I'm working on a 2011 tundra that is in great shape, except that the black paint has swirls. I tried to capture with a camera below. I have a PC 7424, and new orange + white pads. Also have; Meguiars ult.polish, ult compound, Menzerma 400, and HD adapt compound polish. Will any of these help? Any products to recommend for this? Thank you
Agreed, looks like you have what should work, and agree with BSoars, do the test spot.
Start with the mildest product, I'm thinking that's the Meg's Ultimate Polish, probably the same as Meg's #205, do the section passes, and see?
If for say you see some deeper RIDS here and there (Random Isolated deeper scratches), no foul hitting those areas here and there with a more aggressive product, or Pad-Product combo, then return to finish with a fine polish.
As always, work clean, and in the shade on cool paint, mask where required.
Sometimes, there's no such thing as 100% paint correction, not on a daily driver. You do the best you can, better to do less, than do too much.
You can always then repeat a process at a later point in time.
If you paint is similar to the crimson paint on my wife's Highlander, the white Lake Country Pads and the Meguiars Ultimate Polish should be able to correct things quite nicely in one step. I used this combination for many years with success before moving on to a different polish. I still never have to go more aggressive than a white pad.
Toyota paint tends to be very soft, so if you go with anything more aggressive like the orange pad and/or the compound be prepared for compound haze which you will need to polish out with the white pad and the polish.
with menzerna 400 and Meguires MF Cutting pads ( not the HEAVY ones ) i make wonders! but then i have to use my yellow rupes pad and yellow KERAMIK compound to polish it to perfection and get rid of some micro marring caused from MF pad
Wow thanks everyone for the responses! I'll start wIth a small section using the Meg's polish. Is the white pad sufficient?
Yes, start with the white pads. I'm assuming they are flat pads? The white pads work and cut nicely with a finishing polish, or say a polish like Wolfgang Total Swirl Remover (Called TSR by us folks)
The thing is with any pad, how many of each do you have on hand? If it's just 2 or 3, then you're working borderline, and if you watched any of Mike's Vids which were linked to in your thread here, you'll understand what he says.
That over-working a pad will turn it to mush in no time. Over-heating is the usual culprit to destroying any pad.
If you're short on pads, work a couple panels, with wiping, lightly brushing and cleaning the pad on the fly.
Once it starts getting over-loaded with muck, and polishes, that's it, party's over for that pad, take it off, set it aside, and attach a fresh clean one.
Let's just for say all you have is two pads. Do half the vehicle, stop, wash and dry pads. And drying might take more than 15-20 minutes. Rush pad drying, and you'll find problems. If that's the situation you're in, no harm-foul of doing a 1/3rd, or 1/2 the truck one day, and continue on the next day.
Doing my Tahoe once, it just about took me a full exhausting run of a few hours straight just to do the roof, up and down ladders, changing pads, priming pads, wiping, what a nightmare, and I was spent after like somebody beat me up.
But I got the results I was after, perfect! And I stopped with the roof, clean up, re-group and live to fight another day.
Reserve your body, your sanity, and your resources of what you have. Rush through, cut corners, and you won't get the desired results you had hoped for. Pace yourself, take your time, and enjoy the processes, rather than abhor them.
Remember, always start and stop the DA while on the panel. Never lift off with a spinning pad, sling will add much more time to cleaning off all the slung product.
Another thing I never really hear too much about here on AGO is something that Dan (dlc95) turned me on to a long time ago. (Dan has not been on here in forever, and I hope he's OK)
But that is to use a DA with the lightest of touch on the paint in certain situations. You will find that a full 5-10lbs. of pressure is not needed in all situations.
In some applications, and with some products, having the DA whirling at full RPM/OPM while just kissing the paint works wonders.
Mike P just recently wrote another of his many articles about making a machine "Dance on the paint". The "Kissing" technique (my term) I believe falls into this category.
And it works.
It is no coincidence that man's best friend cannot talk.
Not sure what PC Machine you have, just regular 7424, or the 7424XP? (I have the newer XP Model)
I have often found speed 5 will get it, slower yes, but if proper pressure is applied, and all is working well, you can often get by with speed 5.
Sadly, there is no speed 5.5 on the Porter Cable Machine, there should've been! Stupid with the Speed Dial design IMO.
Mark your Backing Plate with a magic marker or sharpie pen, and keep constant tabs on pad rotation. No pad rotation, little in the way of correction.
I have seen with the PC7424, no pressure at all sometimes results in just about zero pad rotation, it's just "jiggling". Under pressure, or over-pressure kills pad rotation in most instances.
The Porter Cable DA is not a forced rotation Flex 3401 or a Rotary Polisher.
Maintain level and parallel pad contact as much as you can. With these free wheelers like the PC, sometimes just the slightest tilt kills the machine working optimally. Corners dips, and curves can be a bear at times.
When you notice slowed pad rotations in such areas, then slow up and take your time there, versus the relative ease of working full flat panels.
Get in the habit of starting away from seams and edges when you start polishing a panel. You'll just load cracks, crevices and seams with tons of product which you'll bust your tookus to remove after.
And again, masking, don't skimp on buying yourself a couple rolls of tape, and masking areas you don't want to touch with a DA and products. Trim, Badges, Moldings, Seams, etc.
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Originally Posted by 01civic
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