Having a heck of a time with swirls.... don't know where Im going wrong.

S

SkeptiKal

New member
I have access to both a PC 7428 and a 7336. Using lake country pads and/or DACP/SSR2.5, the swirls seem to laugh at the combo. LOTS of passes and product application is needed to even get any results. Doing a hood could take me 2 hours at this rate (if not more).



Not to mention the hours upon hours to just do the polishing step in a full detail of a whole car's exterior.



Im stuck right now and don't know where to take it. Maybe my technique is faulty? Maybe I need better pads and/or product? No clue, but something needs to be done.



I generally deal with 3-7 year old vehicles which have never been polished. I am not satisfied with any combination of product or process, and I have to make a change as my current regiment is just not cutting it (literarly).



I have other products but DACP and SSR2.5 seem to be the most aggresive out of the bunch. Maybe I need SSR3?
 
SkeptiKal, I am in the same boat as you are. I cannot seem to find my groove with the PC. I don't know if I am expecting too much from the PC, or if I just can't get it right. After all the reading I did about it before I bought mine I was so excited that it would be the miracle device. It just hasn't done what I expected. My polishing job on my 10 year old GM paint job still isn't done. My neighbors think I'm insane because of the amount of time it is taking me to finish it. I want all the swirls GONE, and I just don't know if I am being unreasonable or what. I have been using SSR 2.5 with a yellow Propel on my ride, and this weekend I tried SSR 1 with green Propel on my mother in law's Explorer and couldn't get that to do what I wanted either. Very frustrating. Also, before anyone suggests speed 6: my Propel pad started to disintegrate on speed 6 so that's not an option anymore.
 
Sounds like you are dealing with hard clear. What vehicle is it?



The 7428 is the PC rotary right? Use that with a LC polishing pad. If you're going to go with the DACP be sure it fully breaks down. Wipe with the isopropyl alcohol mix . Inspect. Repeat as needed.



Other product recommendations I would give are the 3mPerfect It III/3000 series or Menzerna. The use of the a rotary will certainly bring out their full potential.



As always, if the least aggressive polishing combination doesn't work after several tries gradually move up to the next aggressive one. In this case of of those two polishes and a LC cutting pad. You'll probably have to work your way back down to the polishing pad. You could perhaps even follow as a very final step with the PC.



I can definitely relate to the getting nowhere after hours feeling :wall In my case it's a sure love-hate relationship with two cars with hard clear.
 
my situation sux too. i was gonna make a new thread but ill do it here so i dont waste a thread. i just got a PC and tried polishing my new 8 yr old (1997) pathfinder that has never been detailed. in the sunlight it looks fine cause the color is forgiving but in the garage under bulbs it looks swirled to hell. first time using PC so i tried 80 on a sonus green. nothing. moved up to 83 on a sonus orange...little better but deep swirls were horrible in bulb light. i did a second pass starting on 4 and working up to about 5, moving slowly. still looks like crap under that light. dont know what i did wrong
 
I was in the same boat as you guys until I realized that you need a better technique, a higher speed, and TONS of pressure. Variable pressure is a better way of putting it but after spreading the product on 4, I crank it to 6 and LAY on the PC. This works every single time for me.. Hard clears suck, but you just have to be persistant with it.
 
IMO "two hours on a hood" isn't very long. I've spent a *lot* longer than that on some cars, even with a rotary for the worst of it. I don't mean that in a :nono way, just saying how it always takes me a long time. That's one of the downsides to being cautious/careful.



IMO you need to know when to say "good enough". While some people here use very aggressive products, wool pads on a rotary, and even wetsanding, if *I* can't get a flaw out with the rotary (no more than 1,750 rpms or so), a cutting pad, and 3M PI-III RC (05933) then I just live with it.



You folk who are frustrated with the performance of your PCs need to try 4" pads. Much more aggressive than the larger ones. These will put you right at the limit of what you can do with a PC. In my experience, a 4" foam pad is more aggressive than a 6" wool one, for instance.
 
sQuashed said:
I was in the same boat as you guys until I realized that you need a better technique, a higher speed, and TONS of pressure. Variable pressure is a better way of putting it but after spreading the product on 4, I crank it to 6 and LAY on the PC. This works every single time for me.. Hard clears suck, but you just have to be persistant with it.
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ill try to give that a shot. i dont think i ever got up to 6 an i may have applied light presure but i could have done more. i didnt know if it was my process or the products. DACP is a pretty strong product so it should have gotten out what i needed. i did up/down, left/right, then tried diag/somewhat circular. if i did the polish/wax this weekend is it too early to try again next weekend? its never been polished so i dont think the clears in any position to fail.
 
tensors22288 said:
.. if i did the polish/wax this weekend is it too early to try again next weekend? its never been polished so i dont think the clears in any position to fail.
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I sincerely doubt that you're taking off much clear since you didn't remove the marring. As for "too soon?", that's up to you. Time isn't relevent to the paint, only to you ;) If you don't have anything better to do there's no reason to wait. But *I* would wait until it needed rewaxing or something since I always have other demands on my time.
 
I've also found that using some pressure with the PC is the best way (for me, anyhow) to get results on heavier or stubborn swirls. I spread whatever polish I'm using at 3 or 4, then crank it to 6 and make the first couple of passes with a good bit of pressure. Subsequent passes get less and less pressure, until on the last pass or two, I'm supporting most of the machine's weight an getting good spin on the pad.



Tort
 
I was looking at the features of the 7428 and it states that its operating speed ranges from 1,000 to 3,000 RPM. The dial on the unit goes from 1 to 6. Can we assume 6 = 3000 then? 4 = 2000rpm?



When people come and bring me their car for swirl removing or something, with my current methods I can not make it econimal for both me and them as it takes me such a long time.



By Mezerna you mean their IP (Intensive Polish)? But somehow I still doubt its capabilities are that much greater than 2.5 or DACP.
 
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