Unremovable Swirls/Scratches?

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caudleej

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I've been working on a vehicle for a customer dark blue in color. The owner wanted a few scratches removed and a compound and polish to remove other fine defects. After a few test runs I decided to go with my DA polisher equipped with a Meguiar's DA Microfiber Extra Cut Disc and M105 followed by The DA with a foam polishing pad and M205. I did the entire vehicle over the course of two days and it came out great and the customer was happy when they took the vehicle back. They returned the next day and explained that one section of the vehicle appeared to have holograms, swirls, and scratches. I pulled the vehicle in the direct sun and sure enough the rear passenger door and exactly half of the bed side in front of the rear tire was filled with holograms and scratches that appear to have been put in by the compounding process. I preceded to re-polish the sections with the M205 thinking they just needed a little extra work. I succeeded in removing the holograms but the scratches cease to be removed. I have spent hours, re-compounding, polishing, and trying different pads, machines, and products with no luck the scratches remain in this section of the vehicle and nowhere else. I pulled the vehicle in the dark garage and used my mag light to walk around the vehicle and can only find the defects in that one section. The owner explained that that the bed side of the vehicle had been repainted and then the rest of the right side re-cleared to match the paint from a minor fender bender.

My question is the clear coat defective, burned out, etc. that would cause the compounding marks to be non-removable.

Please, any advise or help would be appreciated.
 
I think a rotary should take care of that for you.Da has limitations when trying to eliminate stuff like that.
 
i think what you maybe seeing is scratches under the clearcoat from the body shop repair. where the body shop didn't finish the repair off well enough. hard to tell with out seeing in person or with pictures.
 
Tried the rotary, made it worse. I have been able to remove a majority of the defects from the panel with some spot hand applications of M105 and several aggressive passes with M205. (Aggressive meaning very slow passes with firm pressure on the head of the DA machine, I know 205 isn't really aggressive so to speak depending on the paint you use it on. I can see definite signs of clear coat failure on these panels close to the edges and some other spots in the panel where there is small areas of 'haze' that is not coming out with polishing. I pointed these areas out the customer and advised them to contact the dealer they bought it from for a re-spray of the affected panels. The rest of the vehicle is excellent and I have looked it over several times both in the garage with a spot light and in full sun and the problems with the repainted panels are not showing up in the remainder of the vehicle. I am wanting to say that it has to be the lousy clear coat on the panels and not my abilities causing the problem, Although I am never one to boast or say my work is perfect.

Thanks everyone for all the input. Additional comments and suggestions are appreciated. I am using this as a time to learn additional things.
 
Sometimes a finishing polish can't remove compounding haze,fine scratches etc on certain types of paints. This is where a medium polish and light cutting pad comes into play.

You can also use M105 on a foam pad if you don't have a medium polish on hand.
 
I might give M205 on a microfiber cutting pad a shot, especially if I were having so much trouble with it.
 
I will try to get some pictures. What is an example of a medium polish? Would Meguiar's fine-cut, or medium/cut cleaner work? I did try m105 on a soft polishing pad with no luck. I actually did try m205 on the cutting disc with better results but the appears to be deeper scratches don't budge. Possibly the body shop used an extremely soft clear on the re finished portions and I have etched extremely deep clear coat scratches in the re-finished sections.
 
caudleej said:
Possibly the body shop used an extremely soft clear on the re finished portions and I have etched extremely deep clear coat scratches in the re-finished sections.
Click to expand...

I don't understand.

Please provide a more detailed explanation of what you mean.
 
Menzerna 2500 on an LC Orange or White pad is an eg. of a medium polish approach.
 
AGO, What I mean is that some vehicle makes and models have soft paints and some have hard paints. When the person that painted the sections got paint they could have used a softer clear coat instead of a harder one or they could have just used some clear coat they had laying around that was not the proper match for that color.

I hope this helps
 
caudleej said:
My question is the clear coat defective, burned out, etc. that would cause the compounding marks to be non-removable.
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Still cannot understand

You explain that the "marks" were caused by compounding, but are somehow "non-removable".

That does not make sense to me.

If you were able to induce defects, you should be able to remove them as well


Why are there still no pictures in this Thread?
 
When you are talking about "compounding marks" do you mean that the product you are using is not easily wiping off the surface, OR; do you mean that the compound is introducing micro-marring that you are unable to remove with a finishing polish?
 
I was able to get the person to come over today and I shot View attachment 40395a few pictures in the sun. View attachment 40394

You can see in the pictures those white looking traces is what I'm up against. I did take some IPA diluted down and wiped the surface several times but the tracks if you will are still there.

I tried again today M205 on a yellow polishing pad - won't touch them

I also tired Meg's Fine-Cut Cleaner on a yellow pad and on a Meg's DA Microfiber Cutting and Extra Cut Disc with better results but the "tracks" are still there.

Sorry for the delay on photos
 
What are you wiping the polish residue from the surface with? Microfiber? How clean are your towels?
 
Using brand new micro fiber towels. I have some from the departments stores and some that are very good quality I have ordered. I used the high quality ones on this job.
 
Kind of hard to tell from the pictures you posted but it looks like the clear is de-laminating from the panel. There's no fixing that with buffing... needs a trip to the body shop to strip down and re-spray.
 
ohmy34 said:
i think what you maybe seeing is scratches under the clearcoat from the body shop repair. where the body shop didn't finish the repair off well enough. hard to tell with out seeing in person or with pictures.
Click to expand...
:iagree:
 
ohmy34 said:
i think what you maybe seeing is scratches under the clearcoat from the body shop repair. where the body shop didn't finish the repair off well enough. hard to tell with out seeing in person or with pictures.
Click to expand...

:iagree:WITH :whs::dblthumb2:

If there were holograms/buffer trails, and decent DA work would have removed that.

If fact... the DA shouldn't have even left any holograms/buffer trails.

It *CAN* however leave "DA Haze/micro-marring", but that's a different thing altogether than holograms.

Having blemishes underneath the clear isn't unheard of. Very well could be that the body shop blended the base coat to match (which would be in a smaller area than the clear).

IOW's they could have blended a section say, in front of, and over the wheel well, but then cleared the entire panel.

Should they have done something like that, say *IF* they did, then whatever imperfections are under the 'new' clear will always be there, no way you'll remove it.


BTW, did anyone see the new BMW "Certified Pre-Owned" commercial?
Shows a guy removing multiple car covers on his new "pre-owned" BMW. Then underneath are thick pieces of Styrofoam that are molded to fit the car, like what you'd get in a box with an crock pot in it or something like that.

It's funny, and shows just how OCD we can get with our cars.

HOWEVER... I can show you EXACTLY what a "Certified Pre-Owned BMW" looks like, right after it left the dealership. Can you say "holograms galore", and "buffer trails everywhere"? :rolleyes:

Here ya' go....
Not exactly worth putting form fitting Styrofoam and multiple car covers over. :laughing:

20140727_131859.jpg
 
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