amateur paint correction help

[Maff U]

never mind! - watching the video now and you've answered those questions. looking forward to testing this out in a couple weeks

[2black1s]

Thanks Mike. Lots of good info there.

i'll plan to grab a 5" backing pad and some 5-5.5" pads for the correcting step. given the fact that my porter cable is a little weakling, do you recommend running it at it's highest speed then? what sort of pressure should be used ~ 15lbs?

i wasn't aware of the fact that a soaked pad becomes less effective. would you advise against loading up the pad prior to first use then and just starting out on your first panel with 3 pea sized dots of compound and a dry pad?

Not Mike but here's my input...

Pressure and Speed:

- Set the speed to whatever level is necessary to maintain pad rotation. That speed setting may vary depending on the configuration of the panel you are working on and the pressure you are applying. An example of that could be when working in contours you will typically need a higher speed setting than on a flat panel, although you might also need higher speed settings even on a flat panel if you're applying significant pressure.

- Pressure required is dependent on what you are trying to achieve and what point of the process you are performing. When initially attacking severe defects more pressure is required. For final finishing very little pressure is needed. You should always be finishing with very little to no pressure at all.

Pad Priming:

There are many schools of thought on this topic. Personally, I like to "lightly" prime the pad with whatever product I'm using.

If you're working on a large flat panel you can skip the priming and simply use enough product... The pad will prime itself in the first few passes. Three pea-sized drops on a dry pad is not enough. If I was going this route I'd put a full circle of product around the circumference of the pad and a few drops evenly spaced inboard of the circle.

When working on irregular shapes and contours I would always prime the pad first, especially the outer edge, so you are not running a dry edge into the surface you're working on.

[Desertnate]

Agree with all the advise on pads and techniques. Before I upgraded my DA I got great results using 5.5" pads on a 5" backing plate and Lake Country pads. Depending on the type of area I was polishing I switched between their Flat and Thin Pro pads. The Thin Pros corrected better because the polisher would spin faster, but on some contoured surfaces the Flat pads simply worked better. I'd use either their orange or white depending on the level of correction needed.

I would also suggest a different polish and compound. I started with Meg's Ultimates on cars with soft paint, but found they were not up to the task on hard paint similar to your Audi. I also found others provided better results regardless of the hardness of the paint. I'd look at maybe the Griot's BOSS line, Sonax, Blackfire, or Wolfgang brands.

[dpevans]

With my PC I have found a Microfiber cutting pad is a good place to start and I like the D30016, 90% of the time it gets most of the defects out and if I want to get more out I step up to a yellow or orange pad have used 3D cutting, M105 and they both work well. Then I hit the entire car with a white pad and M205. Using the PC 5" is the most you should go and the PC does stall real easy. Also us a pad brush to keep the fibers standing tall and more product is not better. I purchased Mike's book when I started doing weekend detailing and it has everything you need to know, it is well written and very detailed for the beginning detailer.

[oneheadlite]

One thing to throw out too since I haven't seen it mentioned here (thought it's probably in one of Mike's links) - Make sure to do a test spot!

Definitely worth dialing in your approach on a small section then apply it to the rest of the car vs going through all that work only to be let down by the results.

My wife's Phantom Black Q5 definitely needed the more aggressive stuff in my arsenal. I really like the Griot's BOSS creams - super easy to work with. For her car I used the Fast Correcting Cream on microfiber and Orange pads. (all Griot's stuff - I don't know how all the different brand foam colors stack in regards to cutting ability). I chased it with the Perfecting Cream (I'll confess, I did that more on principle than anything - the Fast Correcting Cream actually finished down really well).

[Maff U]

Thanks for all the feedback fellas. as a few of you mentioned, i think the audi paint is harder than most as the griots orange pad + megs UC left a lot of scratches. I'll look into a more heavy duty compound.

i'm in an apartment currently so unfortunately i have to plan out my detailing sessions... hoping to tackle this in a couple weeks when i'm house/dog sitting for my sister. i'll post some before/after pics then

[pilotpip]

5" thin pads on a PC will make it much more effective.