whats the easiest way to prevent compound spatter

Spawne32

New member
So ive been practicing doing my friends grand prix with my porter cable and yellow/orange late country pads with megs 85/205 system. The details are coming out nice, im almost finished with the lower half the car, what a pain its been though, between washing it, clay baring it, compounding it, and polishing it, i havent even gotten to the final step yet with the glaze.

One of the biggest problems im having though is compound is getting all over the place, and its very difficult to get these white spatter marks off the car once they dry. I start the machine slow while the pad is on the car, after spreading the compound out in the area im working, and i turn the machine off while its on the car as well. However im still getting spatter across the car, not alot but its there. Im doing an X pattern across the 5.5 inch pads im using which isnt alot, but the pads fill up quickly it seems.

Today one of the pads started going out of balance and nearly spun off, and when i went to stop it, it should a litteral tidal wave of compound everywhere. The car was white with compound, the front of my house, and myself was just standing there completely covered. Needless to say i spent the next hour wiping all the compound off, most of which is still spotted across some trim in some places, and caked onto the bumper which is still in bad shape to begin with. Tomorrow im gona run around to the store and pick up some bug and tar remover and try to get it off but seriously...how do you guys do it so cleanly?
 
They don't post the pics of the splatter everywhere. Unless you are exaggerating a bit, I would say that you are using way too much compound. I have some polish that went watery on me but still works. I put the polish on the pad then rub it onto my section then I walk away from the car and turn my rotary speed up to 6 and spin the excess liquid out while positioning the pad so it doesn't sling all over me or something else that needs to stay clean. Not the most environmentally conscious thing to do but I have since learned how much is too much.
 
Have you tryed an apc to remove it? I usually make a HUGE mess when I'm compounding to the point that I pop the hood and lay newspaper across the wiper cowl so that I don't have to clean a half inch of compound out of it. I guess old habits die hard lol. I always spray an apc everywhere I've slung compound when I do the final wash. Apc and high water pressure will cut it right off.
 
no i havent tried apc yet lol i dont feel so bad though since someone else likes to get messy.
My methods for doing some stuff isnt what I would call "the right way" though. I compound more like a body man than a detailer and deal with the mess afterward. (I wouldnt do this with a nice vehical..just for the record) TD is absolutly right about knowing when too much is too much. If your using a PC I wouldnt think it should sling hardly at all.
 
its not terrible (today was bad because of epic pad failure off the buffer XD ) but you still get some white spots here and there, not to mention it likes to go towards whatever open cracks it can find around the door handles etc.
 
Taping can prevent some of this but not all of it. Compound and polish falling down into cracks is just something we all deal with. Thats another reason I spray the vehical down with a light apc after Im done. I very rarely have to attack that kind of stuff by hand anymore thank God. Heres an example of how I prevent some of that, plus damage from happening.
utf-8BSU1HMDAxNzctMjAxMDA1MTAtMTExM.jpg

utf-8BSU1HMDAxODctMjAxMDA1MTAtMTQwN.jpg
 
Taping can prevent some of this but not all of it. Compound and polish falling down into cracks is just something we all deal with. Thats another reason I spray the vehical down with a light apc after Im done. I very rarely have to attack that kind of stuff by hand anymore thank God. Heres an example of how I prevent some of that, plus damage from happening.
utf-8BSU1HMDAxNzctMjAxMDA1MTAtMTExM.jpg

utf-8BSU1HMDAxODctMjAxMDA1MTAtMTQwN.jpg

Very nice example of how to tape off for rotary usage. All that plastic that he has taped off on the car in that pic will burn in a split second if you run a speeding rotary against it. Better safe than sorry in that regard. If I am using a PC style polisher of a flex 3401 VRG I save the tape and first apply a generous coating of Poorboy's Trim Restorer to the plastic and just go to town buffing the car. If my pad gets against the treated plastic or it gets splatter on it it will easily wash clean with a final wash after the finishing passes.
 
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