Major Scare with 4" pads on UDM

tC_Crazy

New member
So yesterday, I was working on the front bumper of my tC with my UDM, using a 4" orange flat pad and M105. I was working on a slightly curved surface, and put some extra pressure on there to try to get rid of some stubborn swirls. To my horror, as I pushed the machine away from that section, a thick grayish/white, opaque layer revealed itself. I shut off the machine and touched the paint there... it was quite hot. I immediately thought the worse, assuming that my pressure along with the very aggressive compound and 4" pad had caused me to burn the CC. :wow: I sat back in horror and pure shock for a couple minutes... It was a terrible feeling.



I reached for the clay, which did nothing. But then, as i was wiping off (I was angry and you should step away for a little while when something like this happens), I accidentally nicked the "burned" paint with my fingernail. To my surprise, I saw the deep black reflections underneath where my nail had scratched. I took a look at my orange pad, to find it was somewhat torn up in the center (second use on this pad... I clearly killed it with my extra pressure in the last few seconds of polishing). It was also separating on the sides, and the ink on the velcro was smeared from the heat. I switched out to a white 6.5" CCS pad and a larger backing plate, primed it with some M105 and prayed. I switched on the machine, and after 2 passes, I could see my black paint again! The smeared whitish/gray substance was quickly abraded away. I did a couple more light passes and finished with Menz FP. It looks flawless.



Now, I definitely learned my lesson, and will always be that much more careful with the 4" pad, and even larger ones on any curved surfaces. But being the curious person that I am, I really wonder what that substance was on the paint. It was so thin that my nail would not catch between the paint and the gray area, yet it was completely opaque. Could it be melted foam that was sort of spread on the surface, or some weird reaction that M105 had with the heat? Has anybody else experience this?
 
I've had M105 do something similar to me using 4" pads, both with the Cyclo and PC. I'm not sure if it's the M105 itself, or something to do with the foam, but in my case, more polish doesn't seem to help. Prep-solve, OTOH, dissolves the residue with no problem. I can't explain it, and haven't yet figured out the conditions under which it happens. FWIW, this is M105 v1.0.



No answers, just another data point.



Tort
 
It happens to me all the time, especially with hard Ferrari, Merc, BMW and VW paints. From what I gather, it's from heat and the polish "hardening" up and forming a "sheet" of polish (maybe the oils were displaced or something and it dried up???). I usually spray a little QD on it if I see it and continue polishing over it slowly until it fades away, then bump up the speed back to normal. I can imagine what you felt like when you saw it, because I almost $hit myself too... and that was on a Ferrari 599 GTB when it happened to me first :).
 
Happens alot with crappy weather(heat/cold humidty) and 106ff/fa.



Alcohol wipedown of the spot is my remedy, but you gotta get it off as soon as you notice it.
 
I've had the same thing happen to me as well with M105 V1.0. Menz SIP will do something similar when its very humid- both are taken care with a little QD.
 
I bet it was just the heat in my case... it was like 73F in my garage and low humidity. I've seen SIP "insta-flash" and turn into little balls of gummy uselessness, but never anything like this. I guess it's just a quirk of the beast. I was using m105 v2, btw. It may have been because I let it sit for couple mins, but QD and Sonus green clay had no impact whatsoever on the spot. I had to hit it with more polish to get rid of it. I suppose a chemical cleaner or AIO would have probably worked, as well. Perhaps it was helped along by a little heat generated by the pad friction.
 
M105 did the same thing to me last weekend. It was my first ever experience with using a UDM, and the procedure I had come up with was to hit the large flat spots with M105 (hitting scratches a couple of times to get them out), and then use 1ZPP to polish everything up before adding a layer of 476s.



I had already successfully worked this procedure over the tailgate, right side box fender, both right side doors (crew cab) and the right front fender (I was in about the 6th - 8th hour of my detail), and was just starting to work on the hood when the M105 started leaving this film. I was horrified!



Apparently I hadn't done enough reading on here because I didn't know what was causing the filmy layer on the hood. I hadn't seen anything like that on any of the previous panels I had worked over. I thought maybe it had something to do with the fact that this was the first horizontal panel I had worked on. I panicked, not wanting to seriously screw up my hood, and ended up wiping it off with QD and rubbing alcohol and just polishing the hood with 1ZPP before I quit for the day.



Then when I had time, I got back on here and did a search in this forum for M105. Turns out that its recommended that you switch pads about every other body panel. Doing so avoids this issue.



Yesterday, when starting with clean pads again, I had no issues at all. That M105 on speed 6 with a 4" light cutting pad is really good stuff. Albeit, it's not a rotary so I still have to hit some scratches several times and some tougher scratches still don't come out, but I was extremely happy with with the results compared to working by hand (obviously).



Then the 1ZPP on speed 4~ish with a 4" green polishing pad really makes the metallic pop!



After another 2.5 hours yesterday afternoon I had the left front fender and drivers door done. Just the left rear door and the left box side to go! I'll skip the 105 on the cab roof, since there's probably no scratches up there and nobody can see up there anyway. Finally, I'll go back and hit the hood with 105 and a clean pad to work out a few scratches, and finish it off with 1zpp and 476s like everything else.



I'll tell ya, when you guys talk about taking 12 - 15 hours to detail a car, it scared the bejeepers out of me. But now that I'm going through it, I definitely realize that it's a labor of love and I do really enjoy working my truck over. Probably not the wifes minivan so much though. :chuckle:
 
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