Getting rid of swirls and light scratches: Good grief!!!!

6

66#1

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Friday afternoon I decided to polish my wife's GTP with my PC for the first time. We've had the car since 2003, but I've only had my PC for a few months. I finally got around to polishing the car with Menzerna IP, Zaino PC, then ZFX/Z2 Pro followed by Z6 then Z8. I had never used any kind of polish/swirl remover other than Scratch X by hand. I had been using Z5 which had helped cover the swirls somewhat, but not all the way.



The car's has an incredible shine qnd smoothness now, but I STILL cannot get rid of the swirl marks. It does look better in regards to swirl marks, but it didn't get rid of nearly as many of them as I thought it would. They really show up under my carport light. It doesn't look bad, but I'm disappointed for sure.



For most of the car, I did the IP followed by Z-PC. However, something came up and I had time to do some of the car using just Z-PC. I used a Sonus Orange pad with the IP, and I started off on a slower speed and then I cranked it up to about 6 until it started to dust. I used the Z-PC with a green pad since I used my orange pad with the IP. I worked it in until I thought it had broken down as well.



Neither one of these products and especially the Z-PC did anything on my Formula either and the paint was in much better shape than on my wife's car.



What else do I need to do? A yellow pad? Poorboys SSR?? I admit I got a little rushed up, but that was a lot of work for nothing basically.
 
I've been reading about polishes and swirl removers recently, and Optimum and SSR2.5 come up a lot. Perhaps you should look into those a bit, and see if you can get your hands on a rotary?
 
For marring removal by PC, I strongly recommend 4" pads. They allow you to apply a lot more pressure without the machine bogging down and merely "jiggling".



That, and spending a lot of time at it. It can literally take hours to correct a single panel by PC. IMO most people have unrealistic expectations about what to expect and don't plan to spend more than a few hours polishing the whole car.



You simply polish-wipe- inspect, over and over, until the area of operation is the way you want it, then move on to the next area.



Oh, and I'm not in favor of working a polish until it dusts, I'd worry about the dry polish causing micromarring. All the polishes I use (and no, they're not the ones under discussion) work best if I wipe them off after they break down but while they're still a little wet.
 
Maybe I didn't do it right, but I thought the IP and the Z-PC would at least help a little. Neither one did squat.



Perhaps it was IP drying out did cause some micro-marring.
 
Accumulator said:
For marring removal by PC, I strongly recommend 4" pads. They allow you to apply a lot more pressure without the machine bogging down and merely "jiggling".



That, and spending a lot of time at it. It can literally take hours to correct a single panel by PC. IMO most people have unrealistic expectations about what to expect and don't plan to spend more than a few hours polishing the whole car.



You simply polish-wipe- inspect, over and over, until the area of operation is the way you want it, then move on to the next area.



Oh, and I'm not in favor of working a polish until it dusts, I'd worry about the dry polish causing micromarring. All the polishes I use (and no, they're not the ones under discussion) work best if I wipe them off after they break down but while they're still a little wet.
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Well said. I've done a whole car with 4" pads and a PC, it really does take me a LONG time. And I've done my fair share and more.



A darker coloured vehicle which is older than about 3 years and has never been polished, will roughly take me 5-6 hours just to remove the paint defects. Maybe a Maguiars burgendy is the answer?? (I have the LC orange - which is a light cutting pad). Who knows??? I have no clue how some of the guys do it, and I've probably tried every product (with the LC pads).
 
SkeptiKal said:
Maybe a Maguiars burgendy is the answer?? (I have the LC orange - which is a light cutting pad)..
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I'd rather use a milder pad in 4" than a more aggressive one in a larger size. And I'd be leery of cutting the Meg's 7006 down to 4"...might cause some nasty hazing.
 
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