Flash Gordon
Well-known member
- Feb 6, 2010
- 11,450
- 459
The same number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop 
number of times you can compound/polish a clearcoat
- Thread starter cpa5oh
- Start date
DealerDetailer
New member
- Jul 13, 2011
- 460
- 0
The same number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop
[video=youtube_share;LZ0epRjfGLw&feature=player_embedded"]Tootsie Pop - YouTube[/video]
Last edited:
embolism
New member
- Dec 8, 2010
- 2,322
- 0
I found my original post!
Question was posed in post #13
man I sound so nooby...well, even noobier than I am currently...
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/auto-detailing-101/31639-recommendations.html
Question was posed in post #13
man I sound so nooby...well, even noobier than I am currently...
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/auto-detailing-101/31639-recommendations.html
A possible long term solution is to correct your clear coat to a sensible level and start applying a sacrificial layer such as Opti-Coat and use that as your long term surface for corrections...of course it will need to be relayered over time to offset the loss from compounding and the issue still applies with determining coating thicknesses.
Heres some info I saved written by Todd Helme . I didnt save the question asked nor the link but the question was something like...
"how many times can I polish with megs205?"
"
That is a really tough question to answer because there are a HUGE number of variables that come into play: how thick is the paint system, how much can be removed from the paint system before compromising it's long-term durability, what methods are a being used to apply M205 (which greatly affects the amount of material removed) and so on and so on.
Generally the clear coat on your car is going to be about 2 mils or 50 microns in depth. On a daily driven car which is exposed to UV light you don't want to remove more than 15-20% over the life of the car. So the maximum amount of paint you can polish away is roughly .4 mils or 10 microns. Luckily most swirl marks are less (far less) than .5 mils or 2 microns deep. So you should be able to fully remove swirl marks at least 5 times on most paint systems.
It is hard to determine just how much material is removed every time a particular product is used. Some paints are very soft so a lot (realtive) of material is removed. So paints are very hard so very little (relative) is removed. Than we have the huge number of variables in the application methods. Are you using a rotary at 2200 rpm with a cutting pad, a Dual-Action polisher at low speed with a finishing pad? By hand? Changing application methods could affect the amount of material removed (and thus the amount of time something could be used) by as much as 300%.
Think of a tub of butter. If you lightly rub your hand over it, than you barely remove any of the surface. However if you dig in aggressively and really claw at it you could remove 1/2 the material in one shot. The product (hand) was the same, but the method was different.
If you are careful and your swirl marks are not do to deep, you should have no problem using M205 many many times with out affecting the life of the clear coat. However if you attack your paint like the Hulk, than even a fine polish like M205 is going to wear it thin after a while.
Meguiars M205 Ultra Finishing Polish permanently removes swirls and light defects leaving a deep gloss whether applied by hand, random orbital, dual-action or rotary machine polisher.
__________________
Todd Helme
Detailing Training and Education
"how many times can I polish with megs205?"
"
That is a really tough question to answer because there are a HUGE number of variables that come into play: how thick is the paint system, how much can be removed from the paint system before compromising it's long-term durability, what methods are a being used to apply M205 (which greatly affects the amount of material removed) and so on and so on.
Generally the clear coat on your car is going to be about 2 mils or 50 microns in depth. On a daily driven car which is exposed to UV light you don't want to remove more than 15-20% over the life of the car. So the maximum amount of paint you can polish away is roughly .4 mils or 10 microns. Luckily most swirl marks are less (far less) than .5 mils or 2 microns deep. So you should be able to fully remove swirl marks at least 5 times on most paint systems.
It is hard to determine just how much material is removed every time a particular product is used. Some paints are very soft so a lot (realtive) of material is removed. So paints are very hard so very little (relative) is removed. Than we have the huge number of variables in the application methods. Are you using a rotary at 2200 rpm with a cutting pad, a Dual-Action polisher at low speed with a finishing pad? By hand? Changing application methods could affect the amount of material removed (and thus the amount of time something could be used) by as much as 300%.
Think of a tub of butter. If you lightly rub your hand over it, than you barely remove any of the surface. However if you dig in aggressively and really claw at it you could remove 1/2 the material in one shot. The product (hand) was the same, but the method was different.
If you are careful and your swirl marks are not do to deep, you should have no problem using M205 many many times with out affecting the life of the clear coat. However if you attack your paint like the Hulk, than even a fine polish like M205 is going to wear it thin after a while.
__________________
Todd Helme
Detailing Training and Education
Id like to add that my almost 2 year old toyota roof came with only about 75 microns on the roof brand new . I will never
use polish on it other than klasse AIO because its not an abrasive polish because I want to save every little bit of clear I have on that thing !It also sits outide 24/7 and I like to keep it for as long as possible. im not one to change vehicles every 5 years .
Every car is different and is sometimes going to have wildy different amount of clears on them .
I too have noticed several new cars only having an average of 100 microns total .To name a few ...Toyota, Porche ,BMW Ive seen all of these with low readings on brand new vehicles in the last year.
This is going to change the way we detail and how much clear is safe to remove now and the years ahead .
use polish on it other than klasse AIO because its not an abrasive polish because I want to save every little bit of clear I have on that thing !It also sits outide 24/7 and I like to keep it for as long as possible. im not one to change vehicles every 5 years .
Every car is different and is sometimes going to have wildy different amount of clears on them .
I too have noticed several new cars only having an average of 100 microns total .To name a few ...Toyota, Porche ,BMW Ive seen all of these with low readings on brand new vehicles in the last year.
This is going to change the way we detail and how much clear is safe to remove now and the years ahead .