How to polish thin body panels

[medicscott]

I'm wondering if anyone who has used a DA to polish out the majority of the car, and then this little rotary on the small parts has had an issues with holograms on the rotary sections???

From my limited experience with the PE8 if you use on slow speeds there are 0 issues with holograms. Mikes write-up gave me the confidence to use it today on a 2012 M5. Came out mint. Just go at speed 1 or 2. Works flawlessly. I also recommend the extension screw so that you can see what you are doing.

[Rsurfer]

I'm wondering if anyone who has used a DA to polish out the majority of the car, and then this little rotary on the small parts has had an issues with holograms on the rotary sections???

Mike had a thread where he was using the 3" pad and needed to finish down with a DA. This was on a large panel and I don't think it would show on a pillar.

[Mike Phillips]

Nice write up Mike, but are they thin body panels or narrow panels?

Guess I could have used the word narrow instead of thin. I think the words are fairly interchangeable. Most of the time when I'm either talking or typing to people about body panels that are not wide I use the word thin but narrow is a good word too.

When I first saw the topic, I thought you were going to show us how to polish thin paint.

I guess I would have used a title like,

How to polish thin paint

If it was going to be about how to polish thin paint. Instead I used the word thin and added the words body panels and then in the article I added LOTS of pictures showing thin/narrow panels being polished to kind of tie it all together.

This thread has 970 views on our forum. On my Facebook page it has over 13,000 views. 13,536 to be exact as of this morning.

[Mike Phillips]

I'm wondering if anyone who has used a DA to polish out the majority of the car, and then this little rotary on the small parts has had an issues with holograms on the rotary sections???

Good question. I think, from experience, it depends on 4 factors.

1. The paint.
2. The abrasive technology being used for the last machine polishing step.
3. The pad being used.
4. The technique being used.

Mike had a thread where he was using the 3" pad and needed to finish down with a DA. This was on a large panel and

Do you remember the title of the thread or article? If so... add it to this thread as I'd like to read it to get the full context.

I don't think it would show on a pillar.

I agree.

On thin or narrow panels if you leave a little bit of hologramming BUT you removed all the rest of the swirls, scratches, oxidation, water spots etc., by the time you apply a wax or sealant or even a coating you would never see the fine holograms simply because it's a narrow panel.

Again, the above 4 factors come into play when using only a rotary buffer and each person can decide for themselves just how much time, work and energy they want to invest into whatever car project they're detailing to reach perfection or their goal for a quality finish.

After using a rotary on a thin/narrow panel a person could also simply hand apply a high quality finishing polish to remove any faint holograms if they want to be UBER careful.

[Mike Phillips]

From my limited experience with the PE8 if you use on slow speeds there are 0 issues with holograms.

Mikes write-up gave me the confidence to use it today on a 2012 M5. Came out mint. Just go at speed 1 or 2. Works flawlessly.

I also recommend the extension screw so that you can see what you are doing.

Good to hear and "yes" the extension can really come in handy sometimes when polishing paint.

Also comes in handy if you use a pad washer....

Video: Tip for cleaning pads in a pad washer

I took this picture some time ago to show how you can use an adapter or extension on a rotary buffer to make cleaning a pad easier when cleaning pads in a pad washer.




How it works
When using the Grit Guard Universal Pad Washer, the correct technique is to pump the pad up and down against the Grit Gard Insert as this causes the spring loaded water pumps to pump or inject water and/or water and cleaning solution into the face of the pad.

By using an extension you make it easier to pump or move the rotary buffer up and down inside the pad washer without the body of the rotary buffer bumping into the Splash Guard Lid.





This video uses a when cleaning a pad but it shows and explains how the water pumps work and how to pump any polisher up and down against the Grit Guard Insert inside the pad washer.

How to use a Grit Guard Universal Pad Washer

On Autogeek.net

Lake Country Double-Sided Pad Rotary Buffer Adapter




Optimum Double-Sided Pad Rotary Buffer Adapter

[Rsurfer]

Do you remember the title of the thread or article? If so... add it to this thread as I'd like to read it to get the full context.

Here it is, see 2:00-2:10 also 2:51
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zxbj0EI52E

[Mike Phillips]

Here it is, see 2:00-2:10 also 2:51

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zxbj0EI52E

Got it. The reason I didn't remember is because you said I a had a thread.

Mike had a thread where he was using the 3" pad and needed to finish down with a DA. This was on a large panel and I don't think it would show on a pillar.

I kept trying to think what thread that was in as even though I have a lot of threads on this forum I tend to be able to remember where most topics are, at least close enough I can Google the topic and my name and find the thread.


That's not a thread it's a YouTube video and it's not mine. That is I didn't take the video or upload it to YouTube. Raymond Vega did.

Sorry for the confusion on my part but I was trying to think of a thread not a video.


But "yes" I'll stick by what I said and in fact, I demonstrated under excruciating lights on the large flat BLACK paint panel all week long and if you use a small foam cutting pads like I was using in the video then you will definitely leave holograms in the paint. It will be REALLY easy to see on black paint but it will happen on all paint.

You can try to move down to softer foam finishing pads and less aggressive pads to "try" to finish out hologram free on large flat flat panels like I demonstrate on at shows but my experience has been small pads can and will tend to leave some type of hologram in the paint. The polishing oils can mask the holograms so it's safer to simply switch to a DA Polisher (of some sort) and by doing this you're changing the action of the tool and the oscillating action will work out the hologram scratch pattern.

For thin or narrow panels it's less important because it's hard to see holograms on thin/narrow panels. What's more important is to remove the defects.

And of course you should always follow a compound and a foam cutting pad with a less aggressive pad and product.

Thanks for digging that up, since it's not my video I tend to forget about it.

Also if you note, I was wearing a t-shirt in that video. That's because that video was taken on Monday. Monday is set-up day. SEMA doesn't start till Tuesday and I'll guarantee you on Tuesday Team Autogeek is in uniform. Like from a year or two ago, again... a pure black panel.

Mind Blowing - Rupes Blue Foam Cutting Pad and Zephir Gloss Coarse Gel Compound

[Mike Phillips]

From my limited experience with the PE8 if you use on slow speeds there are 0 issues with holograms.

Mikes write-up gave me the confidence to use it today on a 2012 M5. Came out mint.

Just go at speed 1 or 2. Works flawlessly. I also recommend the extension screw so that you can see what you are doing.

Thanks for sharing.

There's no more risk for holograms with a 1" pad on a FLEX PE8 than there is with a RUPES iBrid and a 1" pad in rotary mode.