Removing Compounding Residue??

[Its A Wash]

Removing Compounding Residue

Hi,

Just wanted to see if any one could recommend a good way to remove compounding residue when detailing a car.

I use a rotary at about 1900-2100rpm and sometimes the compound gets caked on and can be a pain to remove.

I am currently just using a quick detailer spray but than sometimes even that can streak on the paint which becomes just as much of a pain the remove.

I really appreciate the help.

Thanks,
Dan

[ASPHALT ROCKET]

Hi,

Just wanted to see if any one could recommend a good way to remove compounding residue when detailing a car. I use a rotary at about 1900-2100rpm and sometimes the compound gets caked on and can be a pain to remove. I am currently just using a quick detailer spray but than sometimes even that can streak on the paint which becomes just as much of a pain the remove. I really appreciate the help.

Thanks,
Dan

The product itself will remove itself.

[Old Tiger]

The new Optimum Spray Hyper Compound is said to be great and low dusting FWIW. Asphalt Rocket has given the best answer and is a Rotary Master!

[Its A Wash]

I'm not sure I follow Zen Master Rocket....

[Mike Phillips]

Hi,

Just wanted to see if any one could recommend a good way to remove compounding residue when detailing a car.

I use a rotary at about 1900-2100rpm and sometimes the compound gets caked on and can be a pain to remove.

Hi Dan,

First a few questions...

1. What are you working on?
2. What are you trying to accomplish?
3. What type of pad are you using? Foam or Wool?
4. Which compound are you using?

1900rpm to 2100rpm is on the high end of the rpm spectrum for working on modern clear coats. Are you sanding and buffing epoxy molds?

As for removal, a sign of compound residue caking onto the surface tend to be a sign of not cleaning your pad often enough, so make sure you're cleaning your pad often.

Overusing product and not cleaning your pad often will also lead to excessive product residue caking up on the surface.

First... be sure to remove any compounding or polishing residue after buffing a section, compound and polishes don't need to dry and removing them immediately is usually a lot easier than allowing any time to go by.

Second, warm and hot temperatures will cause the residue to dry faster and buffing at high RPM's will tend to create more heat also causing the residue to dry faster, both of which will make residue removal more difficult. So if you are in fact working on clear coat paints, try reducing your RPM to around 1500


Tips for removal?

Using a terry clot towel with a medium to large nap will help as the nap, (little cotton loops), will act to slice into the layer of residue and help to break it up and pull it off the paint. Microfiber will work too but sometimes it's the stoutness of a cotton loop of fiber that can help to remove compounding residue.

The below picture was taken from this article, note the "loop of fiber"

How to clean your foam pad on the fly

I use the clean your pad on the fly technique for cleaning foam pads on rotary buffers too...

The nap of 100% Cotton Terry Cloth Toweling



The terry cloth towels in the picture above I get at the gym where I work out, they are actually high quality and made available to club members for $2.00 a piece, so I buy them often for use at the gym and then use them also for detailing cars.

Don't worry about toweling marks from using cotton over microfiber because any polishing steps you do after compounding will remove any toweling marks. If you use high quality 100% cotton towels then toweling marks will be minimum due to the cotton itself and more related to aggressive wiping.

After the compounding step however you should bring the quality of your wiping towels upward and switch to microfiber towels.

If you're still having problems at this point then using a spray detailer together with a 100% cotton towel will usually do the trick.

[Mike Phillips]

The product itself will remove itself.

This comes from the saying...

Like removes like...


If you ever are in a situation where removing any kind of product off a surface has become exceedingly difficult you can take the same product and use it to remove itself. Since it's chemically identical it's chemically compatible and taking fresh product you're having a problem with, (in it's liquid form) and applying it by hand with a clean applicator pad, will act to re-liquefy the dried product enabling you to wipe the entire mess off the car.

This works with compounds and polishes and predominantly liquid type paint care products. This solution however is a fix to a problem and the true solution is to see if their are any root causes to the original problem and trying to address them.

The product itself will remove itself.

I'm guessing what I wrote out above is what Dana was also referring to...

[Wax Gorilla]

Use Steam !

[Its A Wash]

Wow!! Thanks Mike that was more than helpful. The residue usually comes off when I polish the car but needless to say I don't like it sitting on the paint that whole time. I was working on a 2000 Ford Windstar (the joys of used car lot detailing) and I was just trying to work out all the defects, mostly swirls and oxidation. I was using a med cutting foam pad with Poorboys SSR3. I've always been hesitant to use terry towels while polishing but I'll give it a shot today, seems to make perfect sense and I will turn down the rpms a bit, nothing good can happen after 2000rpms anyway haha. Thank you for clarifying the other statement as well, what you said made perfect sense and I will also try that sometime. On a side note I wondered what your take on Megs Pink Paint Reconditioning cream is, as I mentioned I do a lot of work on used cars and I hear that is the stuff to use

Thanks,
Dan