Polishing/Jeweling really hard paint

brettS4

brettS4

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I've got an Audi S4 with incredibly hard paint. To get any decent amount of correction on it with my GG6 I had to go to foamed wool pads with M105. And even then it took at least 6 passes to get 90% correction. Then I went over it again with ThinPro orange pads and FG400, and finally SF3500 with ThinPro white pads.

I've got it looking 'pretty good' now but since it's silver paint, you know how hard it is to get a glowing paint look. What do you recommend for a pad/product combination that will step it up a notch?
 
How did you work the sf3500? Hard paints do take longer to jewel.

As you know, it's a marginal change from polished to jeweled, and even less so on silver. Have you let your eyes/brain 'reset' so you are evaluating with a fresh set of eyes?

Also, is it Ice Silver or Quartz Gray?

Your combo is the same as I would typically use on audis. I know the tradition jewelling is with a finishing pad, but I feel that ultra hard clears require a little cut. You could always test with a black finishing pad, but I don't think you will see improvement.
 
It's Light Silver Metallic that has just a hint of flake in it. I'm not really concerned about making the flake pop. I just want to get more of a luster.

I worked the SF3500 on the GG6 with the white ThinPro pads which have a bit of cut on speed 4-5 moving about 2" per second and medium to light pressure. I think I'm doing it right but probably just need to keep at it to get it to the level that I want.

And yes, I would really like a Flex for this car. But I can't justify it for 1-2 detail jobs a year.
 
brettS4 said:
It's Light Silver Metallic that has just a hint of flake in it. I'm not really concerned about making the flake pop. I just want to get more of a luster.

I worked the SF3500 on the GG6 with the white ThinPro pads which have a bit of cut on speed 4-5 moving about 2" per second and medium to light pressure. I think I'm doing it right but probably just need to keep at it to get it to the level that I want.

And yes, I would really like a Flex for this car. But I can't justify it for 1-2 detail jobs a year.
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I know how you feel! I'm currently doing my VW Golf and man it's got hard paint. With my GG6 I do speed 5.5 with a yellow pad and megs Ultimate compound. I take it really slow arm speed. Mind you the paint on my car is atrocious. I have pictures if you wanna take a look. Anyhow, maybe 2 sometimes 3 passes and follow up with polish on speed 5 using a white pad. I use glaze (2 coats) really fills up those small scratches then top with sealant (2 coats). Looks about 90-95% corrected.
 
FG400 on an Orange ThinPro finishes so well you won't see any difference with a white or black pad and SF3500 especially on silver. Just top it with FK1000P and be happy.
 
What year S4? I have a B8.5 and the paint isn't super hard at all. I say that having corrected it mostly with my 7424xp. Now I'm simply jeweling it with the Flex 3401.
 
Mine is a 'classic'.. lol.. a 2001.5 (the last of the B5 series). My previous Audi was an A4, exact same year, but Brilliant Black and that had very soft paint for an Audi. I was a bit spoiled with that. Now it's like I'm trying to detail a granite countertop. The upside to that is that the paint is still in great condition for a 15 year old car. I get a lot of comments from people saying they thought the car was maybe 5 years old (and mostly just because they knew it wasn't a new model).

Zubair, I agree that FG400 finishes well. Even M105 finished out great with wool pads. I'm just trying to get my car to look like this....

View attachment 49106

Wish I could find that owner and find out what he did. Altho mine isn't too bad...

View attachment 49107
 
I'd try working the sf3500 longer using the same process. Maybe mix it up with slightly slower arm speed and try the zenith method - light pressure and machine speed ----> ramp up to medium/heavy pressure and high speed ----> back down to light pressure and slower machine speed.

And I wholly agree; B5, C5, D2 paint can be brutally hard. My C5 A6 is rock hard, my S6 Avant a few years newer is a bit softer, but still very hard. I do a ton of B8/8.5 S4s and cutting is a cake walk by comparison.
 
What's up Brett? If you haven't tried Essnce yet, get some. It works wonders on silver paints. As far as technique, I would agree that it's much easier to jewel hard clears with a 3401 or a rotary. I also suggest using a smat polish as well. HD Polish, OPT Hyper Polish (it's a mixture, I know), M205. Been reading a lot of great things about the new GG BOSS creams but have yet to test drive any.
 
Hey Don. I'll have to look into Essence. You seem to know quite a bit about silver paint. ;)
 
AutoApollo said:
I know how you feel! I'm currently doing my VW Golf and man it's got hard paint. With my GG6 I do speed 5.5 with a yellow pad and megs Ultimate compound. I take it really slow arm speed. Mind you the paint on my car is atrocious. I have pictures if you wanna take a look. Anyhow, maybe 2 sometimes 3 passes and follow up with polish on speed 5 using a white pad. I use glaze (2 coats) really fills up those small scratches then top with sealant (2 coats). Looks about 90-95% corrected.
Click to expand...
The machine will pretty much correct anything,talk about hard paint let's talk aviation paint.
 
I would have used a rotary with wool for the first step. I had nice results with Menzerna 1000 in a similar car. I don't like FG 400 on hard paints, it lacks cut imho.
 
For Jeweling I use the exact same procedure on every hardness of paint.

Rotary with a Gold Pad and Menzerna PO85rd or it's new designation. I use a very low speed and move the polisher very slowly across the paint. I seldom use any pressure other than the weight of the tool.

I spend (generally) two to three minutes going over a half a panel. So for an entire normal sized sedan it is an extra hours of work. Obviously not ever car is worth going to this degree.
 
It's silver there's a cap on depthless no matter what you do,essence will provide gloss and clarity it again it's silver.you will maximize by lsp.or use HD on a orange pad then white then top it off with a deep looking lsp or sealer,such as powerlock or fuzion.
 
I use various lighting to evaluate... incandescent bulbs in my garage for correction work (not ideal, but it works ok for my personal vehicle) and sunlight for the final finish. After 20 hours of correction and polishing, the car looks good. Especially since it's 15 years old and I've only owned it for a little over a year. There are only a few marks that I know I can't remove along with a couple very small dings. It's a very clean '10 foot' vehicle. Which is what makes me want to try and get that final gleam from jeweling. So close, and yet so far!

Right now I have 3 coats of Pinnacle Souveran on it. I realize it's not the recommended wax for silver paint but I was hoping to get some good depth from it. It helped, but not as much as I wanted. I might strip it off in a week or two and try the jeweling method oldmodman uses. Basically, low and slow.

And I agree with RPM_BR... FG400 doesn't do much with hard paint. I'm starting to wonder about SF3500, for the same reason. I might try 3D AAT Finishing Polish next time.
 
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