Shawn F. Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 I am hoping I can get some help here soon with a problem I am having with a M35 infinity. The car is pretty new (I think about a year or so) and it's black. The hood, rear deck lid, spoiler and bumper were painted and the car was covered in overspray. I went over the car with clay bar, wool/foam blend LC pad with Optimum Hyper Compound, then with Optimum polish and the LC white polish pad, then finished with Poly-seal and the dark grey soft polish pad from LC. There still a ton of swirls in the paint and the scratches left are deep (the swirl scratches). My pads are/were clean and I did what I have always done when buffing. I've never had a problem with this method until all of a sudden today and of course it had to happen on a jet black car. I went back over it with the white pad and plain Optimum polish and it helped cut dont some of the deeper swirls but not completely. Then I finished up with polish again. No luck... Any idea's here? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ehall Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 I am hoping I can get some help here soon with a problem I am having with a M35 infinity. The car is pretty new (I think about a year or so) and it's black. The hood, rear deck lid, spoiler and bumper were painted and the car was covered in overspray. I went over the car with clay bar, wool/foam blend LC pad with Optimum Hyper Compound, then with Optimum polish and the LC white polish pad, then finished with Poly-seal and the dark grey soft polish pad from LC. There still a ton of swirls in the paint and the scratches left are deep (the swirl scratches). My pads are/were clean and I did what I have always done when buffing. I've never had a problem with this method until all of a sudden today and of course it had to happen on a jet black car. I went back over it with the white pad and plain Optimum polish and it helped cut dont some of the deeper swirls but not completely. Then I finished up with polish again. No luck...Any idea's here? Thanks! What type of machine are you using? How long ago was the car painted? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ehall Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 I've asked Anthony or Ron to pop in, when they get a chance. We'll help you get a handle on this. Happy 4th! E Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn F. Posted July 5, 2009 Author Share Posted July 5, 2009 ehall, thanks for getting back to me! The car is supposed to be done by today (not because of the customer needing it but because I have some other work and meeting tomarrow that I can not turn down. I may do the best I can with it and tell him I will pick it up next week and give it another try.The customer is a nice guy and doesn't care since he has many other vehicles to drive in the meantime and I detail all his vehicles and do mechanical work and paint work on them as well so I'm his go to guy who he can trust. I just hate that I am losing out here on so much time and money but I dont want to give it back to him like this. He will think it looks awesome and it does look heaps better but it is not to my satisfactory. When the sun is directly on it, you can see the halo scratches all over. A lot have been cut down but it still has the hazy halo scratches all over. I've gone over it with the compound and wool/foam blend pad 5 times now along with the polishing steps and just NO luck at all. To answer your questions, I am using a DeWalt buffer and compouding at 1400 and doing the polishing at 1000-1200 as always. He bought the car from the dealer I believe and it had a clear car fax history report (which IMO doesn't mean jack) but I see that the hood and rear deck lid has been painted and looks to me that the drivers front fender looks to be painted and maybe even the bumpers. The deck lid looks like someone wetsanded it and buffed it for 1 minute and just left it. The rest of the car is hazy with halo and swirl marks. When it was painted I dont have a clue but he said that it should have never been painted because it was supposed to be new and in no accidents or no problems with the original paint. The clear on it is very hard and doesn't cut well at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Harris Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 Shawn, Clean the wool pad out good. Then you want to polish the affected areas with the polish and the wool pad. The wool pad and the hyper are too aggressive for this paint. The polish will remove the swirls from the compound then do your foam steps. This combination should fix your problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Orosco Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 Yes, Hyper and wool are too aggressive so do as Ron noted, clean the wool pad and go over the steps with the Optimum Polish. If you have a finishing polish, like FPII or Ultrafina use that with a mild polishing pad and the rotary and then again with an orbital and a finishing pad......maybe even the same polishing pad. Anthony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn F. Posted July 6, 2009 Author Share Posted July 6, 2009 Hmm... I will give it a try tomarrow. I spent a while longer on it with a foam pad and polish but it did NOTHING so I will try the wool and polish. I did use regular compound after the hyper. I have used the hyper quite a bit of times first and then polish in the same steps I mentioned earlier with no problems at all.... Kind of odd but I guess it's the type of paint? Seems that it only did it to the panels that were repainted on the car. How about regular compound, do you think it would have done the same thing? I really appreciate the help! I went over it with the polish a lot and took it under flourencent lights and it looks HORRIBLE on the hood, trunk and a few other sections. Will Poli-Seal work for my polish? I ran out of regular Optimum Polish so I hope Poli-Seal works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn F. Posted July 6, 2009 Author Share Posted July 6, 2009 BTW, the only reason I started with Hyper is because it had a little overspray left that the clay bar didn't get, hard water spots and LOTS of swirls and scratches from whoever detailed it last and just covered it in halo marks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn F. Posted July 6, 2009 Author Share Posted July 6, 2009 Well Ron, I tried what you said with the wool/foam blend pad and Optimum Poli-Seal. It did not work, there are still a ton of swirls. It seemed that with Poli-Seal it did not even touch it. I am out of Optimum Polish, I used the rest of it today on this darn car and I have no more 3M polish either. I doubt I will find anything close by tomarrow mourning to pick up and give a try. I think that even if I have Ultrafina it still wont touch it since the poli-seal did nothing with the wool pad and then to my LC white pad and then to the grey finish pad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bence Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 Shawn, after seeing your first posts, I thought "this paint can be either far too soft or way too hard". Reading your following posts, only one possibility left: the paint is too hard and/or combined with a scratch resistant clear. Some repaints can be tricky. I've done a repainted Yaris with a similar, stupid hard paint and I had to use speeds up to 2300 RPMs with the wool pads and different, very aggressive compounds. Check the paint with the Hyper but kick up the RPMs a bit, to, say 1800. Be careful with the heat you introduce to the panel and check the temps often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 Since its a repaint, could it be that ou are trying to eliminate something that is under the clear? We have seen this a few times. Also you should never run out of optimum products, Always have at least a quart on hand, if that last one gets opened, order a new one, its the life blood of your work, better to have a small inventory than to run out when you need it most! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn F. Posted July 6, 2009 Author Share Posted July 6, 2009 It isn't under the clear because it seems now that it's ME putting the swirls in and not getting them out. The car was already covered in scratches and swirl marks and also wet sanded areas that the shop never buffed out correctly. On a cloudy day the car looks 10 times better. On a sunny day it looks like crap to me. As far as the product goes, I thought I had an entire 32 ounce left and was getting ready after this join to order more polish, compound, pads, degreaser, etc. I dont know if I just thought wrong or if I do and I just cant find it...??? I am going to NAPA today to pick up some Ultrafina. I'm sure its way over priced there but I need it and it's the only place close by. I like having Ultrafina on hand anyways because it seems to work better on some paints than Optimum for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn F. Posted July 6, 2009 Author Share Posted July 6, 2009 Well I picked up some Ultrafine (it's not Ultrafina anymore, they changed the name which I didn't know) and I used it with the wool pad, then went over it with the white Lake Country pad and Ultrafina at 1400 rpms and then the grey finish pad and Poli-Seal. It seems to help a little but will not get them all out. It took some of the finer ones out but still not correct. Directly in the sun it looks bad, on cloudy or even sunny day with the sun not directly on it, it looks great but I will not put my name on it like this I have got to correct it. I just dont understand what the problem is, I just cant. I have done so many black and dark colored cars that came out so nice and came in so bad, I just cant see why this one is any different? I keep my pads put away in a bag, I wipe the panels down before buffing any sections with clean microfiber cloths, etc. It could well be that as I am try to take the swirls out, the clear is so soft that it's just creating more but smaller? It doesn't look like that is the case since I have dealt with that kind of problem before but then again I haven't dealt with every problem there can be out there and it could be something new to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn F. Posted July 6, 2009 Author Share Posted July 6, 2009 Update: I have spent about 2.5 hours or so on the hood and front fenders and it seems that I may have gotten most of the swirls out if not all. There are some deep scratches of course but I will not buff it anymore since the clear job on the hood, fenders and deck lid is thin and a bit of dry spray near the edges from not enough coverage. He came by and saw the car yesterday with the swirls and still thought it looked great and a lot better (and it did) but I just will not put my name on it if it isn't perfect. I tend to go a little overboard or too much sometimes but I can't help it. Anyways I will finish the rest of the car like this and post some before and after photos of it. The rest should go a bit quicker since the doors are original paint and did not swirl much at all, same with the quarters. The trunk will take a while as well as the bumpers. Thanks a lot for all your guys' help! I owe you guys lunch and a beer one day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bence Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 Good to hear Shawn! What was the final process? IPA wipedown? I sometimes encounter weird scratches which are very very thin but also extremely deep. Seeing newly installed scratches and swirls is not a pleasant story. But the fact that they were removed using a finishing polish and a more aggressive pad shows that the paint wasn't that hard, just tricky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.