first result with a circular polisher

Blink21Me

Blink21Me

E36 M user
So I got my Hitachi SP18VA and gave it a try on my car... Here are the results;



BEFORE (last time I polished it with a PC was 8-10 months ago);

DSC01421.jpg




After I experimented on the hood of my car;

DSC01425.jpg




First I tried SSR1 on orange Edge pad and it didn't do good enough. Then I moved up to SSR2.5 on another orange Edge pad. I spent a good 2 hours experimenting on my hood. The highest speed I got up to with the rotary was ~2400 RPM... As you can see in the above picture there still are some impurities on the surface... My hood is chipped pretty bad from highway driving (it's still the original paint since 1997).



I seem to cannot do any better, I don't know if it's the clear that's damaged, or if other products besides Poorboy's can repair it... Please give me tips and advices... Right about now I'm going to wash the car again and give the SSR2.5 on Green Edge pad a try...



thanks a lot!

Joven
 
right now I only have poorboy's SSR2.5 and SSR1. But I can pick up some Meguiar's polishes/compounds/swirl removers/glazes in a local auto detailing store. Just don't know yet which specific one I should give a try next.
 
You might try Meg's #83 DACP, I hear it's a bit stronger than the SSR 2.5 I feel ya on the hard clear of those E36 BMW's....I owned 4 of them, 2 jet black. ;) :(



P.S.--->I love the avatar. :heelclick
 
i'm a rotary newb myself, but 2400rpm sounds pretty fast to me. from reading on here i thought 1500-1700 was the max most people use. definitely try #83 or order some OC / OHC and give that a shot.



another side note (just an observation): you have a TON of swirls on that car after 8 months. you may want to evaluate your current wash process and improve that. less swirls = easier to polish in the future. :)
 
slow down with the speed and move slower. Now you can use ssr2.5 with a polishing (soft) pad to get rid of the rest. After that you can use your ssr1 and a pc or the rotary and a finishing pad but look for holograms if no pc is used.
 
I actually started with the rotary set at the lowest speed and spent a long time at the same setting. I also tried moving the rotary fast and slow. Just like I said, I spent 2 hours on the hood itself only ~ experimenting, and it turned out that when I raised the speed while moving the machine the same rate of slowness, it produced a slightly better result...
 
As long as you don't let your polish dry up while going 2400rpm, there shouldn't be a problem. I keep a spray bottle of water on me just to keep it lubed up so I can work it in until I'm happy.



Looks pretty good in the pictures, but there are still a few imperfections left. Pretty good for your first time. I'm very impressed you weren't afraid to try out a rotary! Props to ya man!
 
paradigm said:
another side note (just an observation): you have a TON of swirls on that car after 8 months. you may want to evaluate your current wash process and improve that. less swirls = easier to polish in the future. :)
Click to expand...
the swirls were actually already there when I got the car. I'm pretty meticulous when it comes to detailing my car and I only use things that I'm sure won't create swirls when washing/drying...
 
Invigor said:
As long as you don't let your polish dry up while going 2400rpm, there shouldn't be a problem. I keep a spray bottle of water on me just to keep it lubed up so I can work it in until I'm happy.



Looks pretty good in the pictures, but there are still a few imperfections left. Pretty good for your first time. I'm very impressed you weren't afraid to try out a rotary! Props to ya man!
Click to expand...
thanks!



I think I'll give other products a try before using the SSR2.5 on the green pad...
 
Blink21Me- I'm playing around (working on it on and off) with correcting the beat paint on my E36 too, even though I plan to get it painted. A few sorta-random thoughts follow:



Yeah, you can use some pretty high speeds on the BMW clear, but watch it around plastic parts. I've pretty much settled on using lower speeds and more aggressive products, just a lot safer that way, but I was a little surprised that I got away with the speeds that I did.



Yeah#2, it can take hours on end, even with the rotary. I'm pretty sure you can still get it better than, but then again I'm willing to take chances on mine as it's getting repainted.



IMO you oughta use more aggressive products. I'm going through a *lot* of H-T EC with orange and yellow cutting pads. I sometimes think I oughta get out my old 3M PI-III Extra Cut Rubbing Compound, but that stuff's liquid sandpaper. My painter, who views my efforts (on paint he's gonna take off anyway) with amusement, thinks I oughta be wetsanding it or at least using wool pads. You just gotta be aggressive with the paint on these things.



You've already make a lot of progress, but you can see how difficult this stuff sometimes is. Imagine if you didn't have the rotary :eek: I bet you're already pretty happy with the big improvement.
 
Being new to a rotory can be a challenge, but it will also make the best results and will correct faster and produce the best gloss. Just take your time and the results will get better and better. Like accumulator said, stay away from plastic, trim and stay away from the edges.
 
Ok guys, I think I gave up on the SSR2.5 and SSR1. Can you suggest me a way of how to perfect this finish? Products? Techniques? details of each? I'm willing to redo and restart everything over in order to find out what works well to remove the swirl...



thanks!
 
I've yet to get anything as nice as I want it on my E36 so I hesitate to suggest anything specific.



What're you after at this point? Better correction of the serious stuff or a better final finish?
 
I like to bust out the rotary on really bad cars to 'knock' off the big stuff. And then after that I'll follow up with another polish with the PC and be good to go. In this case you can use SSR2.5 with the rotary and then follow up with SSR2.5 with the PC and a polishing or finishing pad and then SSR1 if you need it.



I tend to use Optimum polishes (OHC and OP) with the rotary and Poorboys with the PC. Both work fine but this works for me.



When you use SSR2.5 with a PC don't use a cutting pad- you'll be inducing a ton of marring from the pad- stick with polishing or finishing pads.
 
I'm still after removing the fine swirls that are left after I did SSR1 on a light cutting pad...



Budman3 thanks for the suggestion. I actually haven't tried a finishing pad, maybe that's where the problem is. I'm using a "none to very light" cut abbrassive on a light cutting pad...
 
Eh..I just don't know from the SSR line so I dunno how helpful I can be. The finishing pad sounds like a good idea, though I can usually get an OK finish with a polishing pad with the products I use :nixweiss
 
I'd suggest using Mothers PowerPolish with a soft finishing pad as your last polishing step. It will finish down quite nicely.
 
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