Ok,

I tried to polish the ride this morning and somthing has gone wrong! I used a white pad with po106ff. Speed 5. The job looked good when I was finished in the garage but when I pulled outside there was very faint swirl marks. As a note I may have moved a tad faster than 1" per second on the polish application. Where did I go wrong and how do I fix it?

Any questions welcome.

 

You tube is your friend as well as google. There are several videos out there that show you exactly how to do it. Just search 7424 or Porter Cable 7424.

First off did you wash and then clay the car first, it's important to remove contaminates from the surface before you polish, otherwise you've created a sander.. not a polisher.

 

hmm, I did wash the car with dawn but I did not claybar the car. It felt very smooth with no "grit" feeling. I followed the instructions that detail image has on their website, I just move a little bit faster than 1" per second.

 

You went to all the trouble polishing and using a porter cable no less, but didn't know better than to not use dish detergent?

 

I was under the impression that dawn removes the wax so you can polish? this is what read at least.

What I'm not clear on is how much polish to use. I basically run a ring around a new pad and then a little bit in the middle.

Understand that these swirl marks a BARLEY visible.

 

spray the car with isopropyl alcohol vs dawn. Dawn dries out trim, and can stain clear. (Using Dawn was a propaganda, Sal Zaino proposed many years ago. Where it does remove wax, it also is a heavy alkaline solution, and hence not good for trim and clear. He also propogated using cotton towels, and applicators too. I.e. swirl mongers. Although keep in mind, this was before a lot of the advancements in microfiber technology, although he still preaches on.)

You may need to go back over the car with a finishing polish and a black pad to remove those very fine swirls. As the white pad is a light polishing pad, the black and blue pads are for finishing and finessing. Only sometimes a white pad can finish up the job, it depends on the clear coat, and the condition the paint was in prior.

Edit, if this is something you do not want to do, then look into buying a Filler glaze, to hide some of those minor swirls. George (detailedimage.com) sells a good one from Chemical Guys, called EZ Creme Glaze as well as Wet Mirror Finish (for your case, I'd stick with EZ Creme). Remember though, you will need to top it with a wax for protection, as glazes do not add any form of protection they just add an oily/wet gloss, and filling capacilities.

 

I was under the impression that this po106ff was suppose to leave a mirror finish.

Would going with the black pad vs. the white pad be a better move to remove the light swirls?

 

po106ff does leave a mirror finish, but again, it would be in your best interest to go back over it with a black finishing pad for that. The Clear coat on the G37 is fical, and needs to be finished down real fine. When I took delivery of mine, I did my own prep, and that included Orange pad and SIP in some spots, but mainly po106ff and a white pad, then I finished the whole car down in po106ff and a black pad to get the look I wanted.

If you're using the black pad, then you're probably doing a multi stage polishing. A lot of details go in the order of orange pad, then white, then black (yes 3 stages), some even more.

Another recommendation is to get the Lake Country Green pad (from autogeek, some vendors carry a version that is in between an orange pad and a white pad) it is in between a white pad and a black pad. I've found that it works best for light blemishes but still corrects some. Also great for AIO's

Also are you priming the pad by misting water on it every panel or so? Sometimes a non primed pad can "dry jack" a car's surface, which results in tiny hairline swirls.

 

Keep in mind that 0106ff has light to medium cutting ability. Depending how bad your scratches and swirls were to begin with, it's possible that the 0106ff didn't have enough cutting ability to remove all of your paint imperfections. You can try another pass with 0106ff using an orange pad or you can use a polish with a little more cutting ability....like SIP.

 

was just about to suggest this as the other direction he could go. I think you're reading my mind today lol

 

^ Great minds think alike.

 

No I am not dry misting! I didn't read that anywhere. Do you mist then apply polish? Also exactly how much polish - can you describe how you apply and how much?

The swirls were not their before the polishing, so I made them. I do have SIP and the orange pad, but it was the white padd and PO106ff made the swirls it should take them out - would that make sense? I think I want to try the black pad with the po106ff first, but Im not sure if that will do the job.

BTW, I didn't do the whole car, just the hood and front bumper, so Im not out that much time. Also I just finished rewashing these pieces with Dawn and claying these pieces a miniute ago in prep for the repolishing. Should I Isoprop alchohol just to be sure before I repolish?

 

I'm not sure I understand. If you didn't have swirls beforehand, what was your reason for using the 0106ff? Also, the 0106ff will not cause swirls. Lastly, the black pad is merely a finishing pad so I am not sure why you would want to use that with 0106ff, this just adds to my confusion.

 

I did have some minor scratches from washing. I was hoping with the white pad and po106ff I could remove them, but in doing so I made the even lighter swirl marks. I have not used the black pad yet for furhter polishing so I was hoping that by using the black pad it would remove the very faint swirl marks. I hope I'm making better sense.

After reading your posts I'm thinking it could be posible the pad made the swirls - I may not have had enough polish or the "misting of water" procedure.

 

Don't waste your time using the 0106ff with a black finishing pad. It's not meant for polishing and all you will be doing is wasting your time and your product. Btw, how much downward pressure were you applying when using the PC?