How to speed up the polishing process?

P

Project "2"

New member
It takes me like 5 hours to going over the whole car with cutting pad. After that, i get really tired and it may take an other 3 or 4 hours to polish the whole car with polishing pad. How do you guys do it?

It seems like you guys can get it to flawless finish with less 6 hours.

I am using a pc and 3m rubber compound fine cut and smr are usually my choice. I've tired DACP, it takes like 3 passes each panel to get most of the swirls out:(

Thanks.

~Yip.
 
Well I've spent more time than that w/a PC and never removed mar/defect one.



But from what I've been reading here is that using a PC does take longer than a rotary (my weapon of choice).



Do you need to use both a cutting and polishing pad on each panel?



Even with a rotary, I start out with a 3M Waffle polishing pad and work the panel a couple of times with that.



If I'm not getting results then I'll slap on a light cut pad (using the same polish) and try that.



How bad are the panels?
 
I've had the same experience as both of you - either spending a LOT of time going over a car to get minor swirling out or not making a dent at all...



Yesterday I hit my brother's friend's 91 accord with the PC as a test - it is very oxidized, no reflection whatsoever, can't even tell what color it is, since it's in such bad shape... 5-6 hits @ 6 with SSR2.5 and a yellow LC cutting pad.



I nearly removed all the scratches and brought mad gloss back to the paint in the spot i worked. The metallic sparkled, the paint shined, but who knows how much I removed to get it there. It definitely heated up the paint to the point of softening it a bit, using a decent amount of pressure, soft enough that the pad didn't leave any visible marring... But I'd hate to do a whole car like that.



I think a rotary is really required for paint correction in a reasonable amount of time and even then, depending on how bad the car is, it can take a while. Aside from saving time, I think you can get away with a lighter polish/pad combo to acheive great results.



Now where's that link to order my Makita? :D
 
Project "2" said:
It takes me like 5 hours to going over the whole car with cutting pad. After that, i get really tired and it may take an other 3 or 4 hours to polish the whole car with polishing pad. How do you guys do it?

It seems like you guys can get it to flawless finish with less 6 hours.

I am using a pc and 3m rubber compound fine cut and smr are usually my choice. I've tired DACP, it takes like 3 passes each panel to get most of the swirls out:(

Thanks.

~Yip.
Click to expand...

I must say it either something is wrong with your techique or either you are working on a car that is beyond a PC and needs a rotary. I usually can do a car in reasonable shape in 3-4 hours for both DACP and #80. A car with bad swrils and oxidation take 6 hours. Make sure you are working on a small section at a time and use enough polish. When you use not enough you actually introduce swrils from the pad. Don't let the polish dry out only work it in until there is a thin transparent film. Check out tips for using the PC at the articles button here. My process is if you can't get it 90% swrill free from 2 passes of DACP and a cutting pad its time to break out the rotary.
 
They are not really as bad as everyone thinks.



Sure you can mess something up if your not careful (but you can poke your eye out with a pencil too).



When I got my A4 and started using Hi-Temp products I brought some LC 4" pads and spent a few nights in the garage practicing on the hood. I already had my Dewalt 849 from painting cars.



I picked a really swirled spot and tried different level's of polish (light/medium/heavy cut) with different cutting or polishing pads and at various rpm's.



I found my groove with the rpms set at 1000 - 1200 and the right application of product to pad (either waffle or Orange light cut).



Whereas before I was like the poster of the thread, spending hours and getting no where, I was able to polish half the car in a couple of hours last Saturday.



To me it doesn't matter which tool you use, you need to spend the time to learn what combination works effectively for you (not implying anyone hasn't).



Shift the immediate focus from "getting results" to how do I get results and at some point reading isn't going to be enough you'll need some practical application.



The definition of madness is doing the same thing the same way and expecting different results
 
I use a rotory plus Menzerna Power Gloss to cut the time down. PG is just a concentrated IP, so it cuts faster, but not more "aggressively".
 
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