Halogen lights/when to say when?

Z

zannard

If I only had more time.
I know a lot of you out there use halogen lights of some sort while detailiing. I too use them since they show the most imperfections.

Anyhow, sometimes I don't know when to say when. For example. I was working on a 5 year old car that was maintained ok. My problem is scratches vs. swirls under the halogen lighting. The hood is usually the worst. Using the PC I can easily remove most swirls. (what I consider swirls). Then, using a rotary I can improve the finish even more.

STILL, I have what I guess you would call fine scratches in the hood. Is it even possible to remove these scratches? Or would the next step be sanding?

After all the steps the scratches are harder to see under the halogens, you have to look at them from an angle, and almost invisible in the sunlight. So when do you say when?

I use most of the same products everyone else here uses, but I feel that I still can't get the perfect result I am looking for. Do you think I am striving for something that cannot be achieved with just polishing?

Well, I'm a perfectionist, I'm also still learning what I can and cannot do.

thanks
 
zannard,

I know the feeling... my wife, and the people I work with say I am a "perfectionist", and a "pessimist"... the worst possible combination! :D My theory is this.. "I want it perfect and there's no way it will ever be perfect"! :lmfao

Anyhow, yes, you can drive yourself crazy trying to get paint perfect when using magnification and/or specialized lighting. My advise is the following:

Wet sanding will not help, as you will be starting over with the abrasive polishes. Remember to remove scratches and swirls, you are using a polish/compound/ that is essentially making it's own fine scratches (so to speak) to remove the larger scratches.

The secret is to remove the fine buffing marks with an abrasive that creates even finer buffing marks to remove the "previous" buffing marks... and so on... until it gets to the point where the marks are so fine, that they can't be seen by the naked eye under direct sunlight and normal lighting conditions.

I'm not sure what products you are using, or the steps you are taking, but I am assuming that you are using mutliple steps, with progressively less abrasive products and pads. Anyhow, if you want, try something like this...

Pick up some of 3M's Trizact Machine Glaze or Imperial Machine Glaze or even some Meguiar's Machine Glaze. Now, follow your normal steps to polish your paint. Then, take one of the 3M's products and a finishing pad on your rotary and "burnish" the paint. Take a 50/50 mix of alcohol and distilled water... wipe the area and check it. The products I mentioned use extremely fine abrasives, or the act of using them generates an extremely, extremely fine abrasive "cut". I understand that Menzerna has a new polish (PO85RD) that fits into this category and may be even a better choice.
 
Zannard,

Nice, colorful post :bigups

Yeah, 3m Perfect It III Machine Glaze or the new Perfect It 3000 SMR equivalent on a polishing pad via PC may get the rest of those defects out. Several passes may be needed at times and this coupled with the inspection with the lights, as you know well now, can be quite time consuming.

Nice thing is, light defects generally don't need such aggressive techniques as you outlined.

When you get the finish as defect free as possible the key is to keep it that way. This involves using high quality, extremely soft MFs, mitts and even going to unprecedented lengths in your wash procedure :D Sure beats polishing out new defects and the material are expendable while your clear is not. It's only original once.

Here's to swirl free finishes! :drunk
 
Thanks for the posts......just wanted to see what others thought were. Like I said, I'm still learning on what I can and can't fix. I do get a beautiful shine, but I'm always trying to achieve more.

thanks for your help.
 
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