The Limits of the PC?

I

imported_animes2k

New member
So I decided to do a test with my brother's Accord. It's a 95 and has seen better days. He picked it up with 120k miles for $500 (a steal at 3x that), but would like to see it cleaned up.



It's got some serious marks (sap?) that I initially thought were through the clearcoat altogether, but I was able to reduce them with some elbow grease and rubbing compound, while with the PC I think the force was too widely distributed to do much good on these.



The swirl marks came out MOSTLY, or at least were significantly reduced. The one thing I've not been able to affect is pitting all over the clearcoat and some of the more significant swirls.



Basically, the half of the hood I did took too long to even want to touch the rest of the car, considering the results... After some testing, I ended up with this process:



  • 3M PI2 Fine Cut & Sonus orange cutting pad (light cut?) @ 6
  • 3M PI3000 SMR & polishing pad (no compounding swirls or haze, but what the hell) @ 6
  • AIO & Sonus green polishing pad @ 4
  • P21S hand applied (I had had enough, just tossed something on top)



I worked everything REALLY well to make sure it broke down or sealed up properly, but the time and effort was just too much... Perhaps the surface just can't be fixed... or is this really a job for a radial?



serious badness

badSurface.jpg




Flake! From a small area :(

flake.jpg




swirls before/after

swirls.jpg




sprayer nozzle - note the pock-marked surface

washer.jpg




Thanks for any input...

- Chris
 
One can very easily literally spend hours upon hours polishing with a PC. I've spent about 4 or 5 hours straight just on a hood and the same on a trunk alone. This was largely not being accustomed enough to the rotary at the time and more significanly, not knowing the paint's thickness.So I played it safe.



A highly disappointing thing is when you think you got the defects out and you spray down the isopropyl alcohol: water solution and you find you have more work to do: the defects were either not significantly improved or almost but not quite removed. :( Has happened to me and so I continued to polish.



That first photo appears to be an industrial fall out or acid rain etch/stain. That may very well never come out, perhaps even by rotary or wetsanding. The clear is only so thick.
 
i just did a SEVERELY oxidized chevy last weekend. i thought it was dark gray or maybe blue before i washed it. it was the first time i broke out the lambswool pad and it worked wonders. significantly more cutting power than the orange or even yellow pads.
 
It looks like a blob of sap that got baked into the cc. I have the same spot on my truck and wet sanded and buffed it up and it still didnt come out. Its probably too deep. It helped getting the price down though when I bought it.
 
I wish I could've had more success with the wool pad on the PC on that hood I mentioned. The clear is quite hard in that using 1Z Ultra, I only really managed to put some marring in the paint. Then I went back and polished that out successfully netting back to the same condition I started out with.
 
The Beef said:
It looks like a blob of sap that got baked into the cc. I have the same spot on my truck and wet sanded and buffed it up and it still didnt come out. Its probably too deep. It helped getting the price down though when I bought it.
Click to expand...



Yeah, those don't worry me too much, because I was able to SERIOUSLY reduce their appearance and at least get them the discoloration/oxidation out of them so that they blend in more - I'll get some daylight photos tomorrow, if the car is around.



The more I read up around here about the radial route, the more I think I just want to stick with "improving" and not "perfecting" finishes :)



Thanks for the input.
 
ok, this was disappointing... i must have done SOMETHING wrong...



It's raining today, so I go to check out the job on the hood... No beading whatsoever... "ah, probably all the tree pollen and crap, let me rinse it off"... no dice... "ok, perhaps it's sticky... a soft wash with some mild car wash soap"... no dice.



***? Did I not let something cure long enough and the AIO/wax didn't take?



Thanks.
 
Anyway, I threw a coat of NXT on the section... Hope that takes... Here's a couple more photos for comparison:



after buffing out, I could barely photograph the defects

defect.jpg




half and half hood

half.jpg




a daylight shot of the oxidized washer nozzle area

washer2.jpg




Thanks again.
 
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