Need advice on polishing

[silentsamurai]

Beautiful work CCT!

I myself am a PC user and have used 3m products which i love. But my main source of product for most of my customers is the PRIMA line. (glide, swirl, and epic for synth wax) Made by Detailers Paradise in TX. Great product for a great price.

Im not picking sides here. Well, actually I am. CCT's words are as plain and simple as the air we're breathing. Even if he's a grumpy ol man :-p Your truck doesn't need the UDM at this time.

Just say you want to use it though. try it out on an old hood or like he said, on a test car and work in 2x2 spots. but as far as your truck goes only thing i would use it for now is maybe putting a bonnet over a firm pad to remove wax after application. at speeds 2 or 3. Nothing higher!

Like many posts before. Autopia is a great source of info for detailing. But its like the honda civic forum of the internet. Everything there thinks Menz, and Zymol are top notch cause it costs $30k a bottle. When i do many cars with a $17 bottle of prima.

My pad choice is Lake country. As is everyone else that uses a UDM or PC. The product of course is gonna be your choice and your budget. Don't bother with scratch X becase it takes 3x the amount and in that case is taking more of your paint in the process.

Heres an example on some black cars i did with the prima line and just using a Porter Cable.

Looks good wet right?...wrong.


under a light: Front Fender


Fender Correction after 2 passes w/ prima swirl


Test spot on trunk:


This is just with the SWIRL. No wax even applied yet:
12 hours later-




My Nissan Frontier door:



After 1 pass with Swirl



My hood:


Still some slight marring, but with a PC im limited to so much. this truck has been off-road many times and will need a 2k grit sanding and rotary for correction. on top of orange peal paint.



best of luck to ya.

Adam

[Grand]

Dont worry I had a pro. do the work using all zano products. The truck did need paint correction and looks amazing. Thanks for your advice.

[cctmobiledetail]

Next time silent samurai, try colorsanding those scratches first with 1000 grit wet paper ( remember to soak your paper in a bucket of cool water first for 20 minutes) use a sanding block or even better yet and more uniformity use a palm orbital sander. then sand in one direction with very little pressure. once the whole vehicle has been sanded, use 3M super cut or 3M perfect it III Heavy duty compound to buff ( 800-1400 rpms )the paint back, and if done properly, you'll have zero scratches. Then use 3M glaze or 3M swirl mark remover for smoothing out the compound scratches then follow with a 3M Polish ......like products compliment each other. Then you'll have a super mirror finish with no scratches. I only say this because your after shots show some scratches still in the paint.

Oh course if your still planning on wheeling and giving your truck more scratches in the future, then I'd either forget it or repaint your truck with Zolotone , it comes in all colors and is similar to rhino line for your bed ( spray on bedliner ) it's surface has grit in it and it way more durable against trees, bushes etc. and you won't ever have to wax your truck !

[NISM0]

Originally Posted by cctmobiledetail

Next time silent samurai, try colorsanding those scratches first with 1000 grit wet paper ( remember to soak your paper in a bucket of cool water first for 20 minutes) use a sanding block or even better yet and more uniformity use a palm orbital sander. then sand in one direction with very little pressure. once the whole vehicle has been sanded, use 3M super cut or 3M perfect it III Heavy duty compound to buff ( 800-1400 rpms )the paint back, and if done properly, you'll have zero scratches. Then use 3M glaze or 3M swirl mark remover for smoothing out the compound scratches then follow with a 3M Polish ......like products compliment each other. Then you'll have a super mirror finish with no scratches. I only say this because your after shots show some scratches still in the paint.

Oh course if your still planning on wheeling and giving your truck more scratches in the future, then I'd either forget it or repaint your truck with Zolotone , it comes in all colors and is similar to rhino line for your bed ( spray on bedliner ) it's surface has grit in it and it way more durable against trees, bushes etc. and you won't ever have to wax your truck !

I wet sand with 2000 grit to 3000 grit wet sand paper. I think 1000 grit paper is way too aggressive. To people new to wet sanding, it would be a good idea to practice on an old car or truck hood. You can pick up a slightly damaged one at a salvage yard or autobody shop for next to nothing. It's also a good way to practice up on your buffing skills. You will be glad you did.

[silentsamurai]

I appreciate the response there CCT. I myself use 2000 then move up to 2500 myself for a glass crystal finish.

[cctmobiledetail]

I always start at 1000 then move to no more than 2000 ... any past that is too thin , and is designed for aluminum and stainless scratch removal that you'd then follow with Jewlers rouge and a super high speed buffer ( see Polished Aluminum AC Cobra in one of my previous posts). Starting at 1000 would eliminate the scratches pretty quickly, anything lighter than that would one take forever and two not take down the deep scratches that SiSam posted, unless you wanted to take a couple days or a week to sand them....I personally don't have the time to take that long. I need to get in there sand them out, resand with a lighter grit if need be and compound and buff and be on my way. Remember I do this as a mobile service and unless I'm detailing a motorcoach or a big boat, I don't like to spend more than a day for the whole job. doing it with lighter paper, would just take too long.

[silentsamurai]

I understand where your coming from CCT. I base my Sandpaper off of the fingernail test. If a rotary or PC wont get it out then of course it wont pass the fingernail test.

For those of you whom dont know what that is. If you have a scratch that looks like it can come out with an OTC product but doesnt. Its easy to tell. stroll your nail across it, if it catches than theres a good chance you'll have to sand.

I am not doubting your years of knowledge. But I know sandpaper and I use 600-1000 for taking off clear coat(small layers at a time) and 2000-2500 for correcting it.

[cctmobiledetail]

Originally Posted by silentsamurai

I understand where your coming from CCT. I base my Sandpaper off of the fingernail test. If a rotary or PC wont get it out then of course it wont pass the fingernail test.

For those of you whom dont know what that is. If you have a scratch that looks like it can come out with an OTC product but doesnt. Its easy to tell. stroll your nail across it, if it catches than theres a good chance you'll have to sand.

I am not doubting your years of knowledge. But I know sandpaper and I use 600-1000 for taking off clear coat(small layers at a time) and 2000-2500 for correcting it.

600 grit will take clear coat off almost immediately. I personally wouldn't use that coarse on any car. Except maybe for a one stage paint pre 1968 car with heavy oxidation.

The inherent problem with using 2500 grit is that it produces scratches from it's paper that are so small that perfecting the paints finish with the removal of the tiny scratches is most times very difficult to get absolutely perfect ( not one scratch left, etc. ), especially used on English hard paints like Bentley and Rolls use with there thicker 8 - 12 mils paint. The grain structure of the paint, which has a tighter reflection ratio won't react well to 2500 at all.

2500 - 3000 and above grits are designed for Stainless and Aluminum , followed with Jewlers rouge in varying strengths and varying buffer speeds to polish there surface to flawless.

Interesting with your above comments about knowing sand paper that you wouldn't have sanded your scratches out instead of buffing your liquid product over it first !!!

[silentsamurai]

thanks for clarifying. What I meant with the sandpaper isn't exactly car finish oriented. I use sandpaper and many types of wool for metal storefronts,wood, as well as slight debaging on cars. I've never done a complete car in sanding, nor do I ever want to hah but yea, I see what you mean about the 2500. Once you get to that point, the actual paper itself behind the sand is THICKER than the sand and bascially pointless from there on. well said.