7424xp is too slow; what next?

C

CTSV

New member
so my 2 (or 3 I can't remember) week long correction on my Black Diamond V was painstaking to say the least. I'm sure with more practice it would take less time, but it's still a hard clear and a full size car.



It sucked my desire to do a correction on my Audi out completely and I haven't done anything to the brand-new Blue car except careful 2 bucket washes either.



Have some cash to burn though and I'm thinking about a rotary or a flex.



My $30 HF rotary experiment with M105 and a wool pad on the Audi turned out pretty well(did a lot less correction than I thought it would) but I also learned I can still fuse weak-clear with painters tape on a fender that's ever so lightly raised against the hood.





I have 1 full 30hour(or so) correction under my belt with the 7424XP on MF pads and M105, and probably 10 hours or so time on before that. If I pickup either tool I would try it out first on the Audi and then move onto the CTS-V.



Basically I want to be able to do a full-correction once every couple of months (maybe 3-4 times a year) and knock it out in 10-12 hours or so the first time, and maybe less for maintenance touch ups.



so questions;

Should I pickup a Rotary (if so, which one) or a Flex?



I have a lot of 4" and 6" CCS pads for the 7424, can I even reuse these?



Should I even be thinking about this yet?



oh, here's a pic!

DSC_0296.jpg


I have to include this one too because I love the metallic when the sun's on it

DSC_0295.jpg
 
welcome!



You can use those same pads just fine.

How ever, with what is available, David Fermani hasn't touched his rotary in years so that means that you can do correction without a rotary.



Maybe the flex3401 is a better choice or the new 3D DA polisher that is about to be available (today) Real potent DA. It will correct for sure.
 
I can't tell you how many times (well, perhaps a dozen) within the past 60 days I've chatted with guys that have not been getting maximum performance out of their machine, pads, and polishes.



There is a lot to gain by make even small adjustments to procedure.



I don't know if this will be the case in your case, but I have a suspicion that we could probably shave quite a bit of time off your polishing sessions and achieve satisfactory results by using what you've already got in your arsenal.



The car looks superb!
 
Thomas Dekany said:
If you maintain the car properly the paint should be swirl free - just keep waxing it
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So far, after ~ 2 months of ownership and once a week washes, I only have very light marring, but there are still factory dust-spot and error removal in various places that are the main issues with the car. I can't say that I spend 2 hours 2-bucket washing the vehicle, but I typically rinse twice per panel and use both sides of the wookies fist. Working top to bottom and leaving the lower sections for last.



I don't know if this will be the case in your case, but I have a suspicion that we could probably shave quite a bit of time off your polishing sessions and achieve satisfactory results by using what you've already got in your arsenal.



The car looks superb!
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How best would you suggest we go about this? Video? written description?
 
I meant once you correct the paint, all you really would have to do it wash and protect for a long time to come.



Practice and pick people's brains if you talk to any of the pros. Find out what it is that you should maybe improve.



CTSV said:
So far, after ~ 2 months of ownership and once a week washes, I only have very light marring, but there are still factory dust-spot and error removal in various places that are the main issues with the car. I can't say that I spend 2 hours 2-bucket washing the vehicle, but I typically rinse twice per panel and use both sides of the wookies fist. Working top to bottom and leaving the lower sections for last.





How best would you suggest we go about this? Video? written description?
Click to expand...
 
@ OP: Just a word of caution about your plan; there is only so much paint on the car and there is real danger with over-polishing. It is sometimes hard for people to accept the fact that some scratches and swirls are better left where they are. 10 hour full corrections multiple times per year will likely lead to thinning of the paint, thus premature failure. Now that you have it perfect pay close attention to how quickly any marring returns. Todd Helme made a good point about washing in one direction and drying in another so he could identify what process is the cause for any marring. Yes, this will make washing and drying take longer. Maintaining a perfect finish takes time, but ultimately will extend the life of your paint. Just remember it isn't always about whether or not you can remove defects but whether or not you should.
 
In addition to Chris' suggestion above, if you find yourself having constant problems with new swirls and marring, you might want to consider either having self-healing PPF on the front end, and/or putting a coating like OptiCoat on it once you have everything fully corrected to improve scratch/marring resistance.
 
Thanks for the pep talks lol.





I'll take a good look around to see if she really does need an aggressive correction right now. Maybe If I just do 4-5 passes with the 1ZHG it'll remove most of it and I can hit the factory buffs with the 105.



Thanks.



and/or putting a coating like OptiCoat on it once you have everything fully corrected to improve scratch/marring resistance.
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you can buy opticoat retail now? I thought it was by special request/ for business retailers only?
 
Available direct Store - Opti Coat 2.0 or from any number of retailers. Note this is OptiCoat 2.0 consumer version that has longer flash times but offers same protection as the original OptiGuard. You can now even give it a second coat (in the first 30 days I believe).
 
CTSV- A few sorta-random thoughts follow, and I sincerely hope they don't rub you the wrong way:



-When I read about somebody contemplating correction "every few months" I think "Uh-oh!" in a huge way. There should be *maybe* one light correction annually, and I'd sure hope *that* isn't necessary



-Washing that car (much smaller than many of my vehicles) would take me a whole lot longer than two hours, but I wouldn't mar it ;)



-Similarly, it takes me *hours* to polish a car, no matter whether I use a rotary, Flex 3401, or whatever. And I don't mean just ten or twelve when it's a whole-car correction



-The car looks great. The residual flaws that bug you aren't gonna be apparent to anybody else, so I'd give some careful thought to how badly you really want to correct them. You'd sure hate to thin the clear to "can't correct it any more"-thin and then have some twit brush against it in a parking lot causing a scratch you'll have to live with forever



All that stuff said, and yeah, I suppose it sounded awfully :nono: Yeah, maybe something with forced rotation would shave some time off, but probably not as much as you'd think. Eh, I sure like using my Flex for aggressive work. But you do that on the whole vehicle, what...maybe three times per decade? Maybe you'd be better served with a way to do spot-corrections in a quick and easy manner.



Oh, and while I simply *love* 1Z HG, I wouldn't expect any correction out of it. I reach for something more potent (e.g., Uno) even on the Fords if there's an actual flaw that needs sorted out.
 
I may need to pickup something else then Acc, because right now I have the 105, and the 1ZHG(and the adams stuff, but I HATE that crap). The effing squirrels left me two nice presents yesterday and there's some hideous etching and water spots that needs removal from what I can see. There are also some other areas I want to spot correct.



I had considered UNO before, but iirc it's almost as powerful as 105, wouldn't I want something weaker than that even for situations like above?



also glad I finnaly have a number to put to (not that often) once a year? 3-4 times a decade? Sounds like maybe I need to take some more time washing...







PS. How the heck do you spend > 2 hours ?
 
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