Just an update on removing the spots. We'll see if they come back again. If they do, then the owner will talk with the original painter.
On Saturday, we decided to attack this issue. The owner tried removing the spots in his garage with some rubbing compound and saw that two passes seemed to remove the marks. Obviously, that would be way too much work by hand, so we pulled out the 1990 vintage Flex that I have and a 3M wool pad. We used the 3M rubbing compound that I have and needed two to three complete passes to get the spots out. The paint looked much better, but really needed to be polished.
I pulled out the Porter Cable and the Meguiar's 205 to shine the car up. After doing the entire car, I pulled it in the sun and noticed the 205 didn't do a good enough job, so I used the Flex with a Final Finish foam pad and used some 3M polish I had laying around. That seemed to remove all of the rubbing compound marks and really brought up the shine. I need to go over the car again with the PC because I laid down some holograms.
The first time I used the Flex (back in 2000), the pads and the polish were new and I polished up a neglected black Camaro. The finish came out beautiful with absolutely no holograms or swirls, but I can't seem to do that anymore. I don't know what I did different back then. The only thing different today is a smooth foam pad instead of the 3M waffle foam pad. I may be using the Flex on too high a speed, but I don't know. I used it just under "2" on the dial. This is a late 80s, early 90s Flex.
Doing the car was a lot of work and looks fantastic. It took about four hours and required us to wash the car multiple times between applications. I'll try to get pics of the finished product.
Just an update on removing the spots. We'll see if they come back again. If they do, then the owner will talk with the original painter.
On Saturday, we decided to attack this issue. The owner tried removing the spots in his garage with some rubbing compound and saw that two passes seemed to remove the marks. Obviously, that would be way too much work by hand, so we pulled out the 1990 vintage Flex that I have and a 3M wool pad. We used the 3M rubbing compound that I have and needed two to three complete passes to get the spots out. The paint looked much better, but really needed to be polished.
I pulled out the Porter Cable and the Meguiar's 205 to shine the car up. After doing the entire car, I pulled it in the sun and noticed the 205 didn't do a good enough job, so I used the Flex with a Final Finish foam pad and used some 3M polish I had laying around. That seemed to remove all of the rubbing compound marks and really brought up the shine. I need to go over the car again with the PC because I laid down some holograms.
The first time I used the Flex (back in 2000), the pads and the polish were new and I polished up a neglected black Camaro. The finish came out beautiful with absolutely no holograms or swirls, but I can't seem to do that anymore. I don't know what I did different back then. The only thing different today is a smooth foam pad instead of the 3M waffle foam pad. I may be using the Flex on too high a speed, but I don't know. I used it just under "2" on the dial. This is a late 80s, early 90s Flex.
Doing the car was a lot of work and looks fantastic. It took about four hours and required us to wash the car multiple times between applications. I'll try to get pics of the finished product.
Unless Flex has totally reversed its dial, you need to set the speed at at least 4-5 to do any kind of correction.
It looks to me like some of the clear coat had tiny pin holes...probably from failure. Looks like either compound, or polish got stuck in them. That's what I see.
I couldn't really tell what was going on from the pictures but I'm curious how the section you wet sanded to remove oranges peel held up? Yes after four years your paint is cured doesn't mean there wasn't something done wrong in the process or bad product.
Go back to my earlier post that describes the look of what the pictures aren't really showing. If you were to look at the paint in person, it looked like the car was clean and drove down the road after a quick rain shower and the road grime was now splattered all over the car. the color looked hazed due to the amount of spotting.
I agree that the paint does look like it has millions of tiny pinholes. The shine is so much better today. We are hoping the spotting doesn't come back, but are willing to subject it to the same environment that caused the issue to begin with. I'll let you know what happens.
Regarding the Flex settings, I don't think a 4 or 5 is right with this one. The settings for my buffer are below. Flex 603VE
1. 1200 RPM
2. 1800 RPM
3. 2100 RPM
4. 2250 RPM
5. 2400 RPM
6. 3000 RPM
Regarding the Flex settings, I don't think a 4 or 5 is right with this one. The settings for my buffer are below. Flex 603VE
1. 1200 RPM
2. 1800 RPM
3. 2100 RPM
4. 2250 RPM
5. 2400 RPM
6. 3000 RPM
You're right. I didn't realize you were using a Flex rotary.
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Originally Posted by scottmoyer
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