First of all, great forum. I've been lurking for awhile and have learned much by reading and trial and error. The weather has been unusually nice all winter long in NorCal and has allowed me to experiment all winter long.
Because of this forum, I have a PC 7424 with 6 1/2 LC pads, Optimum products including: OHC, OC, OP, OPS, OCW; Klasse twins, Poorboy's Natty Blue, and most recently a Hitachi SP18VA with 7 1/2 LC rounded pads.
I've had great success with the PC alone, but it seemed to take forever with the correction of some paint problems including spiderwebbing, light clear coat scratches, etc. I've been working on a dark metallic green Honda Accord 2001 with clearcoat, a 86 Ford Escort with black single stage paint (no clearcoat), and a 1997 red Chrysler T&C minivan with clearcoat. I wanted to get a rotary to speed up the process and to tackle more aggressive defects in paint.
I've read the sticky post on rotary use and decided to try to use the Hitachi to get out some clearcoat scratches and to remove the remaining cobweb scratches that were greatly minimized by the PC. I've also seen some of the amazing pics you guys post, under the sun, under the halogens and strive for the many "after" pics on the site. OK finally...on to the questions....
1) Polishing occurs in the shade, correct? Car was washed and clayed. I used an orange LC pad with OPS and while it left a smooth finish, it also left some light hologramming on the car, noticable when I pulled the car back into the sun. I kept doing that to check my work. With OPS, I worked on the trunk because it was flat, worked slowly and until the product was almost gone. I kept the speed low on the Hitachi between 1 and 2, approx 600-1000 RPM and the paint surface was not even warm to touch. How do you check for hologramming after polishing with a rotary?
2) Is hologramming normal? These were nowhere near as bad when I screwed around with the wrong pads, poor technique and wrong product (the terrible triad!) on a Harbor Freight ($17) rotary a few months back. Was it my pad choice? I'm thinking maybe it was too agressive to start. The hologram was easily corrected with the PC, orange pad and OP, but again, the only complaint is the time it took.
3) Is it normal to use a PC to finish, in order to correct the holograms? I tried to use a white LC pad with OPS to correct the holograms, but with little effect. I've read that some people can compound and finish polish with the rotary:wow:
Any advice would be welcomed, from pad choice, to product to technique.
TIA for the help!
Because of this forum, I have a PC 7424 with 6 1/2 LC pads, Optimum products including: OHC, OC, OP, OPS, OCW; Klasse twins, Poorboy's Natty Blue, and most recently a Hitachi SP18VA with 7 1/2 LC rounded pads.
I've had great success with the PC alone, but it seemed to take forever with the correction of some paint problems including spiderwebbing, light clear coat scratches, etc. I've been working on a dark metallic green Honda Accord 2001 with clearcoat, a 86 Ford Escort with black single stage paint (no clearcoat), and a 1997 red Chrysler T&C minivan with clearcoat. I wanted to get a rotary to speed up the process and to tackle more aggressive defects in paint.
I've read the sticky post on rotary use and decided to try to use the Hitachi to get out some clearcoat scratches and to remove the remaining cobweb scratches that were greatly minimized by the PC. I've also seen some of the amazing pics you guys post, under the sun, under the halogens and strive for the many "after" pics on the site. OK finally...on to the questions....
1) Polishing occurs in the shade, correct? Car was washed and clayed. I used an orange LC pad with OPS and while it left a smooth finish, it also left some light hologramming on the car, noticable when I pulled the car back into the sun. I kept doing that to check my work. With OPS, I worked on the trunk because it was flat, worked slowly and until the product was almost gone. I kept the speed low on the Hitachi between 1 and 2, approx 600-1000 RPM and the paint surface was not even warm to touch. How do you check for hologramming after polishing with a rotary?
2) Is hologramming normal? These were nowhere near as bad when I screwed around with the wrong pads, poor technique and wrong product (the terrible triad!) on a Harbor Freight ($17) rotary a few months back. Was it my pad choice? I'm thinking maybe it was too agressive to start. The hologram was easily corrected with the PC, orange pad and OP, but again, the only complaint is the time it took.
3) Is it normal to use a PC to finish, in order to correct the holograms? I tried to use a white LC pad with OPS to correct the holograms, but with little effect. I've read that some people can compound and finish polish with the rotary:wow:
Any advice would be welcomed, from pad choice, to product to technique.
TIA for the help!
