Using KAIO Klass all in one with a machine

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OnTheSpotMobile

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I was just wondering if anyone here is using KAIO successfully with a machine. I tried it a couple years ago on my black civic when it was just a couple months old. I used a LC black foam finishing pad with a PC and it covered my hood in halos. I removed them with menzerna final polish. Gave up on it and applied by hand. I don't have any black vehicles anymore so I can't try to do it again. I would like to use it on a certain customers car but I just don't have time to do it by hand. What do you think?
 
My audi is lava grey and I applied Klasse with a PC and a black pad with great success. I use a Lake Country CCS, 5.25" Spot Repair Foam Pads.
 
I spritz the pad with a QD or distilled H2O. I start with about 3 dime sized drops of Klasse. I set the machine at 3-4 and apply to as much of a panel as I can until it starts to dry. I apply a bit more Klasse and move on to the next panel. I usually do the entire car and go back and wipe off. If applied thin I have no problems. I use a slightly damp MF to remove any stubborn spots.
 
I didn't think that KAIO was a coarse enough polish to instill halo's. I use it all the time with a white CCS on both paint and glass and have never had any issue with halo's at all. Could there have been something else in the pad? How much pressure were you putting on the pad when polishing?
 
A few sorta-random thoughts follow:



KAIO is almost always functionally nonabrasive, but I've never tried it on stupid-soft clear either.



I almost *always* do my KAIO (and other AIOs as well) by machine. PC, speed ~4-4.5.



I find the Cyclo flashes KAIO a bit too fast, making it hard to buff off, but others don't have this problem so maybe it's my technique.



I don't like using "tight" finishing pads, but rather more porous (but still zero functional cut) polishing pads. Unless the paint is quite soft, I like the orange Griot's polishing pad.



I dampen the pad slightly with water before use, and stop to clean the pad if it's doing any real cleaning/deoxidizing.
 
I used very little pressure and I think i had the speed around 3-4. If it worked on a white pad than I don't know what happened. Maybe something was on the pad or maybe the clear on that car was really really soft. I had just thought the pad itself scratched the paint job even though it was a finishing pad, and the AIO didn't lubricate the pad enough to keep it from scratching it. That lead me to believe that it should not be applied by machine on dark paints.
 
OnTheSpotMobile said:
... That lead me to believe that it should not be applied by machine on dark paints.
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Unless the paint is really "stupid-soft" it shouldn't be a problem with the right pad. I've used more aggressive stuff than KAIO on dark paints as the penultimate step plenty of times. Again, KAIO is almost always functionally nonabrasive.



If you want to revisit it, give some thought to pad choice and pre-KAIO prep. I bet it'll turn out OK.
 
I use Werkstat Prime Acrylic and Strong, which is very similar. Except on the softest paints, i've had very good luck sparingly applying PS to a black CCS pad and buffing until completely dry and dusting off. If you do it right, there's next to nothing to buff off. On very soft paint, this can cause light hazing, so on this I use PA and get great results. These are the only things I dry-buff like this, and I did a lot of experimenting to prove to myself that I wasn't adding any marring. PA/PS when used like this can remove very slight marring left over by medium/light polishes like M205 or SIP. This is with a Flex at speeds around 4-5.
 
very interesting guys. I'm soon doing a black tacoma thats only a few months old but the owner did not buy any paint protection package (wax before it leaves the dealership lol) and he hasn't ever waxed the truck. The paint has some water spottage and other general grunge that doesn't come off with a regular wash so I was thinking AIO would be just about perfect for this before I apply a coat of wax.
 
I always wind up using a ton of product when I used KAIO with the PC. I just apply by hand now.



I always used 6.5" Sonus SFX White pads - FYI.
 
OnTheSpotMobile said:
I was just wondering if anyone here is using KAIO successfully with a machine. I tried it a couple years ago on my black civic when it was just a couple months old. I used a LC black foam finishing pad with a PC and it covered my hood in halos. I removed them with menzerna final polish. Gave up on it and applied by hand. I don't have any black vehicles anymore so I can't try to do it again. I would like to use it on a certain customers car but I just don't have time to do it by hand. What do you think?
Click to expand...

I had the same issue with two cars.



1st case: Seeing this, I did an IPA wipedown on another non-Klassed spot and found out that Klasse wasn't the culprit because the IPA wipedown gave a result very similar to Klasse. The culprit was in fact the oils from the previous polishes actually hiding the micro-maring. This means it therefore required another finer polish on this specific paint.



2nd case: The car was nano-polished, so it couldn't be caused by remaining micro-maring. The cause was using too much product and letting it dry too much. Reduce the areas, apply it very thin and wipe off ASAP.
 
Tried it with a PC last night with yellow cutting pad and compared it to Meguiar's Ultimate Compound. Results were surprising...



Car is a Subaru Impreza that's been sitting for a few years. It's been used as a storage shelf at times and never been buffed AFAIK so scratches were guaranteed. First started with SwirlX but it didn't do the job so I moved to Ultimate Compound which didn't do that well either except for cleaning the paint. I did another panel with KAIO and most of the scratches were gone with the 4-5 section passes (same as UC). Both polishes were used on speed 6.



I did those sections a second time (not shown) and with the Klasse side, all but a few deep scratches were gone. I did not see anything wrong with the paint and it was ready for an LSP.



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UC on yellow @ speed 6

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50/50

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KAIO on yellow @ speed 6

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FNG said:
Tried it with a PC last night with yellow cutting pad and compared it to Meguiar's Ultimate Compound. Results were surprising...
Click to expand...



Surprising indeed. I wonder why a basically nonabrasive product (abrasives under the 10-micron level IIRC) would remove flaws better than a quite abrasive one :confused:



I've simply *never* had KAIO remove defects for me, not even on soft single stage. Even the more abrasive SRP and ZAIO don't do much of anything.



Huh....If I *had* to venture an opinion, I'd say the pad was doing the cutting more than the KAIO and that for some reason it didn't do that as well with the UC. But I'm willing to just say "huh, I'm stumped, do what works for you" :nixweiss I'm just glad you're happy with your results.
 
I'm not surprised it provided some correction, based on my experience with the Werkstat products. I am surprised that it corrected better than UC. I've never tried one of these types of products on a stiff pad. I'll have to give that a try.
 
FNG,



After reading this thread, KAIO's ability to correct *that* much is a real shocker. I agree and believe that it was probably the pad. However, I"m still surprised. Thanks for sharing that by the way.
 
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