PC finally used right...I hope :)

J

Joshua312

New member
Alright well last night I was almost about to throw away my Porter Cable. I was beyond frustrated with my results I was getting. On my previous posts I showed pictures of my car detailed and I thought it looked "good" but then after weeks of not washing it...I know shame on me - I'll throw out some excuses I work full time and Im a fulltime student :idea is that good enough lol Well finally last night I decided to put off the homework and go out and work on my car. So I washed it, didnt need to clay, then I taped it off and started to polish. I was a little weary about polishing again because I just did it like a month ago. But the swirls didnt seem to be removed. I began to polish with Optimum Compound and a orange lc pad and nothing happened, i removed the compound with a microfiber and the finish was so hazy, swirled still it was horrible. Then I was about to just give up and I tried to do it again but this time I went *really* slow I figured I was moving way too fast the last time I polished because it probably only took me 20-30 minutes to polish my whole car. So I went real slow on my roof, and i actually seen the polish break down this time and it was so easy to remove, I think I finally got the hang of it. My question is, should I go over the whole car now really slow, or should I just live with the swirls, I dont know how much clearcoat Optimum Compound/Orange LC pad takes it down too....Do you think I'll be ok? Also, does anyone have any comments on the Menzerna Polishes vs. Optimum? Thanks!! :xyxthumbs
 
I like to work heavy cut polishes/compounds in at a speed of 5 or 6 with a PC...this might be why it is taking a long time to break down. You should start off moving the PC about 5-6 inches per sec, then bump up the speed on the PC and go very slow for about 2-3 passes, then you should loose a lot of the marring that seems to be being caused b/c the polish has not broken down yet. I would then turn the PC down to about 4 to another pass or two then buff off....hopefully that will help you out. also make SURE that the surface is clean...waht kind of car is this by the way...might have really hard paint...



-Justin
 
4830Deuce said:
I like to work heavy cut polishes/compounds in at a speed of 5 or 6 with a PC...this might be why it is taking a long time to break down. You should start off moving the PC about 5-6 inches per sec, then bump up the speed on the PC and go very slow for about 2-3 passes, then you should loose a lot of the marring that seems to be being caused b/c the polish has not broken down yet. I would then turn the PC down to about 4 to another pass or two then buff off....hopefully that will help you out. also make SURE that the surface is clean...waht kind of car is this by the way...might have really hard paint...



-Justin
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Vehicle is a 99 Grand Prix GTP, color is red. I work the polish in at a speed of 2-3 and I go about the speed u said, 5-6 inches per second....Then when I slow it down and go about 1 inch per second and bring it up to speed 6. Does this sound correct? Maybe I mis-wrote what I was trying to say....I am getting the results I expected now that Im using this process, I was just wondering if this is what other people do as well.
 
Speed 2-3 would only be useful for spreading the product. You're not going to achieve anything by polishing at that speed.



I use speed 5-6 for polishing, and usually move about 1" per second the whole time.
 
White95Max said:
Speed 2-3 would only be useful for spreading the product. You're not going to achieve anything by polishing at that speed.



I use speed 5-6 for polishing, and usually move about 1" per second the whole time.
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Im at work right now, but when I get home I'll post pictures to go with all this nonsense Im trying to say haha. Plus it will make this thread useful to someone else perhaps - Learning to go slow was probably the best thing I learned last night.
 
Joshua312 said:
Learning to go slow was probably the best thing I learned last night.
Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more!



I had the same problems you did when I first used my PC - I just wasn't getting any results. Then I got some hands on training and:

  • increased machine speed
  • increased pressure
  • reduced hand speed
  • worked the product longer



Worked like a charm! As for worrying about polishing again after having just done so within a week or so, it's my understanding that if you did not reduce the swirls you had before then you really haven't impacted the clear coat enough to worry about it. I think you and I both were just moving product around on the surface and doing nothing much more than that.
 
Good post,

I am new to PC as well. I was happy with polishing of my car (almost perfect condition) but when I started working on my friend’s car I did not get results, which I was hopping for. :think:

I was wondering if anyone saw a link to the movie showing someone using PC properly - I understand PC speed setting but I have hard time picturing how fast I should go with it along the panel as well as pressure I need to apply.

Thanks :)
 
cherzra said:
Try this:



http://www.adamspolishes.com/videos/car_polish.cfm



I'm by no means even a mediocre autopian, so I don't know if he's doing it correctly or not. But there are lots of videos! Maybe someone else can chime in to say if he is doing a good job?
Click to expand...



My opinion: he is moving the polisher too quickly.



Moving slowly, perhaps 1 inch per second, gives the best results. There really is no benefit to moving it faster.



For weight, you want the weight of the polisher (about 5 pounds) plus maybe five more pounds when you are working the polish. As the polish breaks down, you want to lighten up. For the last pass, you might be lifting the polisher up slightly to apply less than its weight.



Stop polishing before the polish dries out.
 
Oh, one more thing. Most polishes use diminishing abrasives and you will have to use a good deal more polish than was shown in the video. A dab of polish would normally do a 16" by 16" section, not one side of a car.
 
Black240SX said:
Oh, one more thing. Most polishes use diminishing abrasives and you will have to use a good deal more polish than was shown in the video. A dab of polish would normally do a 16" by 16" section, not one side of a car.
Click to expand...



Totally agree.



He was moving way too fast for real defect removal, and I wouldn't apply products like he did, considering most polishes are designed to break down after you use them for a bit. Not the autopian way, IMHO.
 
Thanks for the video link charzra,

I definitely think he goes faster than I do, either for polishing as well as wax application.

I saw other videos on that page and I think he did everything much faster than I. Clay whole car in 15 minutes? Don't you think that is kinda fast? In one of the movies he talks about MF cleaning - is it truth about boiling water?

Any more videos ? I wish autopia had one

:)
 
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