I've learned I'm a failure.

S

silvergray

New member
Hello guys,

As some of you may know, I planned to detail my Volcano Black B5 Audi A4. I went at it with my PC and Menzerna.



My process:

-Wash with Dawn

-Clay with Zaino Clay

-Wash with Dawn

-Menzerna IP with Classic Motoring Orange Pad

-Menzerna Final Polish II with CM White Pad

-Menzerna Finishing Glaze with CM Red Pad

-Menzerna FMJ with CM Black Pad



Everything was done on speed 5-6. My hands hurt very bad after polishing. I will never use the handle on the PC again. Ever.



Unfortunately, the car doesn't look any better. Since I was forced to park it outside (Make room for new car) it has accumulated many water spots. It also has mad swirls. Nothing came out.



Also, I am led to belive parts of the car have been repainted. (Big thank you to first owner for neglecting to tell me) Maybe you can recommend something a little more intense?



Thanks for your time guys!

(Pics to come. Sorry, its snowing right now.)





-Kevin
 
Are you experienced with using the pc and breaking down polishes? I find it hard to believe that your finish/swirls didn't improve at all after using IP and the pc...typically the PC and medium polishes will get out 80-90% of the swirls, clearing up the look quite a bit, and just leaving deeper swirls/scratches. Also I've done 10 hours straight of detailing many times and have never had my hand hurt from the buffers. Could you expound a bit on your process and how you're working the machine?
 
Sure thing. I basically followed the instructions precisely. I lightly misted the orange power pad with water, appilied 2 8" lines of IP to the paint, working in about 2' x 2' squared. I went up and down, left and right, and diagonally. I continued until the polish could be wiped off relatively easy.



From there, I went on to Final Polish II. Again, I followed the instructions included in the Menzerna kit from Classic Motoring. 2 8" lines, 2' x 2' squares, waiting for polish to begin "hazing over". Wipe area down.



Move on to glaze and FMJ. I will admit, the car is shiny, but water marks and swirls are still present under the right light. I don't know if it is just wierd or bad paint, but it seemed incredibly hard to work with.
 
You can give Menzerna powergloss, OHC or HT EC a try as well. Im not to sure on how much "cut" ability that you're pad has, but im assuming it's the equivalent of a medium cut pad.



Also 2x8" lines seems like a lot of polish to me. Especially after you've got your pad saturated. Once I've got my pad saturated I might use a couple of quarter sized dabs on the pad per fender.



How much pressure are you putting on your pad? You will have to put a little pressure, and speed 6 to get any cutting done. Also don't move very fast either. Slow passes when cutting with a PC.
 
You're not a failure; you just butted heads with some very hard Audi clear. Accumulator gave you some good advice in this thread, have you tried some 4" pads (and backing plate) yet? He also just gave some good advice on an aggressive polish combo to use in this post.



If you're breaking down the polish correctly (working it long enough) and doing a small area (~2' x 2') then you'll have to go to 4" pads on the PC and possibly a more aggressive polish. That is about all you can do with a PC, but the 4" pads do make a lot of difference. Working on a hard clear like that takes some time and a lot of patience using a PC, but like Lightman, I am surprised that you didn't notice *some* improvement.



You will need to make more than one pass with clear that hard. Try to find some lighting that will show how much progress you have made before moving on to another area. The last thing you want to do is finish a whole car and then realize you need to do it over again.
 
I went through the same thing with my VW. The PC really couldnt take care of my problems. I used a rotary for the first time the other day, and man o man what a difference.
 
Silvergray - what pads did you use? Sounds like possibly an excessive amount of polish, especially if you did 2 eight inch lines for each additional panel after the pad was already primed.



As far as 'continued till it could be wiped off easily' goes - you may or may not have broken the polish down. They almost always wipe off easily...it's broken down when it's almost dry/dusty and it seems like it's almost gone. The videos on autogeek show a nice before/after on the polish they are using in the second video - intermediate swirls.



I personally don't see a point in doing the glaze step between FP and LSP. Maybe for a show car, but then again most show cars would never have to see IP..



Lets be honest and clear here - first you said there was no change, that the car doesn't look any better...suggesting that you werent' able to get out ANY swirls.. Now you say there are some swirls/water spots visible in bright light and the car does look shiny...are you possibly expecting perfection like zero swirls? Most likely with hard vw/audi paint and a pc, you are not going to be able to perfect it..it will probably require a rotary. You still have a lot more room though to get more aggressive with your pad and product choice...hopefully you'll be able to get results you're happy with.
 
Can someone clarify the speed I should use. (Both PC and movement.) Like IP, Speed 6, Slow Movements.



Thanks for all your help guys! Looks like I'm going to order some 4" pads
 
You should use speed 6 and slow movements for all polishing, except for the final polish (Menzerna FPII) I like to use 4-5 for this. By slow movements, it is 1/2" per second with overlapping your previous pass by 50%.
 
Silver, once you have evenly spread the polish over your area of choice, you can also apply 15-20lbs of even downward pressure when you are making your slow passes with IP on 5-6 speed. Good luck!
 
It's very hard to quantify how slow to go. I had the same issue on my first try, as I didn't see much difference on my first pass either. So on my next car I made sure to really go slow and take my time. I would estimate it takes a good five minutes on a 2'x2' area. Then instead of just moving on to the next step, stop and inspect your work to make sure you accomplished what you wanted to. Do an area, then if it isn't to your liking, go over it again. You need to perfect your process on one area before you continue with the rest of the car. One pass didn't cut it on my first car, so I experimented with speed and such on my other car until I found how slow I needed to go, how much pressure to apply, and that I automatically needed to go over every area twice with the OHC before I could use the OP.
 
Lightman said:
Silvergray - what pads did you use? Sounds like possibly an excessive amount of polish, especially if you did 2 eight inch lines for each additional panel after the pad was already primed.
Click to expand...



I agree. That sounds like an awful lot of polish to me, if I'm understanding correctly.
 
silvergray you seem to have the problem I had when I started the other day. Only thing i can tell you is take your time and if you think you are going slow, go SLOWER.





Speed is a no no in this game
 
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