Rupes Blue Foam, not cutting?

Hello, first of all, I'm new in polishing, learning how to use Rupes LHR15 Mark II everyday from morning till evening.

I have some issues (I think), but I'm not sure, my steps:

1. Clay the car.
2. Clean the surface with CarPro Eraser.
3. Put 4 small drops of Menzerna HC400 on the Rupes Blue Coarse Foam (for priming)
4. Level 2 for warm up the pad and spread the compound on the surface.
5. Put 2 more small drops of HC400, start compounding slowly. (Level 4)
6. Put the Rupes Yellow Fine Foam pad using Rupes Keramik (Yellow) and same steps (3 4 5)

I noticed, that surface or pad doesn't get hot, just slightly warm.
I tried to compound in the sun, and I did get better results, heat helped I guess.

Why the pad/surface is not heating up? Just slightly warm. Even HC400 is not dusting when I'm compounding in the shade, surface temperature is too low? Air temperature is only 52 °F.

Results, hood is really trashed, I polished it in direct sunlight. I guess I have to wet sand it or buy a microfiber/wool pads haha.
Last photo looks good to me, Rupes Blue foam + HC400 for compounding, Rupes Yellow foam + Keramik for finishing.
https://i.imgur.com/NPULoOU.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/VIZxFXw.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/JecX62D.jpg?1

What's wrong with the last picture? Looks like a polishing step will make it acceptable.

That scratch on outside of the taped area might be too deep to remove with compounding.

Last pic looks pretty good.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rsurfer

What's wrong with the last picture? Looks like a polishing step will make it acceptable.

That scratch on outside of the taped area might be too deep to remove with compounding.

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Yes it looks good to me too haha, that scratch was on the corrected side too, blue foam + hc400 removed it.
Its all about the heat I guess, I'm not getting results like that in the shade.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by braga

Yes it looks good to me too haha, that scratch was on the corrected side too, blue foam + hc400 removed it.
Its all about the heat I guess, I'm not getting results like that in the shade.

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You don't necessarily want "heat". You want to warm the pad up just a bit to reduce stiffness at the face of the pad.

You don’t need heat to break down a polish. The friction breaks down the polish. Heat will break down your pads faster. Maybe I’m not understanding what is going on. Never been a fan of the Rupes blue pads anyway. I never could stop them from slinging product everywhere.

Just a warning - the Rupes blue foam pads will begin shedding with Menzerna HC400. Something in the HC400 makes the foam disintegrate. When I spoke to Dylan from Rupes about it at MTE he said they once put a drop of HC400 on a blue foam pad and it ate all the way thru. Both are great products, just not good together.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mc2hill

Just a warning - the Rupes blue foam pads will begin shedding with Menzerna HC400. Something in the HC400 makes the foam disintegrate. When I spoke to Dylan from Rupes about it at MTE he said they once put a drop of HC400 on a blue foam pad and it ate all the way thru. Both are great products, just not good together.

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FG400 and HC400 - same compound. I'm using this combo 3 days in a row, pads looks fine to me.
I will try FG400 with the Rupes Yellow foam, I heard great feedback about this combo for one step polishing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mike Phillips

The Menzerna FG400 works very well with the aggressive blue Rupes pad.

This combo cuts fast and finishes out like a fine cut polish. I predict you will be amazed.


:)

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It looks like you got good results?

The RUPES BigFoot Polishing System is designed to correct paint WITHOUT too much heat production. Heat is a product of friction and energy transfer, but when it comes to polishing paint, it doesn't offer much benefit. I don't think polishing in the sun is going to have too much of a benefit vs. in the shade and I would suggest carefully monitoring the results.