Polishing with a DA polisher issue

[brunoranger]

Appreciate all the advice guys.. anyone have any specific links to a pad, say on Amazon, that they know is good for the soft paint on my Tesla?

[dlc95]

Appreciate all the advice guys.. anyone have any specific links to a pad, say on Amazon, that they know is good for the soft paint on my Tesla?

I use the blue Buff and Shine pads with Menzerna SF3500 quite often.

Buff and Shine 5.5 Inch Flat Foam Pads

[WRAPT C5Z06]

I don’t find ultra soft pads to be optimal on soft paint. My favorite is the LC white thin pro or Rupes yellow pad. Sonax perfect finish, optimum hyper polish work great.


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[rangerbay]

Appreciate all the advice guys.. anyone have any specific links to a pad, say on Amazon, that they know is good for the soft paint on my Tesla?

Why don't you buy from autogeek?
They sponsor this forum.

[Desertnate]

I don’t find ultra soft pads to be optimal on soft paint. My favorite is the LC white thin pro or Rupes yellow pad. Sonax perfect finish, optimum hyper polish work great.


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I too use the white LC Thin Pro or Flat Pads on my vehicles with soft paint. I'll add Sonax 04/06 and Optimum Hyper Polish to the list of good finishing polishes for soft paint.

OP: If you do buy pads make sure you get a few to work with. You don't want to do the entire car with only one pad. It will saturate with polishing product and also start to get hot. The saturation will effect the quality of the polishing and the heat will shorten the life of the pad.

[Desertnate]

Why don't you buy from autogeek?
They sponsor this forum.

Agree. Too many chances to get counterfeit or simply low quality stuff, not to mention showing Autogeek your appreation for hosting the forum by giving them a little of your business.

[brunoranger]

Update: this morning I got a chance to get Meguiar's M205 (couldn't find M210) ...it did seem to fix my gray hazing issue. I received decent results (and fixed the horrible mess of yesterday morning)...

However, there was not much sun today, so it was tough to analyze my work. Upon close (I mean close) inspection of the paint in partial sunlight, I seem to still have the slight polishing swirls/swirls. I used a clean microfiber pad by hand, to check my work by hand, but not the hex logic pads. I will continue to try this meguiar's but possibly on an orange pad and with my DA polisher. If not I will try these other options (M210 or Black Fire, Optimum Hyper Polish, foam pads).. I still dont feel comfortable with the trunk to ceramic coat it yet due to the polishing swirls/swirls. They are minimal and most people probably would not notice but that is not 9/10 work that I am comfortable putting the ceramic coat over.

[psnt1ol]

Hello all

I have a brand new black car that I want to ceramic coat and I was doing the necessary prep steps beforehand and trying it out on one panel first. I washed, used Iron fallout remover, clay barred, and began to polish (this is my second time using a DA polisher - previously used it on a 5 year old black car and received good results). My first run at it this time, I used V38 from chemical guys polish and a white brand new pad, and after 2-3 tries, I noticed the paint is hazy and may have either uneven paint removal or just bad technique. I am worried I ruined my trunk (the panel I tried it on), because of the hazing. Previously I used an orange pad and received good results on my 5 year old black car. What do you all think I could have done wrong? The speed on my Torqx didnt seem to matter, I tried all. I lubricated the pad first. I may have used too much polish but I only did what I thought was good (5 dots)....how do I fix the haze now? This is brand new paint. Car is 4 weeks old. All I wanted to do was a light polish before ceramic coat.

Sounds like you have DA haze.

I tried v38 many years ago on a black BMW 3 series and it did the same to me. I ended up chucking it and went with Menzerna SF3000. Since then... I learned a few things. Since this is your second time using a DA, there are several other factors you might want to consider as well.



1. Some paint simply dont like the action of certain machine. There are long throws DAs, Forced rotation DAs, rotary polishers, and the traditional 8mm throw DAs. The goal of all these machines are the same but the approach to paint removal is vastly different. It is possible (rare in most cases) the Tesla paint dont like the action of your DA.

2. Speed.. I hardly ever go above 4 on virtually all DAs. Maybe on some extreme curves but in general ... it is unnecessary IMOH.

3. Hand speed and pressure... My hand speed is generally a bit faster with little to no pressure when doing final polishing. I tend to add a bit more pressure with slower hand speed when doing corrections.

4. The size of the work area affects the effectiveness of the liquid you are using. in general, smaller area = more removal and larger area = less removal.

5. Residue control.. Cutting and polishing both remove paint. You might not see the paint on your pad but it is there. Keeping the pad clean and switch pad often would help.

6. Like others had said... stiffer pads seems to work better with soft paint.

In conclusion... it is way too simplistic to say if you do this one thing then your result would be great. Often, it is a combination of all the above that would make a difference. This is the reason I do a small test spots to define the process/ approach for each paint system.

[WRAPT C5Z06]

CG polishes are crap. Optimum Hyper Polish or Sonax Perfect Finish. M210 doesn’t finish as good as these two, IMO, but will finish better than M205. Those white CG(buff & shine) pads do well on soft paint, so find a good polish AND high quality MF towels.


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[brunoranger]

Sounds like you have DA haze.

I tried v38 many years ago on a black BMW 3 series and it did the same to me. I ended up chucking it and went with Menzerna SF3000. Since then... I learned a few things. Since this is your second time using a DA, there are several other factors you might want to consider as well.



1. Some paint simply dont like the action of certain machine. There are long throws DAs, Forced rotation DAs, rotary polishers, and the traditional 8mm throw DAs. The goal of all these machines are the same but the approach to paint removal is vastly different. It is possible (rare in most cases) the Tesla paint dont like the action of your DA.

2. Speed.. I hardly ever go above 4 on virtually all DAs. Maybe on some extreme curves but in general ... it is unnecessary IMOH.

3. Hand speed and pressure... My hand speed is generally a bit faster with little to no pressure when doing final polishing. I tend to add a bit more pressure with slower hand speed when doing corrections.

4. The size of the work area affects the effectiveness of the liquid you are using. in general, smaller area = more removal and larger area = less removal.

5. Residue control.. Cutting and polishing both remove paint. You might not see the paint on your pad but it is there. Keeping the pad clean and switch pad often would help.

6. Like others had said... stiffer pads seems to work better with soft paint.

In conclusion... it is way too simplistic to say if you do this one thing then your result would be great. Often, it is a combination of all the above that would make a difference. This is the reason I do a small test spots to define the process/ approach for each paint system.

Thanks for the advice. So should I ditch my Torqx DA for this particular car and do it by hand then? Or try it again with the DA with the Menzerna and/or new pads.