Oops...first mistake... (Flex PE8 slipped)

QuinGold

QuinGold

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It was going so well too... :doh:

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I was almost done with polishing my dolphin gray-colored Miata and I got a Flex PE8 to polish the bumpers and lower side panels. I had been using it at speed 4 with no issues yesterday. Today as I was doing the lower side panel on the passenger side (the green tape is the bottom of the door in pic), I decided to bump it up to 5. Maybe because I was getting tired, but I lost control of the machine and it burned through about one inch of paint. It happened so fast, I'm not even sure which part of the machine hit the paint to cause this problem...

Question: how do I fix this? Meaning, who do I hire to fix this - would the Mazda dealer be the right choice, or a body shop?

Feeling sad... :(
 
QuinGold said:
It was going so well too... :doh:

nORHLCB.jpg


I was almost done with polishing my dolphin gray-colored Miata and I got a Flex PE8 to polish the bumpers and lower side panels. I had been using it at speed 4 with no issues yesterday. Today as I was doing the lower side panel on the passenger side (the green tape is the bottom of the door in pic), I decided to bump it up to 5. Maybe because I was getting tired, but I lost control of the machine and it burned through about one inch of paint. It happened so fast, I'm not even sure which part of the machine hit the paint to cause this problem...

Question: how do I fix this? Meaning, who do I hire to fix this - would the Mazda dealer be the right choice, or a body shop?

Feeling sad... :(
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That will require a body shop. I would not go to the dealer (and I am a former Mazda dealer). The dealer most likely subs it out. Find a good body shop and let them do the right thing. That won't be that expensive to fix properly. It's one small panel.

<TED>
 
With Mazda paint being some of the softest on the market, you really had no business using a rotary on that car. I have had 4 Miatas and most polishes with my PC is all it has ever taken to correct them.I have a 3" backing plate and pads for the tiny areas. Wow.
 
Oh my! I feel for you. A couple of weeks ago I was using a PC with 3" pad to polish the liftgate of my 2015 Subaru Outback. In a moment of inattention I bumped the metal housing of the PC against the paint. Damage is not a severe as yours, but still hurts.

If you by chance live near Tulsa OK, pm me and I can give you the name of two body shops that do work that approaches perfection.
 
I just got a PE8, I was doing headlight correction with it and 4 is blasting. I'll never run this machine anywhere near 5 or 6. I can only imagine how much heat that will generate with these small pads. This machine is small for a rotary but it's still the size of a GG6 and it's got a LOT of power. Use with caution.
 
Billy Baldone said:
With Mazda paint being some of the softest on the market, you really had no business using a rotary on that car. I have had 4 Miatas and most polishes with my PC is all it has ever taken to correct them.I have a 3" backing plate and pads for the tiny areas. Wow.
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Not necessarily true. When it comes to surgical buffing/ polishing you can take a 3" pad all the way to the 1" pads to tight areas and this is where a rotary can be a great tools to have.

You can't always get a DA with a 3" pad into every spot on a car. With a rotary and an extension or 2 it makes those tight areas easy.

I agree with you that mazda has soft paint and I'm sure that areas where a DA could be used probably should have but its a tough lesson to be learned.

I will stay that surgical buffing is something that shouldn't be rush and should take extra care when doing so.

With the PE8 I wouldn't be taking it up that high in speed no real need to.

OP lesson learned and taking care when polishing is always the utmost importance. I would take it to a very reputable painter in the area.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/ask-expert-featuring-mike-phillips/67158-surgical-precision-buffing-tools.html
 
Thanks all. I'll find a local repair shop and see what they say.

I didn't realize Mazda had soft paint. Part of why I wanted the mini PE8 is that it not only smaller but lighter too. I didn't realize it would be so hard to control just from going from 4 to 5. I'll stick to 3 now…

I'm near Albuquerque, NM, if anyone has a recommendation.

My husband used Quanz recently to swap out a new bumper on his Ford Escape (a woman ran into him), and they were very good. Seems to be highly rated. Quanz Advanced Auto Care-Albuquerque Auto Repair Services
 
It's not only Mazda, but all Japanese cars have soft clear and more so on the plastic bumpers. They use a flexing agent in the paint which makes it very soft. Be careful when doing bumpers on all makes including MB, BMW , VW and Audis.
 
That doesn't look like you burnt through the paint - but it looks like the paint twisted or "paint twist". This is from heat - especially on plastic painted parts. Ammo NYC / Larry has a video on this regarding how you need to be mindful of the substrate of the surface your working on.

Bottom line - plastic or carbon fiber doesn't dissipate heat as well as metal. Be careful on parts made out of these materials.

You fix it by paying a body shop.
 
Billy Baldone said:
With Mazda paint being some of the softest on the market, you really had no business using a rotary on that car. I have had 4 Miatas and most polishes with my PC is all it has ever taken to correct them.I have a 3" backing plate and pads for the tiny areas. Wow.
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Don't know about this. My Mazda 3 is hard as a diamond. I think it was more the surface that he was polishing than the paint itself. Plastic bumpers don't dissipate heat like metal body panels.
 
I don't understand how the polisher slipped and burned through?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I don't care whether Mazda paint is considered hard or soft, it is some of the thinnest paint I have come across from an OEM. That said I wouldn't be doing too much correction on them, especially trying to go surgical near the edges. Hope you find a painter that makes you happy. Thanks for sharing.:)
 
swanicyouth said:
That doesn't look like you burnt through the paint - but it looks like the paint twisted or "paint twist". This is from heat - especially on plastic painted parts. Ammo NYC / Larry has a video on this regarding how you need to be mindful of the substrate of the surface your working on.

Bottom line - plastic or carbon fiber doesn't dissipate heat as well as metal. Be careful on parts made out of these materials.

You fix it by paying a body shop.
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This is exactly what it looks like. The paint softened up with heat and enough friction in the polisher to smear the paint.

Be thankful this was your own vehicle and not a customer's car. Still an expensive lesson to learn but not as embarrassing when it's your own stuff.
 
ShaunD said:
I don't care whether Mazda paint is considered hard or soft, it is some of the thinnest paint I have come across from an OEM. That said I wouldn't be doing too much correction on them, especially trying to go surgical near the edges. Hope you find a painter that makes you happy. Thanks for sharing.:)
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agreed on thin. when i got my brand new MS3 in late 2007, i had a chip magically show up on the roof from a bird dropping something (i live near the ocean).

long story short, i have never, EVER, seen clear as thin from the factory whilst blocking down a filled chip. it was amazing. the bean counters at Mazda definitely had their paint process dialed down to the drop!
 
Thank you all for adding the note about paint heat, or "paint twist". I'm searching for the video from AmmoNYC now.

To be honest, I'm not really sure how it happened either as it happened so fast. At first I thought the mark I was seeing was a lump of polish that maybe had been on the rim of the pad as I had just started this section, but then when I went over it to pick it up, it didn't move… That's when I stopped the Flex and realized what happened. However, the damage occurred on the "overlap" area where I had just finished polishing the section to the left of the mark, and was starting to polish the next section to the right. So it's possible that this particular area was already warm and it was also pretty warm in the garage.

I'm applying Wolfgang Polishing Glaze with the green polishing pad, but I may drop down to the finishing pad instead.

In any case, nobody died. It's just a bit of paint and a few bob to get fixed. So long as I don't make a habit of twisting the paint, I'll try not to lose sleep over it. Hope this helps someone else in the meantime.
 
irvsmith said:
I think this is the clip in question.

http://youtu.be/htsl7ICY8Nw
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Thanks for the link. It was great to see him explain the different materials used on different panels and how the heat dissipates on metal more than non-metal.

I noticed he pointed out the same "ripple" damage at 22:30 that he put down to a previous "inexperienced detailer" (not me!). He didn't quite explain how it was caused though - heat or tool slippage?

(My husband had an interesting theory that the horse may have come before the cart: in other words, the feeling I had of the tool slipping was when the paint "buckled" and grabbed the pad because the paint was hot and sticky.)

So can I take it that the bumpers on the Miata are not metal?

Is there a simple test to tell whether a panel is metal or some kind of plastic besides tapping them and listening to the sound each one makes? The metal seems to sound heavier and lower in pitch.

Thank you!
 
You damaged the "bumper cover" and not the bumper. The plastic piece you see on most every vehicle is not the actual bumper, but the bumper cover. The actual "bumper" is not visible. The majority of bumpers on vehicles today are covered with a plastic like material, the bumper cover, painted to match the color of the vehicle.
 
QuinGold said:
Is there a simple test to tell whether a panel is metal or some kind of plastic besides tapping them and listening to the sound each one makes? The metal seems to sound heavier and lower in pitch.

Thank you!
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The simple test to see if it's steel..use a magnet. You must have one on your frig. lol
 
Whatever happened, I feel for you. Boy, if I had a nickel every time I F****d something up, I cash my nickels in for bigger bills.
Got change for a thousand? Good luck with you future endeavors,
this ones gone. Take care.

Peace,

Darrin
 
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