My new 7424 created worse swirls?

I

IROC-Z

New member
I got a 7424 and Optimum Polish. I did the side of my car with an orange pad and it came out GREAT! Removed almost all the swirls and scratches (black car). Then I get to the hood, and it created WAY worse swirls than were there. And the same exact thing happened when I did the roof. Switching to a white pad did nothing.



Now the car has had some paint work on certain fenders. Do you think the paint on my hood/roof is softer or something? Or do you think something got in the pad? I am afraid to do the rest of the car now. :( I tried really working in the polish and it does not help.
 
Few questions I think we need to know.



-Is your pad dry with polish when you apply it ot the hood or roof?

-How much product are you using?

-Are the polishes worked in all the way before you wipe?



Full detail on the process would really help.
 
optimusp517 said:
Few questions I think we need to know.



-Is your pad dry with polish when you apply it ot the hood or roof?

-How much product are you using?

-Are the polishes worked in all the way before you wipe?



Full detail on the process would really help.
Click to expand...





The car was fully claybared and cleaned before I polished. I did the roof and hood last, so the pad was not dry from sitting around. I read on here all you need was 3 pea size drops on the pad. So thats what I did. I started with moderate pressure and moving slow, then lightened up the pressure and moved a little faster. I'd say I worked it in for a good 3-5 minutes.
 
The orange pad is a pretty strong pad for swirl removal with Optimum Polish. I'm surprised that you didn't notice a ton of haze on the first panels that you worked on. My guess is that you are looking at just loads of polishing haze. I would try using a softer pad to remove the haze with.



I would also suggest not using any pressure at all. You don't need to press down on the car to get results. The weight of the machine is all you need. If you put any pressure on it then you will actually lose results rather than gain them. I would suggest reading David's guide on Porter Cable use before you try again.



Besides, PCs don't create swirls. They create a haze sometimes, but that would never be confused with swirls. I'd like to see a picture of the panels that came out perfectly compared to the panels that ended up being swirled. The pictures would need to be in the same lighting, so if you can move your lights over to shine in the surface then that would be best. Then we might be able to figure out what it is that you are dealing with.
 
Thanks for the response guys. I watched the videos on autogeek which said to apply pressure, that's why I was doing that. I will try what you guys said and take some pictures when I get home from work.



I actually got it to finish down great with the orange pad with no hazing (on the sides of the car). Even if I switch to the white pad on the hood/roof it does not help. The pads were also brand new.



Looks like this guy had the same problem:



http://autopia.org/forum/machine-polishing/93144-pc-ssr2-5-ssr1-0-more-swirls-than-before-help.html
 
Ok, but here's the thing... Even if something did go wrong and you created those swirls, then you should be able to remove them just as easily as you did remove the other ones.



How much experience do you have with the PC? Was this your first attempt with it or have you polished other cars as well?
 
Its black, and it is garaged. Nothing was hot/warm. I'm a newb, first time with a 7424. It's a shame, the other parts came out great!
 
The only thing that could have caused the swirls is if you had grit between the pad and the paint or if the towels had grit in them. Polishing pads create haze and not swirls. Using dirty clay on that part of the car could have created some deeper scratches that the PC couldn't remove as well. I just don't think we can credit the polishing pad for the creation of the swirls.



What other pads and polishes have you tried to remove them? You mentioned the white pad. Have you tried any other polishes? The other guy didn't post pictures either, so I'm not sure if he was really looking at swirls or just buffer haze. Pictures are really going to be necessary to see what happened.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I really appreciate it.



That link I posted did have pics on the second page. I only did one section of the hood, so I can compare where I did and didn't polish. I'm confident it was not due to the claybar. And it is much worse where I polished. So it is for sure something I am doing wrong with the PC. The only polish I have is OP, I used it on the orange/white pad. On the sides, the white wasn't cutting it, and the orange worked great.



I'll try and gets pics as soon as I get home. I did let the pad site for about 15 minutes while I grabbed a drink, you don't think the polish could have hardened on the pad do you?



I'm not new to detailing, just the PC 7424 :(
 
nah, that wouldn't have made a difference anyway. I've had not choice but to use a pad with set polish in it before and it didn't cause damage to the paint. It would have had to be serious grit in the pad to create damage that looks like swirls.



How old is the car and have these panels ever been repainted before that you know of? How bad were the swirls to begin with that you had to use the Orange pad to get them out?
 
Jngrbrdman said:
nah, that wouldn't have made a difference anyway. I've had not choice but to use a pad with set polish in it before and it didn't cause damage to the paint. It would have had to be serious grit in the pad to create damage that looks like swirls.



How old is the car and have these panels ever been repainted before that you know of? How bad were the swirls to begin with that you had to use the Orange pad to get them out?
Click to expand...







I really don't know which panels have the orignal paint and which have the aftermarket. They did a really good job matching. The car is a 1988 IROC-Z camaro. I needed the orange to get rid of the minor scratches, which also removed the swirls. The car was not in bad shape at all. I'd say a 3 out of 10 as far as swirls go. But now I made them worse, atleast on a section of the hood.
 
That could be the issue right there. Even if the color match is good, the paint quality isn't the same. Repainted panels often are much different to polish than OEM panels. I'd have to see it to know for sure, but if the 'swirls' are pretty much straight lines and not circular then I think we can assume that the panels they are on were repainted. In my experience body work is tough to polish over. 20 year old paint is hard enough, but put modern bodywork into the mix and it isn't a wonder you got different results on different panels. I'm just going to wait for pictures before I say anything else though. We don't want to speculate too much without being able to see the damage first.
 
Man, it was really hard to get pics. Lemme know if these are not good enough.



Bare paint here, no polish/wax on it.



Before, almost no visable swirls:

swirl2.jpg




After the PC:

swirl.jpg






Those little dots are from the flash, those aren't on the paint if anyone is wondering :p
 
It is easier to photograph swirls if you can get them to show up from a light other than the flash. The camera isn't focusing on the swirls so it is hard to see them. If you can get the swirls in a bright light from another source then you can get the camera to focus on them.
 
Sorry for the late reply. So I used the orange pad again, and it got a little better. Used it again with more pressure, and got better. Then I applied a little more pressure, and moved the pad very slow, and it got rid of all the swirls!



Before buffing, I had a glaze/sealant/topped with 3 layers of carnauba. My mom said "maybe all that stuff just filled in the swirls, and when you remove it with the buffer that's what is underneath". So I took a white pad and lightly went over another section and had the same thing happen with the swirls. But the orange pad took care of them. Who thought my mom would figure it out, haha.



I really appreciate all the help. I'll post pictures when it's complete.
 
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