raymond_ho2002
New member
I wrote this up and saved it a while ago but I recently realized that I never posted it. Better late than never!
I had recently paid a visit to Greg, a.k.a. Carguy, who helped me overcome my anxieties of using a PC for the first time on my black Lexus IS300. At the time I had purchased CMA yellow pads, white pads, and FI-II and 3M SMR.
The damage on my car was a pretty bad sight. I had used Vanilla Moose on my hood and left fender using light-moderate pressure, which created a lot of hazing and swirls. After speaking to Everett of Clearkote, I exchanged my old bottle for a new one. It turns out that my old VM was an incorrect formulation. Everett had been very helpful and nice in offering the exchange, and included a free bottle of Moose Wax. The new VM did not haze like before, and I am happy with it. Anyway, back to the PC experience..
The day before the visit, I had tried to remove some of the hazing by hand using a cotton applicator pad and 3M SMR. No matter how much rubbing I did, I didn’t get any positive results. Some of the hazing disappeared, but came back in full force after spraying with 50% isopropanol, removing the fillers. If anything I had probably made things worse; it appeared that even more hazing appeared, probably due to the incomplete breakdown of SMR abrasives.
It was a wet day when I met up with Greg, with rain tapering off to a drizzle. I felt extremely guilty for him having to move his M5 out of his garage into that weather! The areas of my car that we would work on would be that which I had screwed up with the bad VM; the hood and front left fender. We began by drying those areas off using the perfect drying technique. The hood and fender were patted semi-dry with cotton towels, and the remaining liquid was wiped up using microfiber. I had washed the car the night before and so dirt wasn’t too big an issue (and looking at the end result, it didn’t seem to interfere with the polishing process).
The first thing I learned in my visit was gauging the severity of swirls and scratches and deciding what products would be appropriate for a given situation. My initial thought was that SMR with a white pad would have been sufficient, but Greg thought that we should start with FI-II and a yellow pad, and possibly even a wool pad. SMR, as I would soon learn, is only really good for removing hazing left behind by more abrasive polishes.
We started by shaking the hell out of FI-II, and applying 4 nickel sized spots to a yellow pad. The product was first spread around on ¼ of the hood with the machine off. The PC was then turned onto speed 4 and we continued spreading the polish around the quarter hood, using the weight of the PC, moving it along at the rate of about 6 inches per second. Once the product was well spread, it was time to start the work. The PC was turned up to 6 and was leaned on with quite a bit of weight; the motor slowed down to about 70% of its speed and volume when allowed to work on its own weight. We followed a serpentine pathway, going at about 2 –3 inches per second. This was a lot slower than I imagined, and a lot more pressure on the machine than I would have thought to put on it. After completing one path, another serpentine path perpendicular to the first path was drawn with the machine. After about 2 – 3 complete passes, the polish began to dry up. A very light mist of Meguiar’s Final inspection was applied, and we continued working the product for another 2 passes at that 2 – 3 inches per second. Another pass was made, this time sped up a little and the pressure lightened. Gradually pressure was backed off to where some of the PC’s weight was taken off the hood, and the speed of the passes was increased to about 10 inches per second. The machine was then turned off with the pad still contacting the car and then removed. The residue was removed using meguiar’s ultimate wipes. Removing this was like trying to remove paste glue. Final Inspection helped a bit but it was still hard to remove. 100% removal wasn’t a big concern because SMR was applied next using a white pad, using the same method as described for FI-II. SMR definitely broke down much faster than FI-II, and wiped off so easily that using final inspection was unnecessary. SMR left a VERY nice shine, one that I never imagined that it could, given the hazing it left me after a hand application.
After 3M SMR we topped with wax. On the left side of the hood Greg put on some tasty-smelling Souveran; the right side was waxed with s100. I couldn’t tell a difference in appearance. Greg thought that the Souveran side felt slightly silkier than s100. Both sides beaded equally well after 3 washes, if that means anything.
Other issues that came up during my PC tutorial:
I had problems keeping the flat of the pad against the paint and would always lift up, causing only an edge to contact the paint. I later found that the solution to this was to not use the handle that came with the PC, but to push on the PC’s housing directly above the center of the pad.
After just a few washes I can see that I am starting my swirl collection anew. It’s a never ending battle. =/ I hate black almost as much as I love it.
A million thanks to Carguy/Greg for taking an afternoon to help coach me on PC usage. Although I’ve since gained more experience with the PC, the finish just doesn’t look the same as when Greg worked his magic on my car. =)
I had recently paid a visit to Greg, a.k.a. Carguy, who helped me overcome my anxieties of using a PC for the first time on my black Lexus IS300. At the time I had purchased CMA yellow pads, white pads, and FI-II and 3M SMR.
The damage on my car was a pretty bad sight. I had used Vanilla Moose on my hood and left fender using light-moderate pressure, which created a lot of hazing and swirls. After speaking to Everett of Clearkote, I exchanged my old bottle for a new one. It turns out that my old VM was an incorrect formulation. Everett had been very helpful and nice in offering the exchange, and included a free bottle of Moose Wax. The new VM did not haze like before, and I am happy with it. Anyway, back to the PC experience..
The day before the visit, I had tried to remove some of the hazing by hand using a cotton applicator pad and 3M SMR. No matter how much rubbing I did, I didn’t get any positive results. Some of the hazing disappeared, but came back in full force after spraying with 50% isopropanol, removing the fillers. If anything I had probably made things worse; it appeared that even more hazing appeared, probably due to the incomplete breakdown of SMR abrasives.
It was a wet day when I met up with Greg, with rain tapering off to a drizzle. I felt extremely guilty for him having to move his M5 out of his garage into that weather! The areas of my car that we would work on would be that which I had screwed up with the bad VM; the hood and front left fender. We began by drying those areas off using the perfect drying technique. The hood and fender were patted semi-dry with cotton towels, and the remaining liquid was wiped up using microfiber. I had washed the car the night before and so dirt wasn’t too big an issue (and looking at the end result, it didn’t seem to interfere with the polishing process).
The first thing I learned in my visit was gauging the severity of swirls and scratches and deciding what products would be appropriate for a given situation. My initial thought was that SMR with a white pad would have been sufficient, but Greg thought that we should start with FI-II and a yellow pad, and possibly even a wool pad. SMR, as I would soon learn, is only really good for removing hazing left behind by more abrasive polishes.
We started by shaking the hell out of FI-II, and applying 4 nickel sized spots to a yellow pad. The product was first spread around on ¼ of the hood with the machine off. The PC was then turned onto speed 4 and we continued spreading the polish around the quarter hood, using the weight of the PC, moving it along at the rate of about 6 inches per second. Once the product was well spread, it was time to start the work. The PC was turned up to 6 and was leaned on with quite a bit of weight; the motor slowed down to about 70% of its speed and volume when allowed to work on its own weight. We followed a serpentine pathway, going at about 2 –3 inches per second. This was a lot slower than I imagined, and a lot more pressure on the machine than I would have thought to put on it. After completing one path, another serpentine path perpendicular to the first path was drawn with the machine. After about 2 – 3 complete passes, the polish began to dry up. A very light mist of Meguiar’s Final inspection was applied, and we continued working the product for another 2 passes at that 2 – 3 inches per second. Another pass was made, this time sped up a little and the pressure lightened. Gradually pressure was backed off to where some of the PC’s weight was taken off the hood, and the speed of the passes was increased to about 10 inches per second. The machine was then turned off with the pad still contacting the car and then removed. The residue was removed using meguiar’s ultimate wipes. Removing this was like trying to remove paste glue. Final Inspection helped a bit but it was still hard to remove. 100% removal wasn’t a big concern because SMR was applied next using a white pad, using the same method as described for FI-II. SMR definitely broke down much faster than FI-II, and wiped off so easily that using final inspection was unnecessary. SMR left a VERY nice shine, one that I never imagined that it could, given the hazing it left me after a hand application.
After 3M SMR we topped with wax. On the left side of the hood Greg put on some tasty-smelling Souveran; the right side was waxed with s100. I couldn’t tell a difference in appearance. Greg thought that the Souveran side felt slightly silkier than s100. Both sides beaded equally well after 3 washes, if that means anything.
Other issues that came up during my PC tutorial:
I had problems keeping the flat of the pad against the paint and would always lift up, causing only an edge to contact the paint. I later found that the solution to this was to not use the handle that came with the PC, but to push on the PC’s housing directly above the center of the pad.
After just a few washes I can see that I am starting my swirl collection anew. It’s a never ending battle. =/ I hate black almost as much as I love it.
A million thanks to Carguy/Greg for taking an afternoon to help coach me on PC usage. Although I’ve since gained more experience with the PC, the finish just doesn’t look the same as when Greg worked his magic on my car. =)
