Technique for removing scratches with PC

[Barry Theal]

When looking into pads there are so many varibles that exsist. From size to color, wool or foam? The thickness of pads. I'll ty and give you some info based on my knowledge. First off i'll start off with wool pads. mainly there are 3 major types varying in color depending on manufactor. The first is a 4ply wool pad designed for heavy compounding. Next is a 100% wool also designed for compounding, but will finish down a little better. The third is a wool and synthetic blend these pads are made made for polishing, these are great for refinement. Keep in mind the shorter the pile the more faster the cut. Now lets move onto foam. When using a foam pad with a d/a type polisher like pc7424, flex3043, udm, and so on for your compounding stages you want to use a smaller pad like a 4 inch pad. for polishing and waxing its ok to bump up to a 6 inch pad if desired. now lets break the foam variances down. First off never go with color. what you need to look at is ppi. ( pores per inch. generally most start off at 50ppi and go up to 90 ppi 50 ppi would be your compounding pads and 90 ppi would be your lsp pad. 50ppi can be very aggresive and often do more harm them good. i would recomend using something like a 60ppi pad.

 

[Accumulator]

lmao oh man accumulator good thing you don't work with me. I love to see how far I can push a piece of paper! lol

Wooh-hoo, wouldn't you and I make for one [messed]-up team?!? LOL...I'd be all stressed out about how much clear we're taking off and you'd be reaching for something more aggressive! We'd be the Laurel and Hardy of detailing



But seriously, every time I look at those panels on my M3 that're gonna need reshot I think how I shoulda quit sooner. Yeah, they still have many microns of clear over the basecoat but when the light is *just right* they don't look the way they oughta; I can tell where they're thin. Nobody else would see it (nobody *does* see it, and they're trying), and I dunno if they'll actually fail with UV exposure, but I just can't stand knowing that they look "off" under certain circumstances so I'm gonna have 'em reshot.



For that matter, I can tell where ebpcivicsi and I have really hammered my Yukon too. The ETG says things are still sorta OK, but I can tell if I really work at inspecting it.



Thinned clear that I can notice simply drives me nuts. Once things start getting well under ~100 microns, metallics often look "off" to me. That bugs me a lot more than the chance of cc failure; I never park outside much anyhow.

 

[Barry Theal]

yeah accummulator i here ya there you do need to know when to stop. from my understanding the uv coating goes throughout the whole clear. maybe im wrong here, but that what i was always told. nothing like sanding something as thin as a sheet of notebook paper huh!

 

[Accumulator]

.from my understanding the uv coating goes throughout the whole clear. maybe im wrong here, but that what i was always told.

As best I recall, the guys at http://www.autoint.com (specifically Ron Ketchum) say that the UV protection comes from something like the top 40% or so of the clear. Since they work with the manufacturers so much I figure I'll go by what they say.



I've seen a surprising amount of cc failure on heavily-corrected cars so I'm kinda nervous about it when it comes to *my* rides Heh heh, especially after messing up my M3 trying to work Autopian-style miracles on it Wish I could get the thin clear issue to show up in pics so I could show you what I'm talking about; I *barely* got all the marring out too, no wasted clear :nixweiss



I'm so paranoid about this that I ETG every used car I look at and I won't touch anything that's already been thinned a lot. I recently passed on a *NICE* P71 Crown Vic because it read <3.5 mils in so many places, the seller couldn't believe it (he thought his wetsand/buff job would sell the car..I woulda probably bought it with the scratches still in).

nothing like sanding something as thin as a sheet of notebook paper huh!

Heh heh, I really do just *love* the way you're able to work within those kind of tolerences...The way you control aggressive paper is so [darn] impressive :bow



Ya know, that "it's so thin to begin with" thing is one reason why I often think that people here who are really *hammering* their paint would be better off wetsanding it. With really aggressive compounding stuff happens fast and it's not always easy to know what's going on under that spinning pad, but with a piece of sandpaper in your hand you should have things under pretty good control.



Heh heh, people gotta remember that they'll be taking off more clear when you remove those sanding marks, and that's why I tell newbies to quit before they think they oughta.