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imported_christopher

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Hi everyone,

I just used my new porter cable w/ the CMA kit and it looked great in the sun, but now at night under the street light i am seeing a lot of swirls and scratches in places where they were'nt before today, like in the middle of my hood and door sides and roof not to mention the scuffs along my cherokees ridges which i thought were large enough to work on.



I usually polish and wax by hand and thought the pc would be fool proof. I washed, clayed, then polished w/ eagle one wet and a white pad at speed 3 then buffed off w/ a terry bonnett at speed 3 letting the machine do the work; then i applyed two coats of M's gold class liquid wax at speed 3 buffing each off w/ a mircofiber bonnett at speed 3 and finally hand buffing w/ a miracle towel. Was the speed to high?



It looks like i took a rotary buffer to it, so how come? i really just let the machine do the work and moved along a grid pattern finishing where i started. some of the scratches that are new are deep because my finger nail can fell them. Maybe it was my fault for not washing the kit before i opened and used it?



Shoot i guess now I should strip it and work in some #9 but at what speed?



any helpful advice or lessons would be appreciated.

christopher.
 
Hi Christopher, that's a bummer about getting scratches that you can feel with your fingernail from PC usage. There isn't anything inherent with a PC or CMA foam pads that would cause that. It sounds like somehow some grit got in the pad or something. :confused: I am a PC advocate but I'm not crazy about using a PC for buffing. A 6" bonnet just doesn't have very much surface and can become gummed up pretty quickly. When you are wiping wax off by hand you can have more of a feel for when your wipe cloth is getting full.



I haven't used M #9 however I hear that it is close in compostition to 3M SMR. I like to use SMR at power setting #5 and a white pad. The yellow pad also works well and provides a little more cutting action. When I use SMR I work on a panel at a time and work the SMR back and forth starting with medium to firm pressure and gradually backing off on the pressure till the I'm just using the weight of the machine itself. I work the SMR in with multiple passes until it almost disappears. Then I buff it off with a MFT.
 
I agree with Short Cut, it sounds like some dirt or something got in the pad or bonnet. Also just like Short Cut, i think that the terry bonnets are junk, and the caus of your scratches. Next time you polish and wax, remove all the products by hand, i think your results will be much better if you do so.:xyxthumbs
 
Yeah i spent all night thinking over where i went wrong and the scuff marks reminded me of a time when i used cheap terry towels on my old car, because of the many tiny scratches that look like sand paper. As for the larger real scratches which i can feel, i don't know, it just pisses me off, i should of washed the pads before using them and i think that the terry bonnets are junk also, the MF's are okay but i'll stick to my MT



So from now on i'll just buff out by hand which i prefere anyway for the reasons Short Cut stated above. I think i'll start off w/ #9 at 3.5 then go up to 4 and maybe 4.5, because it's new to me and i need to get used to the porter cables speed, so far i've only been to #4. Then i'll work in some #7 and put M's g class.



I am kind of worried about using #9 with the pc for getting scratches out of my jeep, the paint was never hand washed when i got it, but i am really more worried about ruining my clear coat or taking to much off seeing as it is only a milimeter thick. I think i'll run a search for #9 methods.
 
I have become quite obsessive with the "Clean" factor in regards to the use of all of the car care application tools.

I have 10 freezer bags with various things stored in them.

One bag has the clean MF towels,one for in use QD towels only, one for in use buffing towels only and one for the to be washed dirty ones.



I even split up the foam pads for applying the Klasse AIO & SG.



The pads for the PC I have seperated an bagged as well. It is so easy to pick up some dirt, grit and pass this along to the finish.



I learned this doing the wifes car and am much more careful now.

In my case I did not have scratches that deep. I followed advice here (SMR) and tried the repair procedure on the hood only and checked the results before moving on.



I guess I went overboard with buying more products after this. I can't seem to have enough of the MF towels when I need them.

Even the foam pads, I have 8 of them now with certain ones labeled with product use ( AIO,SG) even after washings them seperately.



The bottom line is assure the car is clean and check/rotate your applicators, MFT towels as needed.
 
i have every MF towel, clay bar container, foam/terry/microfiber applicators in seperate ziplock bags and bags for the Porter cables pads and i wash them all seperately too. I usually do the whole car by hand, but then i got the porter cable for xmas so i had to try it out. I think i know where the small scratches came from, it looks like the terry bonnett b/c of the marks and today after i washed them and inspected the terry bonnetts i found grit or something inbedded at the bottom which explains the larger scratches, so i've got to go over it with tweezers.

Your right about the bottom line which i am great at when it comes to doing it by hand, i just need to check my bonnetts before hand and make sure the pads look okay.

Anyhow i am going to work on the beater my parents never use with the pc to see what happens after i make it squeaky clean.
 
I just watched the video. Very cool, although I am a oversized, fossil fuel, transport vehicle guy at heart... Spending a couple of days in NYC or Chicago definitely shows the benefit of such vehicles. This is further proof that the future is going to be... weird.
 
They point out some very intriguing applications for those. I also like the fact they mention they'll still be the need for the long range "second" car as this thing has a range of 25 miles. Then again, they are GM and they have to retain the market for all of their products.

I also think that by the time they introduce those into the market we probably will have reliable, continuously available networks everywhere.

Cool concept!
 
great concept... but what about the person that has one of these and still has to be on the road with those inconsiderate drivers that refuse to give up the comfort of their suv gas guzzler... i only drive 4 miles to work so these would definitely work for me.
 

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RaskyR1 said:
LMAO!

I didn't see that at first but now that you mention it! LOL!


DC, we'd look pretty good in one of those! ;)
Click to expand...

It does resemble a motorcycle helmet LOL!!!

Rasky , you would look good in anything!:biggrin:

I personally like the black one with the dark tinted windows! I like all the open windows but it would make you feel like a fish in a bowl without the window tint.( That or some Sun glasses) :cool:
 
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