Another First timer on the PC!!! Didn't go that well...

C

cchiu1026

New member
Well finally got the 7336sp as I have started to get more in detail with detailing in all aspects. I found some shops that carried Megs DA BP and Megs Pads I purchased the 7006, 8006, and 9006. I also picked up some Megs #82 since I really wanted to use my new tool. I knew I needed to practice so why not practice on my neglected 2003? Moutaineer. The reason why it was neglected was because it had been vandalized a bunch with eggs and key marks, etc. etc. The paint had a good amount of swirls as I can see. I'm also learning all the terminology so please correct me if i'm wrong.



Here are some before I did anything photos:

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Results of my Washed SUV:



Process:

Meg Gold Class Car Wash (2 Bucket)

Meg Synthetic Wash Mitt

Dried with WW Towel and MF Towels



Washed-1.jpg


Washed-2.jpg


Washed-3.jpg


I KNOW YOU GUYS LOVE THIS ONE!!!

Washed-4.jpg


Washed-5.jpg




Next I Parked the Car in the Garage and Lit up some Craftsman lighting. Here's the Damage:



Garaged-1.jpg


Garaged-2.jpg
 
continued....



So I started on the rear passenger side door. Taped up and went to work, I did 2 passes with Megs#82 using Megs 8006 Polishing Pad and this is how I did. There was some hazing so I figured I didn't break it down enough... I pretty much tried to follow the site http://paintcare-n-detailing.com/.



After-2-Passes.jpg


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After-2-Passes-2.jpg


After-2-Passes-3.jpg




Well because of the hazing and the conclusion that I didn't break it down enough so what I did was start a 3rd pass with the same setup. Unfortunately things didn't do to swell the pad had flung off the back plate, so I inspected it and the velcro was detached and flung off. Sigh....:



Pad-Results-1.jpg


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Final Shot since there was no where to purchase a BP.



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WITHIN RED BOX = POLISHED AREA



Well I have some pads(LC) and a BP on the way that I ordered through TopoftheLine.com. They will be arriving wed. Along with that is Hi-Tech Extreme Cut, Optimum Compound and Polish, Menzerna IP and FPII. Ohh yeah not to mention I purchased a P21S today.



Does anyone have any question, recommendations, advice, critisim, or something to say????



Chris
 
Yeah, I'd go over the entire car with the Hi-Temp mixed 50:50 with Optimum polish via orange pad, than optimum compound via white polishing pad, than FPII. You might want to look into a good glaze for hiding the damage that won't come out.
 
if you're going the megs route again, you may want to pick up some #80 and #83. also, what speed setting did you use on the backing plate when it came apart?
 
Well I pretty much spread out the polish with Speed 4, then I went to 6 to break it in, every phase. Well it sucks right now cause i still need that backing plate, I do have a #2 or is that too abrassive for this job? But other than that when I get my shipment in, I have the LC Orange and White pads. Any recommendations on glazes? I have Klasse AIO and SG, or is there a better option out there??? Did it look as if I did anything wrong during any part of the process???



Chris
 
As stated, look a High Temp EC / Optimum Polish 50/50 on the pad. If you do go this route, it will have a long working time.



I also recommend some Pinnacle XMT 3.
 
cchiu1026 said:
then I went to 6 to break it in, every phase.
Click to expand...



though most everyone uses 6 on here (not saying you can't), that could be the reason why your backing plate failed. i find in my experience, that using it at 6 the machine gets real hot (potential to melt backing plate as well), and for that reason i don't use it past 5. but hey... whatever works for you, good luck on your future details!
 
imacarnut said:
though most everyone uses 6 on here (not saying you can't), that could be the reason why your backing plate failed...
Click to expand...



So should I drop it to 5?



Ohh yeah any recommendations on Wash Mitts and MF Towels?



Chris
 
cchiu1026 said:
So should I drop it to 5?



Ohh yeah any recommendations on Wash Mitts and MF Towels?



Chris
Click to expand...



i use it at 5 and focus on more on technique (slow arm movement/pressure, multiple passes in different directions, etc). yesterday, i worked on my buddy's honda element (each car is different though) as he had scrapes on the side of his car from bush shrubs and i was able to take them out with a few passes of #83 and i followed it up with #80 (the recommendations above should work fine as well). if you want something quick and locally, go to your local walmart and pick up a few eurow sheepskin mitts and make sure to feel and pick carefully for the plushest ones. also, k-mart has the viking quick detailing microfiber towels that are just as nice as any other boutique ones sold online....



p.s. once again... not saying you can't use it at 6, but there is the risk factor of something happening like your incident...
 
Your finish looks fairly similar to mine - black with quite a bit of marring and swirl marks. I haven't used #82, but IIRC, it doesn't have the cut to take care of all that. My experience has been that you are going to need something heavier to go after those scratches and then a finer polish to get rid of any hazing or micromarring, which it appears you have a little of in that side-by-side. The 50/50 HC/OP mix seems to be used quite a bit, so that may be worth a try.



It looks like you are on the right track though. You aren't going to get the results of some of the pros on this site your first time out, and my experience is that it's definitely going to take a several passes and a few products to get it where you want. Keep after it, don't get frustrated, and it should turn out great.
 
You should contact the place you got the backing plate from, good chance they will replace it. I'll be working on our 2000 Mountaineer soon as well. I think you got pretty decent results for the first time. I have a black Bonneville and am finding I can't get everything out either, but I've already got 10 hours into it, so I'll just go over it again in the spring and see if it can't look better.
 
cchiu1026- Sorry to hear about your troubles, sounds pretty frustrating.



As they said, you're on the right track now. No real need to "go back" to Meg's stuff, there are plenty of good product lines out there and the H-T and Optimum are among them. You should be all set with regard to polishing products, use those a few times and get the hang of them.



Your backing plate issue brings up the advisability of having spares, both pads and backing plates. Speed 6 is often the *right* speed to use (*IMO*) and not using it because you're worried about a plate/pad failure is letting the pooper-scooper wag the dog ;)



Regarding glazes, the glaze approach is basically incompatible with the Klasse approach (the AIO strips off glazes and KSG is picky about what it bonds to). FWIW I only use Klasse on vehicles I can basically get perfect, as it doesn't hide any flaws for me. Maybe you'd be better off with a glaze/carnauba approach. Lots of people like RMG and P21s wax. I myself lean towards Meg's #5 topped with Collinite wax.



Mitts and MFs: any mitt that's nice and soft is good. I'd test it on the data side of a CD- if it doesn't scratch the CD it won't scratch your vehicle. Remember to test properly, in this case that means both the CD and the mitt should be wet and the mitt should be wet with a shampoo mix (you want to duplicate the usage conditions as best you can). For MFs, I'm currently leaning towards those from PakShack. I sure wouldn't pinch pennies when it comes to something you're gonna be rubbing your paint with, but that's not to say that others aren't perfectly fine.



[Insert Accumulator's usual recommendations regarding foamguns here]
 
#82 definitely won't remove those kinds of defects with a D/A, but it probably would be more effective with a rotary. #80 would have been a much better starting point with the D/A and you might even need #83 for some of that stuff, but #80 is extremely versatile simply by changing things such as arm speed, pad pressure, shrinking the work area, pad choice, etc. Megs is pretty clear about not using speed 6 with their BP or pads and they recommend speed 5 as their max safe speed. The Hi-Tech Extreme Cut and or Optimum Compound or Menzerna IP will surely give you better results for those kinds of defects, but so would the Megs #80, etc. You've got some great product to choose from (HT E/C, OC/OP & Menzerna) and your Moutaineer will soon be looking better than ever!
 
Thanks for the input guys, definately I want to be able to get to the rotary opportunity also. Everyone in my area that I have met only use Rotaries and don't know anything about the PC DA. Well I knew that the #82 may not have been the best thing to use but deffinately I wanted to use the least aggressive rule to begin with. I guess i'm a very maticulous person when it comes to this due to the fact that I don't want to screw up my paint or let alone anyone elses. Is there anyway to be able to just choose a perticular type of aggressivness level, or maybe just a rule of thumb? I know of course that will come with experience, and I know that a paint thickness gauge will help (don't think I can afford the digital kind, and don't know if there is any other option). Maybe a magnifier like a eyepiece or something??? Definately trying to improve with the least amount of trial and error.



I also purchased a MF Drying towel from Target, the brand was Vroom, I also did use the CD method for testing and it came out to be scratchless. Cost was $8 24x40...



Thanks again,

Chris
 
cchiu1026 said:
...I wanted to use the least aggressive rule to begin with. I guess i'm a very maticulous person when it comes to this due to the fact that I don't want to screw up my paint or let alone anyone elses. Is there anyway to be able to just choose a perticular type of aggressivness level, or maybe just a rule of thumb? I know of course that will come with experience...
Click to expand...



[Insert caveats about generalizing here...]



There are a few general guidelines:



Assuming the paint isn't really soft, products like #82 only work for very minor marring, stuff like #80/OCP is for more "average but not too bad" flaws, and #83/H-T HC or even EC type products are for stuff that looks more serious. That's by PC, the rules change when you're using a rotary. Of those three categories, most of the time I'd just reach for the #80/OCP level product.



FWIW I find magnifiers helpful (see if THIS LINK still takes you to the 15X one that I prefer). I wouldn't bother with a cheap thickness gauge, I'd either get a good electronic one or just skip it.



Oh, another FWIW: used with a 4" pad and products like HT's EC, you can do some pretty impressive correction with the PC, so I wouldn't be in *too* much of a hurry to get a rotary.
 
Well made another attempt with the new products that I received. I kinda experimented with it and and just tried out the products. Man-o-man, does my hand hurt today. Vibration like crazy, after reading some posts I figured that I was possibly trying to hold on to the pc too much. Also had a lot of dusting of the particles, which i believe was polish that looked dried up. I didn't have this problem with the first time I used the Megs with megs polish. I figured I was using too much polish so I started to decrease the amount of polish. Seemed to break down the polish a lot faster also, but at the same time it did not fix my polish flying everywhere either. The polish seemed be dried also.



I was using EC/OP 50:50 and I read that it can build up on the pad easily for the pc vs rotary. I used tried out all the stuff i had, one orange pad i used different polishes on it also, unsure it that's bad. Then I went to a new one. Even after a few passes I still was unable to remove all the defects. Looks like small crack that spread out 3 ways, extremely small keep in mind. Should I jump up to a megs cutting pad(maroon)???



Inputs? Don't know if i missed anything, I'm at work and doing 20 things at once. Also no pics until i get home...



Thanks

Chris
 
Are you going slow enough with several passes? I think I was going too fast the first time I used it. Move it about an inch per second, and give it some pressure. Then go several passes in various directions.
 
Grimm said:
Are you going slow enough with several passes? I think I was going too fast the first time I used it. Move it about an inch per second, and give it some pressure. Then go several passes in various directions.
Click to expand...



Yeah I was following that rule, vibration was killing me. I centered it pretty well, from my perspective but maybe the BP wasn't aligned well...I bought the one from Top of the Line, flexible urethane bp.
 
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