Help!!!! Still get pits/mini craters from polishing!!

I

imported_flightz71

New member
I made a post a while back about how using a porter cable with SSR 2.5 and a edge green pad was causing a million little pits in my finish...



I switched to optimum polish and a lake country orange pad...but I'm still creating pits!!



Ie: polishing the hood...



Prior to polishing...the paint looks like it's swirled extremely badly and has abrasion from clay bar.



After, ALL the swirls are gone (Optimum Polish + Orange Pad followed by Menzerna's PO106FF + White Pad)...but i have a battlefield of pits on my hood...there isn't a single spot under the halogen spot lights where there isn't a pit...





Am I doing something wrong?





I use a small amount of polish, spread at 4, polish at 6 the whole time, 10lbs of pressure on the porter cable, and divide the hood into 12 sections to make sure i'm not moving too fast/polishing too much area...





Help anyone?



Thanks in advance...



-Calvin :sadwavey:
 
You probably are not creating pits, you are discovering them. When was the last time you polished? You probably are just pulling contaminants off the surface which is showing the pits.
 
I've experienced this before, and I know some other members have too. I've never been able to lock down a concrete explanation.
 
You're process shouldn't be causing pits, i don't think any rotary or PC would cause paint to pit no matter what type of pad you're using. Unless the paint job is so cheap that as the PC goes over the paint it ripping off small chunks of paint - highly unlikely though.



Another guess is that the pits are already there put as you go across the car, the different products are filling the pits making them more noticable.
 
Take a close look at your windshield and you will probably see the same pits - even though you didn't polish the windshield.



If the car has been driven on the highway for any period of time, then the continous stream of airborne debris (sand, grit, slag, salt, etc) will put thousands of tiny pock-marks on almost any surface.



I'm also betting that you aren't creating the pits with the polisher. Scratches, swirls, holograms - maybe - but not pits.
 
the pits are just normal rock chip damage...just not deep enough to completely remove the paint...if you REALLY want to get rid of them...wetsanding and leveling with a wool pad with an aggressive polish will take care of them...just be warned you will be thinning the paint....
 
Yeah, I get that occasionally and most of the time on older cars. It is just normal wear that you are uncovering. Pitts are better than swirls.
 
ZaneO said:
I've experienced this before, and I know some other members have too. I've never been able to lock down a concrete explanation.
Click to expand...



I wonder if this is the same as the "hooks" people have been talking about here off and on. If I remember correctly, the probable culprit was not breaking down the polish enough. That or working on a very soft clearcoat.
 
I had the same problem with an '02 black Porsche. I was polishing out a fine scratch with my PC.. after removing the polish residue these spots appeared out of nowhere, like a million pin holes. They must have been voids below the surface and when I removed a bit of clear they became visible.



I was able to get them out but it took A LOT of polishing and I probably removed a lot of clear. Put it this way, I polished out the orange peel on the hood using a PC. I had to get them out because they were really noticeable (at least to me).



Unfortunately, you may just have to live with them if you don't have a lot of paint thickness left.. you might go through the clear trying to get them out (at the time, my car was new and without previous polishing so I knew I had a good amount of clear). Good luck.
 
My black car (almost impossible to see on lighter colors) has these "pits" if you would call them that, its actually from other cars kicking up crap onto your paint on the highway. Tiny particles, not big enough to make a full stone chip, like one grain of sand hitting the paint really fast. My windshield has this sandblasted effect as well, it just happens when your car is a daily driver unfortunately.
 
Hey guys, Thanks for the replies!!



The car I'm working on is a pretty old car (97 Supra Turbo)



But I noticed this on my 2003 M3 too!! And not just the hood...on my M3...it was the doors...rear quarter panel...etc



=.=???
 
flightz71 said:
Hey guys, Thanks for the replies!!



The car I'm working on is a pretty old car (97 Supra Turbo)



But I noticed this on my 2003 M3 too!! And not just the hood...on my M3...it was the doors...rear quarter panel...etc



=.=???
Click to expand...



My car had them in many places, too, not just on the hood. They were definitely not pits from road debrit, they were within the clear. Someone told me it was solvent pop, but I'm not sure.
 
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