Rotaries can and will eat paint

[ronkh57]

Ouch. Sorry

 

[AZpolisher15]

We all know how thin paint is, but your photos really put it into perspective. A good reminder-- thanks for posting!

 

[Eric@CherryOnTop]

It's cos you weren't using your Flex!

 

[runrun411]

I was getting past my fear of a rotary. Now I'm scared again. Thanks for the tip Mike.

 

[emmjay]

Thanks for sharing Mike! Its always a good lesson.

On another note, could this have been avoided in any other way apart from not using a Rotary on a bumper? By this I mean is there a way to avoid it altogether with some form of testing, PTG etc.?

 

[Joe@NextLevelDetail]

Ouch, to your defense that looks like a crappy spray job. A da would of probably did the same.

 

[shadwell]

I heard hair conditioner will fix that....

Or wire the rotary in reverse polarity and hit it again.....

Nothing to see here....


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[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

I don't think that was yours or the rotaries fault. That paint looks like it was barely sticking to the bumper cover. Paint doesn't flake when it gets burned through. I'm guessing a Rupes or Flex with moderate speed and pressure would have damaged that paint

Very true. The adhesion of the paint isn't very strong. The surface behind the paint doesn't seem as if it were prepped very well.

Im sure a DA such as the ones mentioned would have done the same as well in the same scenario.

I'm not sure that I understand your warning.

What I see in the pictures is damaged/defective paint that is peeled/flaked from the substrate. While of course a rotary can result in that if they paint condition is not up to snuff, i.e., inadequate adhesion, I certainly would not call what I can see as "rotary damage".

I see no evidence of "burning" the paint. Rather, what I see is a marginal to poor quality of the paint prep to begin with, and/or, an attempt to make a repair by polishing something that required much more than polishing.

EDIT: I see someone else was thinking along my lines with LEDetailing's post above, which was posted as I was writing mine.

My warning is to simply to remind everyone of what can happen. I think sometimes we can all get to complacent in what we do and I just wanted to share with others of what can happen.

Yes I was in a rush and was using the wrong tools and it bit me. If I would have taken more time to examine the condition of what I was working things may have turned out differently.

One thing I should have done was brought in my personal tool kit from home rather than using the barbaric set from work. But that's another story.

We all know that you are an experienced detailer and if it can happen to you it can happen to anyone. It happened to me once and I'll never use a rotary on bumpers again. Because of the flexing agent and the plastic bumper that paint wrinkle can happen in a flash.

Thank you. Yes it can happen to anyone and I wanted to share to remind everyone of what can happen.

I will learn from my mistakes and move forward. Now I get to repaint the bumper.

mike, thanks for sharing your experience in which someone else can learn/benefit from...

No problem.

Props for sharing! I had a similar experience with paint wrinkle back in 2009 which I shared on the forums as well. rops:

Thanks Chad!

One thing we all love to see is perfect paint. But I don't think we see enough "oops" moments that can be shared to warn others of potential hazards.

Ouch, it happens man. It's tricky dealing with plastic panels and rotary. I'm sure the repaint had a lot to do with it considering the way the paint is flaking off.

Thanks Harris. It is tricky to deal with plastic and a rotary. As Rsurfer mentioned above, a good rule to live by is not using a circular polisher on plastic areas. If one does need to use them extra caution should be exercised.

Or moved them 4" to the right...

Sure did didn't I?

Ouch. Sorry

Thanks.

We all know how thin paint is, but your photos really put it into perspective. A good reminder-- thanks for posting!

No problem!

It's cos you weren't using your Flex!

RIGHT!?

I was getting past my fear of a rotary. Now I'm scared again. Thanks for the tip Mike.

Don't fear your machine. Just exercise caution when using it. :xyxthumbs:

Thanks for sharing Mike! Its always a good lesson.

On another note, could this have been avoided in any other way apart from not using a Rotary on a bumper? By this I mean is there a way to avoid it altogether with some form of testing, PTG etc.?

No problem.

A safer way would have been to use a lightweight DA such as the GG3 rather than a powerhouse circular polisher. Testing with a PTG will only tell you the measurements of the paint. Looking for signs of a repaint will be the best way to inspect.

Ouch, to your defense that looks like a crappy spray job. A da would of probably did the same.

Thanks Joe. Most likely it would have. But I was going pretty excessive with the rotary.

Or wire the rotary in reverse polarity and hit it again.....

There we go! Now were banging on all cylinders! Lolz

 

[Zubair]

Rotaries lose cut when pad size decreases unlike DA's. I use 3" pads on bumpers on speed 1 on my rotary all the time, without issues. I don't think the statement of not being able to use rotaries on plastic holds true,well not for me in my experience. I get better results with a rotary than a DA on plastics but if I were a caveman I'd probably use a rotary with a 6.5" cutting pad on high speed on plastics and give rotaries a bad name.

 

[Harry Da Hamster]

Ouch! Sorry that happened.

IMO the thread title should read "Be careful while buffing a poorly repainted vehicle". It's really not an issue with rotary polishers. Excessive orange peel and horrible tape job are easy clues, combined with an already finicky surface like the bumper cover is a recipe for disaster. Bumper cover plastics are tricky to work with due to it's low energy surface[SUP]1[/SUP] and proper prep can be time consuming compared to metal body parts. Back in the day, my mother had a little '88 Civic DX with black bumpers. I painted it in high school shop class since i had a paint booth and gear at my disposal. I spent significantly more time than what a professional body shop would spend. I knocked down the orange peel and buffed it and it looked perfect. Eventually, grocery bags touching the surface and dragging things in and out the hatch caused the paint to flake off. I skipped the etching before applying adhesion promoter.

[SUP]1[/SUP]Low energy liquid sticks to a higher energy surface. Paint won't bond to plastic because the plastic surface is lower energy than the paint. A primed plastic surface will have higher energy than the paint, therefore it will wet (or stick to) the surface and bond when dried.