Ceriglass + CarPro Rayon Pads = spiro scratches?

[goums]

Hello All,
Long time lurker and just recently joined the forums after my brand new Grand Cherokee had a glass mishap with a gas station window scrubber which left two very visible horizontal scratches right in the drivers line of sight.

I saw the excellent reviews of Ceriglass and figured it was worth a shot, I am by no means a complete novice when it comes to DA's and buffing and with everyone raving about the CarPro rayon pads I thought it would be a no brainer. Ordered up the Ceriglass repair kit from AG that comes with the 3" pads, backing plate and drill attachment and went to work.

Seeing most of the reviews stated that a rotary works much better and there was an included drill attachment I figured what the hey and plugged it into my trusty Dewalt 20v, prepped the windshield (cleaner, claybar, cleaner) and settled in with the drill and my trusty spray bottle of distilled water, making sure to keep the surface wet and pressure constant as I went. (Yes I know that a drill is not a great substitute for a real rotary, but it maxes out at 2,000rpm and figured it would be close enough for what I was doing)

Everything was going well, the scratches were going away a lot faster than I expected they would and I was doing a final wipe down when I noticed that along the periphery of my work area that the pad had been leaving "spirograph" lines, like those in the attached illustration (sorry, light was fading when I gave up)

Now, as far as I can tell I wasn't doing anything that would have been outside of normal on the edges of my work area and the pads went straight from the plastic bag they came in to the backing plate on the drill, so I gave it up to being a fluke and figured I'd open the second pad to try and get rid of the scratches the first one left.... same deal. =/ Now I'm stumped!

My original horizontal scratches are long gone but I'm left with all these marks! I've read that a lot of people as of late have had better luck with DA's and the CarPro pads, but I'm a little leery in trying them again with what's already been done.

Any suggestions from you fine folks would be most appreciated!

 

[swanicyouth]

I guess you haven't read my glass polishing threads. I say use a DA. I feel you run the same risks polishing glass with a rotary and an aggressive polish, like Cer-Glass - as you would polishing paint with an aggressive compound with a rotary. The rotary can inflict it's own polishing marks - likely by the same mechanism it can do this when correcting paint and creating holograms.

At this point what do you do? Use a DA or a second polishing step. If you start with a DA - this probably can be avoided. Yes, it may take a few more minutes with a DA - but nothing crazy. People who talk about polishing glass for hours via a DA aren't doing something right or using the right products. Defects can be removed pretty quickly and it should finish perfect if the technique is correct.

Defects like these can be removed in a single polishing section pass section via DA:

It should finish like this:

The other thing is you must keep the polish wet. If in doubt, use more water than less. Polishing with almost straight water and CarPro glass polishing pads using a DA will not leave marring on glass IME. Polishing with dried out Ceri-Glass will.

The DA I would recommend is the GG6. It has the muscle to remove glass defects. Run it wide open.

What you are experiencing are called pigtails. They are usually caused from a dirty pad when polishing paint - but since you tried another new pad you can rule that out.

 

[goums]

Thanks for the reply, and yeah those edges must have been drier than I had realized. I did constantly spray with water on where I was working though. I also have a PC 7424 and a LC orange pad laying around, not sure the orange would have enough cut to fix things.... might have to put in a quick order for a yellow pad.

 

[swanicyouth]

Use the CarPro pad via a DA. Foam won't correct pigtails in glass.

 

[goums]

Afraid you were going to say that I'll order up a 5 inch pad and post up pictures when I can of the pigtail removal (fingers-crossed)

 

[allenk4]

IMO the 5" is the only pad anyone should use anyway.

The area that the "3 can reach in a corner is not much more than the 5" will reach.

Polishing glass is time consuming and the 3" pad only makes it more so.

I had some pigtails with fresh pads as well.
I believe it is possible; on a window that has small chips, to dislodge a small chip of glass and trap it between the pad and the glass, inflicting the pig tails. Just my theory