Micro marring

[Phalcon51]

After buying a set of Edge 2k pads and 3 grades of XMT Swirl Remover I decided to do a test spot yesterday on my single stage black 92 MB 300E with my new PC. After the first pass with an orange pad and the Fine Swirl Remover I noticed some micro marring; tiny little curved scratches which gave the finish a slightly hazy look. I went over it again with a blue pad and the Ultra Fine Swirl Remover and this appeared to get it out, but I'm curious, is this what I should expect or did I do something wrong. I'm thinking I may have buffed it a little too long, though I only did about 5 or 6 passes, maybe 3-4 minutes. I seemed that the polished had already flashed. This was in the late afternoon with the sun already below the horizon, so the surface was cool. I did forget to first spray some pad conditioner on the pad. Could this be part of the problem?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Grimm]

You did it exactly right! The orage pad is a more aggressive pad, so it will remove the heavier scratches and swirls, but may leave very light marring like you indicated, that will make the paint (especially on a dark car) look hazy. Then you just go over it again with a polishing pad like you did to remove that light marring. If the first combination doesn't do the trick on the heavier stuff, move up to a more aggressive polish with the orange pad. Then just finish off the same with the UF on the blue pad.

 

[P1et]

I've had that happen to me on my black truck. Orange pad will leave micromarring, but two passes of the white should do the trick.

 

[Phalcon51]

Would I be better off using either the XMT 2 (Fine) or XMT 3 (Intermediate) with the Blue Edge pad? Would I still be able to remove moderately severe swirls with this combination? Or should I just stick with XMT 2 with the orange pad followed by XMT 1 with the blue pad?

 

[quantim0]

Stick with the least agressive polish that will do the job. Every clear is different. For my car, I can take out almost anything with Optimum Polish on an orange LC pad. My neighbors truck needs a Optimum Compound on an LC orange pad to even make a dent in the swirls.