Buffer trails - questions re: depth

[lawrenceSA]

Hi geekers

So I would like your thoughts on something please.

I have been busy detailing another Soft Sticky Subaru since Friday. I have done a couple of these and the paint has always been soft, and sticky and has corrected very easily - previously I have had great success with Menzerna SF4000 and either a crimson or black pad on a DA.

When I performed by test spots on this one, the same combo again removed the swirls BUT did NOT remove the buffer trails instilled by the previous hack.

I always though buffer trails were relatively shallow in the paint (in comparison to swirls) and so was a bit confused as I expected the buffer trails to come out BEFORE the swirls did.

I then noticed that the hood, rear wing and rear bumper were all A LOT harder than the rest of the OEM paint, requiring a mix of FG400/orange and PF2500/white to remove and indicating a re-spray? So I guess what happened is that the previous hack set up a combo to attack the swirls on the harder paint and then proceeded to use this across the whole car, including the super soft OEM paint.

If this were the case, then the aggressive combo used on the hard paint would have been EXTREMELY aggressive for the OEM paint (I did find evidence of the clear being polished off in at least one spot).

So my question after all that is....

"is it then plausible that the buffer trails actually sat a lot deeper in the soft paint than the swirls do"?

It was the only explanation I could come up with, but want to see if it makes sense to the rest of you, before discussing with the owner

The mess made by the previous hack
25535

Some progress I made in restoring the paint (this is post polishing but no LSP)
25536

[Flash Gordon]

Repaints are a pain. From the looks of your before/afters I would quit while your ahead

[Mike Phillips]

How deep the hologram scratches are depends on the below factors....


Abrasive technology used to instill holograms.

Type of material used for the buffing pad. A wool cutting pad will leave deeper holograms than a foam polishing pad.

Downward pressure by the person running the buffer, you could think of this as technique or lack thereof.


So "yes" holograms can easily be deeper than normal wear-n-tear type washing and drying cobweb scratches.



:)

[lawrenceSA]

Repaints are a pain. From the looks of your before/afters I would quit while your ahead
I have completed all the polishing and will be applying the last coat of LSP tonight - customer will be fetching tomorrow. I just wanted to make sure my understanding of what was going on was correct.

This will enable me to be better prepared going forward as there is now a real possibility, especially on softer paints, that the buffer trails may take more work to remove than the swirls, and thus could necessitate an additional polishing step. I should therefore be able to quote more accurately :xyxthumbs:


How deep the hologram scratches are depends on the below factors....


Abrasive technology used to instill holograms.

Type of material used for the buffing pad. A wool cutting pad will leave deeper holograms than a foam polishing pad.

Downward pressure by the person running the buffer, you could think of this as technique or lack thereof.


So "yes" holograms can easily be deeper than normal wear-n-tear type washing and drying cobweb scratches.



:)
Thanks Mike - appreciate your input, all of which makes perfect sense (as always).

This detail was another real 'learning opportunity' that I am grateful for.

[Mike Phillips]

This detail was another real 'learning opportunity' that I am grateful for.





Kind of a sad way to look at things but if it wasn't for all the hack detailers and all the hack work done at body shops and at dealerships, there wouldn't be much work for the rest of us to do.


:D