How do I know if I need a compound?

07 z-oh-6 said:
For final polishing, KB mentions "ample speed and pressure". When he talks about speed, is he referring to the speed the polisher is set on, or the speed of moving the polisher across the surface?
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My guess is that the speed he's talking about refers to the Speed Setting of the tool

If you're trying to remove defects, even very shallow defects you're talking about removing a little paint and you need the pad rotating for this and in most cases 4.5 is about as low speed setting you can go to and still get some rotation and then it's even kind of wimpy.

So for most polishing you're going to be on the 5.0 to 6.0 Speed setting.

Arm speed needs to be very slow for major defect removal with aggressive products and aggressive pads, when moving to the polishing step you can bring your arm speed up a tick or two but you'll still want firm pressure to start with and then for you last few passes decrease your downward pressure.


07 z-oh-6 said:
Also, he states, "which is an amount that allows the pad to minimally rotate" With a Flex 3401 being forced rotation, that's not possible.

Is this method only applicable with the non forced rotation DA's?
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Well the method is only applicable with the non-forced rotation DA's because your pressure with a Flex 3401 isn't going to minimally rotate the pad.

The rotating speed or ability of DA Polishers that use a free rotating spindle assembly are easily affected by downward pressure and or holding the pad at an angle or with more pressure to just one side of the face of the pad.

Next time you're using a DA Polisher, purposefully apply more pressure to just one side of the pad and see how it affect rotating ability.

:)
 
Here's a fairly detailed guide to using the Porter Cable 7424XP or any of the popular DA Polishers on the market.



Tips & Techniques for using a Spray Detailer to Remove Light Dust, Fingerprints and Smudges



The most important thing you can do if you're just starting out is to do a Test Spot, that is test out your pad, product and process to one small area first and make sure you can make one small area look GREAT before going over the entire car.

If you run into any problems then just post back here what you're seeing and our forum member will all be glad to chime in with their suggestions and tips.

:)
 
The above article is actually a reversed version of another article I posted in 2007, this was about a year after coming out with the "How to get show car results using a PC" DVD


Here's the original article I wrote and posted to MOL

After teaching hundreds of classes here at Meguiar's, there are some common mistakes most people make when trying to remove swirls and scratches with a dual action polisher. Most of them have to do with technique.




Here's a list of the most common problems
  1. Trying to work too large of an area at one time.
  2. Move the polisher too fast over the surface.
  3. Too low of speed setting for removing swirls.
  4. Too little pressure on the head of the unit.
  5. Too much pressure on the head of the unit so the pad quits rotating.
  6. Not keeping the pad flat while working your product.
  7. Too much product, too little product.
  8. Not cleaning the pad often enough.
Here's a list of the solutions in matching order,
  1. Shrink your work area down, the harder the paint the smaller the area you can work. The average area should be and average of about 16" by 16" up to 20" by 20" or so. You have to do some experimenting, (called a Test Spot), to find out how easy or how hard the defects are coming out of your car's paint system and then adjust your work area to the results of your Test Spot.
  2. For removing defects out of the paint you want to use what we call a Slow Arm Speed. It's really easy to move the polisher too quickly because the sound of the motor spinning fast has a psychological effect to for some reason want to make people move the polisher fast. Also the way most people think is that, "If I move the polisher quickly, I'll get done faster", but it doesn't work that way.
  3. When first starting out many people are scared of burning or swirling their paint, so they take the safe route of running the polisher at too low of a speed setting, again... this won't work. The action of the polisher is already g-e-n-t-l-e, you need the speed and specifically the pad rotating over the paint as well as the combination of time, (slow arm speed), together with the diminishing abrasives, the foam type, and the pressure to remove small particles of paint which is how your remove below surface defects like swirls or scratches. It's a leveling process that's somewhat difficult because the tool is safe/gentle while in most cases, modern clear coat paints are harder than traditional single stage paints and this makes them hard to work on. This is also why people get frustrated, they don't understand paint technology, all they know is their paint swirls easy and getting the swirls out is difficult and thus frustrating.
  4. For the same reason as stated in #3, people are scared, or perhaps a better word is apprehensive, to apply too much pressure and the result of too little pressure is no paint is removed thus no swirls are removed.
  5. Just the opposite of item #4, people think that by pushing harder on the polisher they can work faster and be more aggressive, but the truth is the clutch in the tool is a safety mechanism to prevent burning and will cause the pad to stop rotating, thus less cleaning or abrading action and once in a while this will lead a person to then post on the forum something like this, "Hey my pad doesn't rotate". There needs to be a balance of enough pressure to remove defects and keep the pad rotating but yet not too much pressure as to stop the rotating action. This balance is affected by a lot of things, things like type of chemical, some chemicals provide more lubrication and the pad will spin easier, curved surfaces or any raise in body lines will tend to stop the pad from rotating. This is where experience on how to address these areas comes into play or you do the best you can and move on. It's not a perfect tool, nor a perfect system, but it's almost always better than working/cleaning by hand.
  6. Applying pressure in such a way as to put too much pressure to one side of the pad will cause it to stop rotating and thus decrease cleaning ability.
  7. Too much product over lubricates the surface and this won't allow the diminishing abrasives to do their job plus it will increase the potential for messy splatter as well as cause pad saturation. Too little product will keep the pad from rotating due to no lubrication and there won't be enough diminishing abrasives to do any work. Again it's a balance that comes with experience, or another way of saying this would be it's a balance that comes with hours of buffing out a car to learn what to do and what not to do. Information like what you're reading here is just an edge to decrease your learning curve. Hope this is helping.
  8. Most people don't clean their pad often enough and most of the time the reason for this is because they don't know they're supposed to clean their pad often and they don't know how to clean their pad. Again, that's why this forum is here to help you with both of these things. You should clean your pad after every application of product or every other application of product, your choice, most of the time cleaning your pad after every other application of product works pretty well. It enables you to work clean and enables the foam pad, the polisher and the next application of fresh product too all work effectively. How to clean your pad will be addressed below sooner versus later, but not at the time of this posting. (Sorry, I'm behind a keyboard, not a video camera

The first 4 are the most common. Can't tell you how many times we hear a comment like this from someone in the garage after demonstrating the correct technique
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When doing your test spot, it really helps a lot to actually place a strip of painter's tape onto the panel you're working on so you can EASILY see the before and after difference due to a strong demarcation line.


:)
 
For a Test Spot you can use a single strip of tape or do something like this,

2ProductTapeLineTest.jpg




The above would be if you wanted to try two different approaches, for example two different pads or the same pads but two different chemicals.

The section on the right is your "control", it's the section you keep original to compare to your two test spots.


Does anyone remember the thread where the forum member tackled their Avalanche? (I think), they were learning to use a DA Polisher and did a test spot on the door and I think they posted a picture of the door? The end conclusion was the project came out great.


It's important to test first and dial-in your process and this will give you the confidence to tackle the entire project.


:)
 
Mike.Phillips@Autogeek said:
For a Test Spot you can use a single strip of tape or do something like this,

2ProductTapeLineTest.jpg




The above would be if you wanted to try two different approaches, for example two different pads or the same pads but two different chemicals.

The section on the right is your "control", it's the section you keep original to compare to your two test spots.


Does anyone remember the thread where the forum member tackled their Avalanche? (I think), they were learning to use a DA Polisher and did a test spot on the door and I think they posted a picture of the door? The end conclusion was the project came out great.


It's important to test first and dial-in your process and this will give you the confidence to tackle the entire project.


:)
Click to expand...
Speaking of tape lines, I was doing a test spot on a black car with the 3401, and after the tape was removed, I wiped off the glue residue, then buffed over the strip where the tape was. The strip turned glossy and defects were removed, but I could still totally tell where the tape lines were. How the heck can I blend it in???
 
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