Isolated buffing marks / buffer trail

[Jmbrown415]

Hi All,

Having a few problems with this one on a soft paint. No problem on any other car I’m detailing.
The audi is a solid black finish and the paint is butter like soft. I am noticing small buffer trails/marks. I am using the rupes system, Mk2 15mm with either menzerna or rupes gel. I am noticing this when polishing/finishing.
The car was washed thoroughly but not clayed. It was clayed relatively recently. Could this be an issue?
Thanks

Justin

[Mike Phillips]

Hi All,

Having a few problems with this one on a soft paint. No problem on any other car I’m detailing.
The audi is a solid black finish and the paint is butter like soft. I am noticing small buffer trails/marks. I am using the rupes system, Mk2 15mm with either menzerna or rupes gel. I am noticing this when polishing/finishing.
The car was washed thoroughly but not clayed. It was clayed relatively recently. Could this be an issue?
Thanks

Justin

That does sound strange.

Just to double check...

What pad are you using?


I've had nothing but trouble-free results using the RUPES ultra soft white foam pads with the RUPES Diamond Ultra Fine Cut compound gel.

[Mike Phillips]

The audi is a solid black finish and the paint is butter like soft.

Glad you brought this up... I'd say the majority of guys I've seen post in the blogosphere would say automatically without hesitation that all Audi's have hard paint.

I would say that "most" of the Audis I've worked on have not just hard paint but incredibly hard paint. But not all of them. This is why I always do a Test Spot. If I've never worked on the car right in front of me - how would I know if it had hard paint, soft paint or somewhere in-between?

The answer is I wouldn't. I wouldn't know until a did some testing.


Here's a blast from the past that drives this point home...


Audi Soft Paint - Making Generalizations about Hardness and Softness





It's a bad habit to make generalizations about paint hardness and softness...

[Jmbrown415]

Yes going with white rupes pad and the white ultra gel polish...

agreed, if you were to generalise it.. generally metallic finishes are hard and the solid soft.( well from what I have worked with )

the solid black audi paint on this particular car is painfully soft.

I am actually considering adopting the Kevin Brown method of water and polish mixing

Glad you brought this up... I'd say the majority of guys I've seen post in the blogosphere would say automatically without hesitation that all Audi's have hard paint.

I would say that "most" of the Audis I've worked on have not just hard paint but incredibly hard paint. But not all of them. This is why I always do a Test Spot. If I've never worked on the car right in front of me - how would I know if it had hard paint, soft paint or somewhere in-between?

The answer is I wouldn't. I wouldn't know until a did some testing.


Here's a blast from the past that drives this point home...


Audi Soft Paint - Making Generalizations about Hardness and Softness





It's a bad habit to make generalizations about paint hardness and softness...

[MikeC78]

Like Mike said; do a test spot or find out if there has ever been work done on any part of the car.

I've done a vehicle in which the owner claimed original paint. One side of the car had extremely soft paint, while the other side was hard as nails. The job was done so well, you'd never guess it was repainted. No signs of a repaint, even down to the original "orange peel".

This comes with a problem. You'll be correcting or polishing and getting different results on different panels. Makes your work much harder.