Removing swirls/scratches vs pads

[genes]

I spent the day today using my pc. I went over my van with #80. I used the green Propel pad on speed #4. I would move left to right/diagonal/ left to right.The color is a very light tan.



I have found that all answers to questions are contained in these forums so I have spent countless hours reading and rereading.

I understand that a person has to use the pc to understand it but if someone doesn`t know the difference between what they are doing is right how does one understand progress? Some frustration is evident because of self-induced swirls or minor scratches from today.



After going over the hood is looked at the areas I had already gone over and there were small minute swirls. Not to mention not one scratch was removed.

Here is where confusion comes in. When I go to the link for "Mosca" I am told to use an abundant of polish and wipe off an excessive amount. Other people state to use four nickel sized drops and work the glaze until it just hazes.



Does it matter when someone uses new pads?

Do you have to load up the outer circumference of a pad before using?

I saw the #80 take out very minor scuff marks but when I went over a swirl it didn`t touch it.

I can also see now that this product does not even touch scratch marks.

Now I want to start over and redo until removal is gone. I read where you use a 50/50 combination of water and isopropal alcohol, or Dawn, to strip all the products off to start over?



If you do use a cutting pad/more aggresive material you would

redo the entire hood or just the scratches and swirl areas?



The cutting teeth process hurts folks I tell ya, But I sure do like the shiny/ clean ride...thanks for any help.

[Mad iX]

Don`t use an excessive amount of #80. Spray some QD on the pad and just enough #80 to cover the area you`re working on, which should be ~2 sq. ft. Make sure you work in the #80 to break down the abrasives. You should see the swirls reduced. If they are diminished but still there, go over it again. If they haven`t diminished at all, go with #83 which is a bit stronger. If you`re seeing more swirls, then you aren`t working the product enough and breaking it down.

If you`ve got a few scratches here and there, try scratchX by hand, again working it in very well.

[White95Max]

If you don`t have much experience, it may just be that you don`t realize how deep the swirls actually are. If they are deep swirls, #80/green definitely isn`t the best way to approach the problem. Get some #83 an a Propel orange, or SSR2.5/orange, and go at it with that.

There might be some slight hazing left over from that process, and you would have to go over it again with #80/green in that case.

If the #83 or SSR2.5 with an orange pad won`t fix the problem, try a yellow (cutting) pad.

[genes]

I don`t know if I`m understanding the concept of pc usage clearly. After stepping back and thinking about the products I believe I have been looking at the glaze as the cutter and not the pad.



Does this sound reasonable?

[White95Max]

The polish does most of the work, but a more aggressive pad will aid in the cutting power.

[Accumulator]

genes- Some paint is pretty hard. On our Audis, #80 will only remove very fine marring and it takes a long time to do even that.



Be sure to work the #80 until it turns clear (or sometimes pink).



Generally the product does the cutting and the pad just determines how aggressively it works. Some pads ("cutting" pads, fittingly enough) do impart a little "cut" and when you use those you`ll have to follow up with a milder product/pad combo.



It`s not just you, BTW. Sometimes correcting paint via PC is a very difficult task and can take longer than you would ever imagine.

[togwt]

I would add this on the subject of a foam pads `cutting` ability-



Machine Polish / Foam Pad Combinations:

Always start with the least abrasive combination, i.e. a machine polish #2 and the least aggressive (polishing) foam pad. If that combination doesn`t remove the imperfections, using the same machine polish #2 and change to more aggressive (cutting) foam pad. If the surface imperfections remain, then step-up the abrasive to a polish #3 and use the least aggressive (polishing) pad.



Proceed as necessary by using the same level polish and going down to a less aggressive foam pad. It is preferable to polish 2-3 times to restore the paint film surface than to use an unnecessarily abrasive machine polish / foam pad combination.



The abrading ability of these combinations can be changed by their application method (i.e. machine or hand application, speed and/or pressure used, using wet or dry and/or type of foam (different foam compositions have a differing abrading ability) The work is approximately distributed, 60% product, 30% foam composition and 10% pressure applied and/or speed of rotation or oscillation.

JonM

[genes]

Thanks fellas. I like the combinations and understanding of the polishing/cutting concept better. It makes sense to step up/then down to perform these steps. I guess you fellas are just better thinkers about this stuff than me.

[togwt]

Originally posted by genes

Thanks fellas. I like the combinations and understanding of the polishing/cutting concept better. It makes sense to step up/then down to perform these steps. I guess you fellas are just better thinkers about this stuff than me.

Just speaking for me I don`t think its a question of `better thinking` but more a question of more experience solving these problems (as a guess there is probaly 100+ years experience collectivly in this thread) [ 99 for Accumulator,1 for togwt )



Knowledge unshared is experience wasted :xyxthumbs

JonM