Crazy soft clear over BLACK

Y

yourgrandma

New member
I searched long and hard to find my car, an 02 Bonneville SSEi in good enough shape to satisfy my tastes. The clear on these cars is about as hard and durable as a coat of peanutbutter, so most of them look pretty bad. Mine was as pristine as any id seen. During my detail on it, I noticed it had been polished in the past, explaining its excellent finish, but worrying me about future polish work.



So ive had the car over three years and the accumulated fine swirls from drying, waxing, general winter torture, have added up to take away that "pop" it had before. I want to get into machine polishing but i suspect this isnt the car to start with.



Ive ben looking at all the kits available based around the PC DA polisher and Im not sure which one would work best to give a mild correction to my finish. Megs 105 would seem far too aggressive to start with on this car, could I get much of a resul using an LC orange pad and 205?



Guide me oh wise ones!



Thanks for any info...
 
If I were you I would hold off for the new DA Microfibersystem from Meguiars. I heard its gonna be very user friendly and amazing
 
yourgrandma- I'm surprised its clear is soft, GM clear is usually pretty hard. I suspect you'll need something more aggressive than you'd think.



I'd look into the Griot's Garage 6" random orbital polisher instead of a PC.
 
Ive only noticed how easily my car and the CTS-V my buddy's dad had me freshen up mar. I hand polished quite a few paw prints from the cat off the V. You'd know better than I how theyd compare to other makes. I do know my older GMs had much more durable clear.



What also worries me is that I dont know how aggressively it was polished before, and the last thing I want is too thin of clear coat. Id rather have an 80% correction than wrecked clear.
 
Stay away from using M205 on a very soft clear as your finishing polish, sure it will cut out defects but it wont finish down 100% from my experience on soft clear... non diminishing abrasives arent ideal for soft clears, better go with something that has a longer work time and more room to finesse.



I suggest using something like Menzerna 106FA as a light polish and finishing product, that works wonders on soft clears if your using a DA with a soft foam pad.



For cutting I'd say Menzerna powerfinish is ideal, has some solid bite but finishes out nicely even on softer cars, just be gentle with your last few passes and lower the speed and pressure on a DA.
 
Thanks for the tips David. Would you say a LC green or should i go softer than that for finishing? Im having a hard time with the border between the first step and second step with polishing. Would one usually use the same grade pad for both steps or go to a non cutting pad for the second step?



I definately need to review the basics, the last time i read up on this was last spring.
 
yourgrandma said:
Thanks for the tips David. Would you say a LC green or should i go softer than that for finishing? Im having a hard time with the border between the first step and second step with polishing. Would one usually use the same grade pad for both steps or go to a non cutting pad for the second step?



I definately need to review the basics, the last time i read up on this was last spring.
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There are 2 types of LC green, and one is horrible. I dont know which one you have but generally I would say bump down to a black LC pad for finishing while using the 106FA.



You definitely want to correct the paint initially with a more aggressive pad and finish with a less aggressive pad.
 
So a zero cut pad is good for finish polishing, not just LSP in general.



I still havent bout anything just yet, im putting together my list. Id like to go for one of the kits offered on may sites as they usually save some cash.
 
I always remember something I read on here years ago. Start with the least aggressive combination of product and pad that you feel will do the job. If you don't get the finish you want then go one step more aggressive, etc. until you reach the desired results. If you start out too aggressively then you will spend alot of time and effort repairing the damage you just did.
 
Accumulator said:
yourgrandma- I'm surprised its clear is soft, GM clear is usually pretty hard. I suspect you'll need something more aggressive than you'd think.



I'd look into the Griot's Garage 6" random orbital polisher instead of a PC.
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If the GM CC is OEM I've yet to see one I'd consider "soft". Defects appear easily because.. well.. it's black!



dsms said:
Stay away from using M205 on a very soft clear as your finishing polish, sure it will cut out defects but it wont finish down 100% from my experience on soft clear... non diminishing abrasives arent ideal for soft clears, better go with something that has a longer work time and more room to finesse.
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No truer words... I beat my brains out trying to get 205 to finish on a super-soft clear.



dsms said:
I suggest using something like Menzerna 106FA as a light polish and finishing product, that works wonders on soft clears if your using a DA with a soft foam pad.



For cutting I'd say Menzerna powerfinish is ideal, has some solid bite but finishes out nicely even on softer cars, just be gentle with your last few passes and lower the speed and pressure on a DA.
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Couple outside-the-box things I've found work excellent on soft clears, believe it or not. A finishing pad with 105 as well as a light cutting pad with 85RD. Optimum Hyper Polish with black LC works as well. I about tore my hair out on a black Harley tank until I stumbled on a thread where Nick Chapman used LC yellow to finish with 205 on a black super-soft clear that was driving him crazy. Now when I run into one of those clears that will drive you to drinking I try that which one wouldn't normally expect to finish well. So far, so good. YMMV.



TL
 
Hmm, perhaps my impression of the hardness was shaped by the color. I still would like to be as gentle as possible because I have no way of knowing whats left of the clear. If it was original id be all about wet sanding the orange peel off and going crazy to get a mirror out of it, but im not tempting fate, Ill settle for "very nice".
 
yourgrandma said:
Hmm, perhaps my impression of the hardness was shaped by the color. I still would like to be as gentle as possible because I have no way of knowing whats left of the clear. If it was original id be all about wet sanding the orange peel off and going crazy to get a mirror out of it, but im not tempting fate, Ill settle for "very nice".
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You're in MN, right?



If you want to try a few different things this spring, let me know. I have a pretty large selection of pads and products to test out. On a friends black Bonneville GXP, we did a quick one step with 205, but would've done a two step with 105 /205 if we had the time.



PC 7424XP's and Lake Country pads can be found locally, too.



Randy
 
yourgrandma said:
Yes Randy, I am from MN. My names also Randy.



Where are you located? I would very much like that.
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I am in Zimmerman, just north of Elk River.



Until it warms up, I'm not going to be doing anything in my unheated shop, but when the weather breaks, then I have some projects already lined up. I have a rotary, Flex, and PC7424 with Meguiars pads and all the flavors / sizes of LC pads (flat, CCS, etc) if you want to try them out. M105, M205, SIP, 106FA, XMT 4, Z-PC, and a bunch of other stuff to play with, also. (I'm a hoarder, I guess!)



You are welcome to stop over this spring. :thumb:



Randy
 
dsms said:
Stay away from using M205 on a very soft clear as your finishing polish, sure it will cut out defects but it wont finish down 100% from my experience on soft clear... non diminishing abrasives arent ideal for soft clears, better go with something that has a longer work time and more room to finesse.



I suggest using something like Menzerna 106FA as a light polish and finishing product, that works wonders on soft clears if your using a DA with a soft foam pad.



For cutting I'd say Menzerna powerfinish is ideal, has some solid bite but finishes out nicely even on softer cars, just be gentle with your last few passes and lower the speed and pressure on a DA.
Click to expand...



thank you... thank you...thank you.

po85rd and po106fa are absolutely the true "finishing" polishes of those mentioned.



-Hey Dogma!
 
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