Straight micro scratches after removing swirl marks with da polish and waxing by hand

[benphillipstn]

This hood had been hit with a rotary and wool pad. It was covered in swirl marks.

I washed, clayed, washed, and used da polisher with orange pad and Meguiar's G19216 Ultimate Polish.

Then I applied wax by hand and removed with microfiber.

The hood looked great. or so I thought. After a day or so I noticed these micro scratches. Perfectly straight, covering the whole hood.

What caused this? The hood was also painted about a year ago.

[dlc95]

I've gotten that from not getting all the wax residue off the paint.

They look pretty uniform, rather than the semi circular tick marks left by a random orbital.

It could also be that the Ultimate Polish / Orange pad weren't aggressive enough to remove the rotary marks, but from this perspective, it would be my last assumption.

[dlc95]

Maybe do a quick detailer process and see if it clears it up.

[DetailedByPrecision]

Ime, on dark color paint, as well as repaints, they tend to require more refining. Some repaints turn out hard as a brick clear, some repaints turn out soft as pita clear.

Your approach just needed some tweaks to dial it in to get the desired results. Going from rotary/wool to da/orangepad/up is not aggressive enough to refine the marks left behind by the rotary/wool.

In some cases depending on how hard or soft the clear is i have to do a d300 compound/orange pad pass to refine the marks left behind by m101/mf pad on black cars. From there a strong polish such as opt hyper polish or menz 2500 with a orange or white pad to refine. From there either carpro reflect, menz 3800, or carpro essence to jewel the paint to remove a distinct slight white haze on black paint.

Another point is to work extremely clean when polishing black paint. As soon as the pad is loaded you will know its leaving its own marks on the paint after wiping off the residue, or the cut is not as strong anymore. There will be indications for you to notice as you move along.

Use high quality plush gsm mf towels as well that wont grab, but glide effortlessly when removing residue.
Im positive with slight adjustments you will get it right.

[Eldorado2k]

Maybe it’s just me, but I can almost hear the funny Meguiars Asia music playing in the background as I watch that video. Lol. That’s clip sure is a teaser! At 1st I was like ‘how the heck am I able to see just that thin line of scratches’?

[Mike Phillips]

Going from rotary/wool to da/orangepad/up is not aggressive enough to refine the marks left behind by the rotary/wool.

This would be my guess.

First, Meguiar's Ultimate Polish is a FINE cut polish, in order everything in the WORLD can be put into one of these 4 categories.

1. Aggressive cut compound
2. Medium cut polish
3. Fine cut polish
4. Ultra fine cut polish

You'll also find these categories on page 92 of my book,





The "depth factor" of the swirls left by a rotary buffer come down to,

1. Type of abrasive technology used
2. Type of wool pad used
3. Cleanliness of the wool pad
4. Downward pressure applied by the human using the rotary buffer
5. Paint hardness
6. Time

I can finish out to a very deep swirl with a rotary or a very shallow swirl when using a rotary buffer, it just depends upon the above factors. I can tell you for sure though, if the rotary step was harsh, the Meguiar's Ultimate Polish probably isn't aggressive enough to remove the hologram scratches.

Also - if it were me, I would have did a TEST SPOT with the Meguiar's Ultimate Polish before I buffed out the entire car. If in doubt, chemically strip the test spot and then inspect. I wrote the term and the definition for "Test Spot" and the reason for doing a test spot is to ensure uniform results after wipe off of the entire car.

Another point is to work extremely clean when polishing black paint. As soon as the pad is loaded you will know its leaving its own marks on the paint after wiping off the residue, or the cut is not as strong anymore. There will be indications for you to notice as you move along.

100% agree with the above too... I cover that on page 116 of my how-to book.

Use high quality plush gsm mf towels as well that wont grab, but glide effortlessly when removing residue.

I never pay attention to the GSM for any towel I use, I just keep it simple and using my senses use clean, soft microfiber towels, I must have HUNDREDS of articles and THOUSANDS of pictures showing the towels I use for any one specific detailing job.

More important is what I teach in this video/article I wrote

How, why & when to inspect your microfiber towels when detailing cars

Im positive with slight adjustments you will get it right.

I agree. With your input, other's input my input we can see this member through to success.


One thing - if it had been me doing this job I would NOT have hand applied anything. If I have an orbital - I would let it do the work for me.

The machine always outperforms the human - Mike Phillips

I'm part machine, so I'm pretty confident in the above quote.




See this article,

High speed machine waxing - Kissing the Finish Technique by Mike Phillips