that was with a DA, polish, and white pad. Based on what happened in the past, I will not touch them with a rotary or a compound.

[Ron4543]

Would you consider a swirl remover to be a compound or should I just try to polish over them if I go through with it?

[bsmith0404]

Probably a compound, depends on the agressiveness of it. You can try it in a small inconspicuous area and see what happens. I used BF SRC polish and a white LC CCS pad on mine with great results. I would be hesitant to use the SRC compound, then again, if the polish works, why would I use the compound? Least aggressive method.

[Ron4543]

Well I think since I'll be in the area I'll be heading to AG to pick up some polish and swirl remover and test them out when I get a chance. Just got booked up to the 24th so I may not have time to try my new gear until after then. So sad.

[Ron4543]

Oh, and as a side question, in my new PC kit I received a 4 inch backing plate and some 4 inch pads. Is there any reason to stay away from using them? I only have the orange pads in the 4 inch and if I can save a few dollars and use them instead of buying 6.5 I definitely will. Not sure if the only difference is the size and added time it would take. Like my father taught me when I was young, the inch (or 2.5" in this case) makes the difference.

[bsmith0404]

Which pads are they? I think (I haven't looked to verify) the PC kit comes with hydro tech pads. If it is, those aren't orange they are tangerine which is a polishing pad. No reason not to use them, I use 4" pads with my PC (that is all I use on it, I use the larger pads with my Flex), just make sure you know what you have.

[Ron4543]

Lake country flat pads, I have 4 of the orange.

[bsmith0404]

You have me stumped on this one, LC only shows 4" pads in the Hydro-Tech and CCS. The Hydro-Tech orange is actually tangerine. It has to be those, you would know CCS pads immediately. The tangerine is a polishing pad, the cyan (blue) Hydro-Tech is the cutting pad.

[Rsurfer]

Oh, and as a side question, in my new PC kit I received a 4 inch backing plate and some 4 inch pads. Is there any reason to stay away from using them? I only have the orange pads in the 4 inch and if I can save a few dollars and use them instead of buying 6.5 I definitely will. Not sure if the only difference is the size and added time it would take. Like my father taught me when I was young, the inch (or 2.5" in this case) makes the difference.

If you got the Porter Cable, you should have gotten a 5" backing plate and 5.5" pads. The PC has trouble spinning the larger bp and pads.