I cause swirls when polishing with DA, what am I doing wrong?

Haloruler64 said:
Thank you, I'll get in touch with him.

Maybe it's the pads? I have a great polisher and Meg's Ultimate Compound is good. I'm using Meg's foam polishing pads, not a cutting pad.

I understand it's hard stuff, but is this going to have an effect on my detailing of it? I don't let the water dry on my panels usually, I just got frustrated that day and washed the car off and parked it without drying. Which wasn't smart of me, I re-washed it today and fully dried and waxed it.

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For years Meguiars did all of their classes with just Ultimate Compound on their polishing pads, and were consistently able to achieve their intended results, so you "should" be ok.

While in some cases polish is enough to handle some paint defects, I look at my products as follows

1. Heavy Cut (Ultimate Compound) to remove damage.
2. Light Cut (Ultimate Polish) to clean up any marring that may have been left by the compounding process, and bringing gloss up to maximum potential.

Your product choice is excellent at this task.

I suspect you might be using way too much pressure to get the rotation necessary for efficient removal of paint.

I'm also curious as to how you are setting your pad up with product as you go through the process.
 
Dang, I really wish I could figure this out, so confused. I wanna know what I'm doing wrong! The last time I had compounded the roof, those long marks remained, they didn't come out. I wasn't pushing hard at all, and the pad was spinning quickly. I need a pro to take a look I think.

First I put a bunch of product onto the pad and rub it into every bit of pad, leaving no part dry. Then I put three small drops and spread them around the car. For the first time I use a pad, I also tend to give it a spray of quick detailer just to make sure lubrication isn't lacking.
 
pdqgp said:
Not at all familiar with their pads. My guess is the polishing pad is too soft. I'd use an orange pad or a white pad. White pads are softer and might take a bit longer is all. The impact of either is just in how much pressure they transmit to the product on top of the paint. The product is the most primary function when correcting. Pads some next.



hard water like that could introduce marring if you're wiping it with a towel. not as likely but then keep in mind that wipe residue is hardness. Like rocks in powdered sugar form.
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That's true about the hard water, but I never really had issues before. When I washed the car, I never managed to induce such marring.
 
Just a word of caution here. We had a member with a similar problem last year. He could not get the finish he wanted to he tried countless things to try to make it work. In the end, he burned through his clear coat. Compounding removes quite a bit of paint everytime you do it. I always recommend to my client to only do it once in the life of the car if they can. Unless you have a paint thickness gauge and you can mesure the paint's thickness, I would not compound endlessly if I were you. If your car has not been repainted and is still on original factory paint, most manufacturer use the bare minimum in terms of thickness. I have seen cars where the original paint was too thin to compound (80 microns range) so if you decide you want to keep trying things, make sure you are not doing it on the same spots every time.
 
Thanks for the tip, I suspected this and part of the reason why I gave up.
 
Haloruler64 said:
Dang, I really wish I could figure this out, so confused. I wanna know what I'm doing wrong! The last time I had compounded the roof, those long marks remained, they didn't come out. I wasn't pushing hard at all, and the pad was spinning quickly. I need a pro to take a look I think.

First I put a bunch of product onto the pad and rub it into every bit of pad, leaving no part dry. Then I put three small drops and spread them around the car. For the first time I use a pad, I also tend to give it a spray of quick detailer just to make sure lubrication isn't lacking.
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Ok, got the spin, but there are a couple things to consider.

1. Over priming the pad. When this happens the foam will hydroplane, and lose it's grip on the paint, reducing effectiveness. I start with four small drops of product, set the pad on the paint, and turn the machine on speed 1 or 2. Hold in place to allow the polish to spread around the pad. Then I spread the polish over the work surface and begin buffing.

2. Use of a quick detail spray to prime the pad. Often times these products contain some type of protective element, like a polymer, silicone, or wax. These additives will also reduce the power of your abrasives. On the bottle of UC, and UP it doesn't indicate that so much lubrication is needed.

I'd reduce the amount of product on the pad to an initial four drops of product, and reload with three from subsequent sections. I also wipe my pad off with a microfiber towel after each section. Adjust the size of your drops as needed. Switch to a new pad if the one you are using gets loaded with residue, and isn't responding to cleaning.

Leave the QD to it's intended purpose of removal of light dust and fingerprints.

When Meguiar's says to prime with a spray on product, they usually recommend M34 Final Inspection from the Mirror Glaze line, and it's when using a rotary buffer.
 
Huh, maybe that is it. Thank you for the advice. When I try this again, I'll keep that in mind. Maybe I'll do my other car soon, since that car has aftermarket paint and I don't daily it.
 
As for the sun problem, an ez up folding tent allows you to put it up & work in shade whenever you want. It doesn't take up a lot of space in the garage when it folded for storage. Fill a 5 gallon bucket with water & tie it to each leg to anchor it if you use it on paved surface.
 
Sometimes people mistaken RIDS for Swirls.Your defects might be deeper than you think.
 
Mike.Phillips@Autogeek said:
I appreciate your tenacity.

Where you located?


:)
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Near San Francisco, California. Funny enough, I start detailing and the sun comes out for the first time this year.

Whitewater25 said:
As for the sun problem, an ez up folding tent allows you to put it up & work in shade whenever you want. It doesn't take up a lot of space in the garage when it folded for storage. Fill a 5 gallon bucket with water & tie it to each leg to anchor it if you use it on paved surface.
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I wish I had space to put the ez up somewhere though. I live in a condo complex. My assigned parking spot is 107" wide. I COULD borrow two parallel spots from neighbors for a day or two, I think that would be no problem. They're ~$100 for a 10'x20' so that's not bad.

Zubair said:
Sometimes people mistaken RIDS for Swirls.Your defects might be deeper than you think.
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What are RIDS? But I do think you're right, they're deeper than what a polishing pad can take out.
 
OK, I think I've caught the whole post, and here are my thoughts:
1. No correction is being done, therefore you probably are not in danger of burning through the clear.
2. A 6" backing plate is too large for any real correction. I've been through this before. My world opened-up as soon as I ordered a 5" backing plate and some microfiber pads. ONLY then, did I start to actually remove defects.
3. If that doesn't work, but it will, order a heavier cut compound. Menzerna FG400 is my favorite; it finishes like a polish and has great cutting potential.
4: If your not making a dent with the polisher, your micro fiber rags shouldn't be either.
 
CG MF pads are crap. Meguiars SS are OK. If you want to know a good quality, Korean MF towel for polish removal, PM me. Crappy MF towels can DEFINITELY haze paint. Sometimes, people will perfectly polish paint, then to wipe off with a MF towel that causes marring and they think it's the polishing that the problem. However, some paint can be so soft, that there's no way around it. Pretty rare, though.
 
blkSRT said:
RIDS = random isolated deeper scratches
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Ah okay, maybe. This is probably true.

expdetailing said:
OK, I think I've caught the whole post, and here are my thoughts:
1. No correction is being done, therefore you probably are not in danger of burning through the clear.
2. A 6" backing plate is too large for any real correction. I've been through this before. My world opened-up as soon as I ordered a 5" backing plate and some microfiber pads. ONLY then, did I start to actually remove defects.
3. If that doesn't work, but it will, order a heavier cut compound. Menzerna FG400 is my favorite; it finishes like a polish and has great cutting potential.
4: If your not making a dent with the polisher, your micro fiber rags shouldn't be either.
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Will a 5" backing plate work on the 7424XP without changing the counterweight? I recall reading that the weight can be used for 5-6" pads.

Also yeah, my paint seems to be pretty hard. Polishing with water did absolutely diddly squat, so I assume it's not "soft" paint.

WRAPT C5Z06 said:
CG MF pads are crap. Meguiars SS are OK. If you want to know a good quality, Korean MF towel for polish removal, PM me. Crappy MF towels can DEFINITELY haze paint. Sometimes, people will perfectly polish paint, then to wipe off with a MF towel that causes marring and they think it's the polishing that the problem. However, some paint can be so soft, that there's no way around it. Pretty rare, though.
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Are CG MF towels really so bad? But to wipe off polish I use Megs SS towels now, not CG. Also I'm pretty sure my paint isn't soft, though as a n00b, I can't be sure.
 
I can kinda see what you mean with the Chem Guys towels. I used one for cleaning the windshield today. As soon as it gets wet, it gets REALLY grippy. Not pleasant. The Megs SS towels are far far better, and I'll buy some TRC towels to complement them. That's disappointing, but I'll repurpose them for menlial stuff like tar removal, as well as dog duty. He has a big absorbent beard so when he drinks water I have to dry his face off or he gets water absolutely everywhere.

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So it seems my next plan of attack is getting a canopy and a set of 5" pads, including a cutting pad to get those potentially deep scratches out with compound (since compound on a 6" polishing pad did absolutely nothing). I don't think anything else is really a problem. I'm not gonna do it soon, maybe in a few months. For now, as long as I keep it waxed, the car looks great. The clay bar really brought life into the paint, and the wax keeps the defects from being seen. I also realized how nice quick detailers are. 5 days after I waxed the car, it's a bit dusty. I took 5 minutes to carefully wipe down the car with Megs Quick Detailer (came with the clay) and it looks great again, almost like I just washed it. wiping down the car every 5-7 days between washes/waxes really isn't difficult.
 
Haloruler64 said:
I can kinda see what you mean with the Chem Guys towels. I used one for cleaning the windshield today. As soon as it gets wet, it gets REALLY grippy. Not pleasant. The Megs SS towels are far far better, and I'll buy some TRC towels to complement them. That's disappointing, but I'll repurpose them for menlial stuff like tar removal, as well as dog duty. He has a big absorbent beard so when he drinks water I have to dry his face off or he gets water absolutely everywhere.

DSC_9506.jpg


So it seems my next plan of attack is getting a canopy and a set of 5" pads, including a cutting pad to get those potentially deep scratches out with compound (since compound on a 6" polishing pad did absolutely nothing). I don't think anything else is really a problem. I'm not gonna do it soon, maybe in a few months. For now, as long as I keep it waxed, the car looks great. The clay bar really brought life into the paint, and the wax keeps the defects from being seen. I also realized how nice quick detailers are. 5 days after I waxed the car, it's a bit dusty. I took 5 minutes to carefully wipe down the car with Megs Quick Detailer (came with the clay) and it looks great again, almost like I just washed it. wiping down the car every 5-7 days between washes/waxes really isn't difficult.
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LOL...love your dog!!

Good plan of attack.
 
Be sure to get a 5" bp and some microfiber cutting pads. You'll be surprised how much a difference 1" will make. As far as the counter weight, I wouldn't worry too much about it, but that's just me. Last time I checked, AG didn't sell them, so I found one online. I only bought one because I planned on doing many cars.
In your down time, be sure to spend some time here researching how to load microfiber pads, how to clean them while polishing, and how many you should buy, working in the sun, etc, etc...
 
Haloruler64 said:
Will a 5" backing plate work on the 7424XP without changing the counterweight? I recall reading that the weight can be used for 5-6" pads.
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You do not need to buy the smaller counterweight. It's only relevant when using it as a sander not a polisher. A smaller plate and pad will spin better but I don't see that as your issue here. All of my corrections shown here have been with 6" pads on the 7424xp. Spins just fine with the right pads thus why I mentioned the Lake Country Thin Pads.
 
Thank you! I'm doing research almost every day. Even if I don't tackle this in the next month or two, I'm really enjoying doing research and watching videos.

And thank you pdqgp for the confirmation.
 
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