What speed should i set my porter cable 7424xp on when correcting the paint ?
Pad rotation is a must. Period.
I'm always amused when I read the posts of some guru that says it's enough for a pad to simply vibrate and jiggle.
So no matter what tool you're using, mark your backing plate so your eyes can EASILY see that the pad is rotating.
Mark your backing plate to make it easy to see if it's rotating or not...
Place a mark on your backing plate like this,
If you want to remove swirls and scratches the pad needs to rotate on the 5-6 speed setting when firm pressure is applied to the head of the polisher.
To make it easier for your eyes to detect if the pad is truly rotating or simply vibrating or jiggling, place a black mark using a Sharpie Permanent Marker onto the back of the backing plate.
If you have a black backing plate like the
Meguiar's W68DA Backing Plate or the
Edge DA Backing Plate, use a light fingernail polish or get a small bottle of white paint sold for painting car models.
In this picture we marked both the back of a cutting pad and the backing plate.
What speed should i use when polishing the paint ?
On the Porter Cable you're going to be on the 5 to 6 setting. You've read some banter in your thread about being on the 6 setting and if that's what it takes to maintain pad rotation then use it.
But Megs microfiber pads are THINNER than most foam buffing pads and this means they rotate better and the point being is Meguiar's doesn't want you to overheat the pads and cause them to fail, so try the 5.0 or 5.5 setting and in needed to maintain pad rotation then use the 6.0 setting.
I find when using speed 4 when applying 15 lb pressure the rotation may be to slow . On speed setting 5 I get much better rotation when applying 15lb pressure . Thanks for your help.
15 pounds of downward pressure is something I started teaching people back in around 2004.
Back in the early days of using Porter Cables to polish paint Meguiar's was the ONLY company out with a video telling people how to use these tools, it was called
Power Polishing
It stared my old manager Mike Pennington. In this video he's buffing on a Mustang hood and the Voice Over says to use the weight of the machine. That's a very safe route to take but it will also take you a million years to remove swirls and scratches out of a modern basecoat/clearcoat finish.
So I went against the grain and started telling people what it actually takes to remove swirls and scratches, here's a pictures from one of my early articles on MOL
And you can find all the pictures and the text of my original article on this topic here,
Downward Pressure....What is "Moderate"?
The original article is still on MOL.
Back to the point... the 15 pounds of downward pressure is a good rule of thumb when buffing with foam pads on dual action polishers like the PC/Meguiar's/Griot's polishers.
It does not apply when using the Meguiar's Microfiber DA Correction System.
I'd highly recommend watching both of these videos....
Here's the first one.....
Meguiar's DA Microfiber Correction System
Mike with Jason and Mike from Meguiars, introducing the new DA Microfiber Correction System.
[video=youtube_share;WhJYFLgIjhE"]YouTube - Autogeek.net - New Meguiars Microfiber...[/video]
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Here's the follow-up with the new products and pads...
New Video - Meguiar's DA Microfiber Correction System
New Meguiar's MF Training Video
[video=youtube_share;AawmvM5Jo24"]Video showing before and after[/video]
Hope the above helps....
