How would I know if I should use compound or swirl remover?

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Dan_335i

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Before I got into detailing we always just washed cars improperly. And use all the wrong products.

I want to remove the swirls from my mom's white honda crv. How would I know to use compound or swirl remover? How would I tell if I have really bad paint or moderate? Can someone find me examples on google images? If the paint is bad or moderate I should still use the orange Ccs with compound or swirl remover with porter cable 7424xp? The honda has never been detailed not sure if it has upon delivery at dealership. Will I have a lot of clear coat to deal with?


Thanks
 
If you've never done any kind of compounding on it then you should have the factory amount I clear to work with. Different manufacturers will have different thicknesses but still a decent amount. ALWAYS start with you least aggressive option and work up till you get the results you want. I have the PC as well and I have done a little compounding on different vehicles. A good compound that will yield awesome results with a lot less finishing work is Megs UC. That stuff is just ridiculously amazing.
 
personal opinion, I wouldn't use a compound on this vehicle. I'm guessing this is your moms daily driver. I'm also guessing she would notice the difference between a good wash and wax and a complete paint correction. Additionally, because her CRV is white, it's not going to show much o begin with. Finally, unless you plan to wash her car every time to make sure it always gets washed correctly and she is never going to use a local automatic wash, you are wasting your time with a paint correction. All of this adds up to a formula that will make the car look nice, protect the paint, and leave as much clear as possible. To me that spells out and AIO product. I personally like Blackfire total polish and seal with a white pad, but any of the good brands will have a similar product and you can pick what you like.
 
^^^ what he said! Try a test spot first to dial in your product and technique. Tape off a 16x16" area on the Hood, and start with a white polishing pad and polish. Do 6-8 section passes using good technique, (arm speed 1-2" per second, working horizontal and vertical). Then inspect your work and decide if you need to be a bit more aggressive with a compound and different pad.

It can take a little bit to dial in the process, but don't skimp on it, it'll pay off in the end. Good luck to ya!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using AG Online
 
JAF06SE said:
If you've never done any kind of compounding on it then you should have the factory amount I clear to work with. Different manufacturers will have different thicknesses but still a decent amount. ALWAYS start with you least aggressive option and work up till you get the results you want. I have the PC as well and I have done a little compounding on different vehicles. A good compound that will yield awesome results with a lot less finishing work is Megs UC. That stuff is just ridiculously amazing.
Click to expand...

:iagree:

You'll only get the answer you're looking for by doing a few test sections on the actual vehicle. Tape off a few sections, polish one section out with a polishing pad and some light swirl remover, clean that section with some alcohol or painter's prep cleaner (prep-all, prep-sol etc.) to remove any polishing oils or fillers that might be masking your true polishing results, light up the test area with a bright (halogen) light to illuminate any remaining swirl marks.

If there are no remaining swirl marks, you've just found the process you should take for the rest of the vehicle.

If there are still swirls and other defects, what you've used for your testing wasn't aggressive enough and it's time to step up to a compound such as Ultimate Compound or an equivalent compound of your choice. Try the compound on a fresh clean polishing pad in a new testing area, (<<makes for a controlled test) clean your new test area after compounding to remove polishing oils etc. and see where that got you in terms of defect removal.

If you still have swirl marks after doing that test section, you'll have a few choices....work the area with more section passes using the same pad and product, or step up to a more aggressive pad and the same product and test that to see what results that gets you.

Always use a new test section and a fresh clean pad when trying a new process, keep track of your machine speed, speed of arm movement across your test section, pad used, product used, downward pressure used and the number of section passes you did in each section. (write it all down on paper if you have to to keep track of it all.)

Once you see the results you desire in one of your test sections, use that combination to do the rest of the car.
 
Good advice was given above.
To add to what has been written, not only will different polish-compound products have a variability in thier correction abilities, but so will the pads being teamed with any such products.

And again, the least aggressive pad, and or polish-compound used together that gets the job done. You'll always feel better in the end, that you did less. So, to address then which pad should, or could be used, a gentler pad than the Orange CCS "might" be the ticket? I'll further explain below.

That one might be better in some ways of getting only a 75%-80% correction of the paint, rather than going too aggressive.

As Mike Phillips, and others always recommend, "the test spot". That once one finds a suitable combination of product and pad that seems to be getting the job properly done, then that same process and combination will be then used on the rest of the vehicle with equal success, and similar results.

Of course any given vehicle may not necessarily have an exact-equal amount of damage on all panels. Some might be better, and some slightly worse. And too, that a mild polish, or swirl remover might deal admirably with light swirling, but not fully address some deeper random scratches here and there on the vehicle.

If you haven't yet, I do highly recommend studying many of Mike Phillips how to videos. Not only can you find such here, but there should also be countless vids of Mike, and other detailers posted on youtube.

Youtube can be a great place to find how to's on just about anything.
I can cite even other examples, of how some youtube videos helped me immensely, to diagnose, and replace a bad heating element on my electric clothes dryer, and others, like doing certain diagnosing, maintainence, and repair on my vehicles. There's a whole wealth of knowledge to be shared with these vids out there.
Hope this helps!
Mark
 
bsmith0404 said:
personal opinion, I wouldn't use a compound on this vehicle. I'm guessing this is your moms daily driver. I'm also guessing she would notice the difference between a good wash and wax and a complete paint correction. Additionally, because her CRV is white, it's not going to show much o begin with. Finally, unless you plan to wash her car every time to make sure it always gets washed correctly and she is never going to use a local automatic wash, you are wasting your time with a paint correction. All of this adds up to a formula that will make the car look nice, protect the paint, and leave as much clear as possible. To me that spells out and AIO product. I personally like Blackfire total polish and seal with a white pad, but any of the good brands will have a similar product and you can pick what you like.
Click to expand...

ken tuep said:
^^^ what he said! Try a test spot first to dial in your product and technique. Tape off a 16x16" area on the Hood, and start with a white polishing pad and polish. Do 6-8 section passes using good technique, (arm speed 1-2" per second, working horizontal and vertical). Then inspect your work and decide if you need to be a bit more aggressive with a compound and different pad.

It can take a little bit to dial in the process, but don't skimp on it, it'll pay off in the end. Good luck to ya!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using AG Online
Click to expand...

I also agree with everything written in both of these replies.:goodpost:
 
I'm not really sure...Is the Honda CR-V single stage white or clear coated white?

The answer to this could create an "opposite end of the spectrum" set of requirements. Could be fairly soft clear coat that needs to be leveled....or....could be titanium dioxide white single stage paint..:surrender:
 
If your not sure what is what try this.

Wash
Clay
Use a fine polish and see what it does for you.

Guys gave you some good advise, might want to think about what they told you.:)

Btw. Pictures sure would be a big help for us to see what your seeing.
 
Great replies so far Dan.

I might add, Google is your friend. ** Swirled, scratched, paint ** just like that.

Then click "images" and you'll see TONS of them!!!!!!!! Plus about 8 rows down the worst holograms I've ever seen on that blue hood, Lustre Detail I think.
 
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