06 GMC Black - wouldn't finish down.

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heckhole

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I did a 9 hour compound/polish on a very nice, low mileage 06 GMC last night. It recently received a fresh paint job from a very good shop in town. I figured the clear would be very soft & offered 2 pricing options, by the hour or a 7hr price.

Anyway, only in a few spots did I have to use a cutting pad & compound, the rest I was able to use a white pad with my PC XP & a light polish/finishing polish. However, during the finishing stage I noticed something odd. I could not get the paint to finish without marring/haze using a blue finishing pad & finish polish. The only way I could get the paint to finish down & to darken was a white pad with M105! Left to right passes ONLY, any vertical passes would immediately show graying streaks.

I tried every single finishing pad I have along with CG finish polish, Optimum Polish II, M205, tried speed 5 stepping to 4, etc etc. Nothing worked, except a white pad & M105 and working left to right section passes. Has anyone else run into this?
 
Yes especially on gel coat finishes,maybe the paint isn't hard enough yet how long ago was truck painted.I would slow speed down a little with 105 ipa a section and see what's going on,there are so many variables and apply very little pressure,I hate 105 maybe try car pro reflect with a super finishing pad.
 
Or maybe you're dry buffing let us know the outcome.
 
No dry buff.

Paint was about 2 weeks old, I've had amazing success with fresh paint. It's my preference to get a hold of vehicles fresh out of the booth.

I managed to get a respectable finish with the M105 and white pad, customer accepted it and was pleased. Just a wild paint situation, I've run into finishing issues before - but nothing where I had to finish down with a compound vs a finish polish.
 
"Any vertical passes would immediately show grading streaks."


This sounds like an issue with either technique or lighting.

Maybe the hazing can only be seen on the vertical passes, because of the angle of the lighting. Did you move your lights around to inspect at various angles?

Any chance the pad is not being kept flat on the paint during vertical passes?

Did you experience the same issue on vertical & horizontal panels?


Some paint just does not like soft finishing pads
 
Tons of lighting, I have my flourescent shops lights and I had 2,000 watts of halogens behind me. From every angle I could see the lines.

It looked like very tight compounding haze lines.

It looked like I was playing floor chess with my lights, I moved them all over, looked at the vehicle from every angle, adjusted the light heights, even took my glasses off and put on my contacts thinking maybe that was the cause lol. Even called a friend to come down and inspect it, thinking my eyes were playing tricks on me.

I lost 2 hours trying to solve the finishing issue when I discovered it on the driver side bed.

It was so incredibly obvious with vertical passes that if it was still there - there is no way horizontal passes would hide it. They are NOT there with horizontal passes w/m105. I was like spiderman climbing on buckets, stools, ladders etc trying to find a way to spot these marks with the horizontal passes.

I am sure the pads were being kept flat, it was my first thought that maybe I was tipping forward or dragging it. Anytime I used light pressure/machine pressure, the marring & graying increased tenfold.

Even the horizontal passes with a finish polish were a mess, marring was awful, could see the overlapping passes, could see where the section passes started and ended. Switch to M105, horizontal passes and IPA wipe...and it was a perfect finish.
 
I've had issues multiple times with blue ultra fine pads leaving marring where a normal black Lake Country foam finishing pad wouldn't. Maybe dry a regular finishing pad next time.

I would also suggest a Rupes polisher, I've always found that the Rupes leaves a finer finish in addition to cutting faster when compared to a PC.
 
Weird stuff happens like that,be glad it's gone.
 
Trust me, I'm glad it's gone!

It really threw me off, after I solved that problem, I wasted a lot of time quadruple checking my work and went beyond what the customer paid for. I hate when something shakes me up and I end up being meticulous beyond what was billed. It's hard to move along some times.
 
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