Using least aggressive method first.

woodsman

woodsman

New member
Time for my stupid question for the month.

When performing test areas on a car, I want to start with the least aggressive polish and pad combination and move up. Example start with BF SRC Finishing Polish on LC CCS White Pad.

My question is if I do not like the results and I want to go to the next least aggressive step, is it better to try the SRC Finish with the Orange pad or try the SRC compound with the LC CCS white pad.

Which one do you think is least aggressive? My gut tells me to up the pad with the same polish then try the compound with white then compound with orange would be most aggressive.

Maybe I am over thinking it. Any thoughts?
 
Now you're making me think, instead of just doing.

I think I would go for the pad first.
 
IMO your gut-feeling is correct. And I wouldn't worry about overthinking things ;)


A couple of thoughts:

-Unless you switch to a *really* harsh pad, upping the pad will just let (?make?) the product work a bit "better" (i.e., more aggressively) and is probably the mildest step up. The polish is doing the work, the pad is just facilitating that work.

-I'm not a fan of "forcing" a mild product to work much more aggressively by matching it to a harsh pad; I'd rather use an aggressive product on a mild pad, but maybe that's just me and overall I try to match the pad and product in a way that is more "even" if you get my drift.

Generally, if the polish/white didn't do it, I myself would jump right to the compound/orange unless you're dealing with a special case where you absolutely need to move up as gradually as possible. In those cases I'd do the compound/white that you suspected was the next step up unless you have different grades of "polishing pads" that'll do that facilitating thing I mentioned.

See what others (who work on more/different types of paint than I do) have to say...
 
Thanks for the quick replies. I have only been using the tool for a couple of months and today I was working on a friends car that needed a little more than what my personal vehicles have required so far. I don't have a large selection of pads yet. I have 3 LC CCS Orange, 3 LC CCS White, and 3 LC CCS Red. And I am limited on Polish/compound BF SRC FP and BF SRC Compound, and BFTPnS so I was trying to maximize my options.

I have been thinking about the Green CCS for All in one's and maybe the black for some light swirls. (Red seems very soft)

My initial thought process was to use orange with compound, white with polish, and red for wax/sealant. But I started to overthink it, thinking I could have other combinations. Hence the Polish with the Orange and Compound with the white question.

Thanks again for all your advice.
 
If your just starting my advice would be the KISS method.. When I'm training new staff I try and lay it down:

Cut- cutting pad
Polish- polishing pad
Finishing- finishing pad

Until your confident in tool, pad and product and know what the extent they can do just stick with the steps. Paint correction is an art and is also a thought process like a flow chart if you start thinking about it to much it becomes overwhelming to a point. Me personally for example:

Flex 3401, FG 400, heavy correction needed, LC orange Hybrid, speed 4 pass... Okay didn't work need more cut.. Same everything but bump up speed to 6. Okay that didn't work. Bump to MF or foamed wool.. Worked and good to go. Just an example of the thought process.

Hope this helps
 
Woodsman from Ohio -
Welcome to an incredible Forum !
And there are No Stupid Questions - Ever - :)

I would also, if I had very limited product and pads, up the pad to a more aggressive level and work the product perhaps a little harder and look at the results...
You're doing good, keep it up..

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Dan F
 
Pad first, you always want to use a finishing abrasive first then after all pad options are exhausted, graduate to a compound. Remember compounds are thicker and thus require more effort to remove.

Work smarter not harder.
 
I tend to agree with kosmetikwerks. Getting too fancy with combos of finishing pad and a medium polish or even compound are rarely the solution; although they make an interesting story

I change the pad and the product together, with the goal of removing the defects without leaving so much haze that two Additional polishing steps are required

If you look at the paint and it has Swirls only...you probably need an intermediate solution, like a White CCS and M205

If there are RIDS...you need to get more aggressive, like Orange CCS and a more aggressive polish or lighter compound

If that combo does not effectively remove the RIDS in less than 4 passes...get more aggressive, like Microfiber with M100


In general, if the paint is soft, it will correct quickly and may tend to haze with the 1st step, but since it is soft, the haze is easily removed with a second polishing step


In my opinion, if you are doing more than 4-5 passes with any combo, to get the results you want...you are using the wrong combo and wasting a lot of time in the process
 
I tend to try to keep both the pad and polish around the same cut level.
It just seems... wrong to me to swing the scale grossly in one direction or the other.
However, some interesting results can be achieved under certain conditions with really aggressive pads and mild polishes- 205 and Surbuf pads being one that comes to mind.

But, there is nothing wrong with experimenting and finding what works right for you
 
FWIW, I generally don't like polishing with extremely soft pads. Maybe it's just one of my quirks, but I lean towards the most "open/large pore" and firmest pad that I can use without causing issues. No, nothing harsh, just like...using a gentle Polishing pad instead of a Finishing pad for all my AIOs. Even when I am doing a Final Polish I lean towards the, uhm..most aggressive Finishing Pads (like the white Cyclo ones or Sonus Blue) Yeah, I've compared the Final Polishing results withdifferent pads and no I didn't see any advantage to using extremely soft Finishing pads on the paints I work.

allenk4 said:
..In my opinion, if you are doing more than 4-5 passes with any combo, to get the results you want...you are using the wrong combo and wasting a lot of time in the process
Click to expand...

Heh heh...I dunno..might just be situational, but the last time I corrected one of my vehicles I was doing a lot more than 4-5 passes even with stuff like M101/MF Cutting Disk or LC Orange and that was with the Flex 3401. And in many spots I quit out of concern for the clearcoat rather than because the finish was fully corrected. Eh, Audi/GM clear ya know ;)

And then there was the E36 M3 I had in Byzanz Metallic- I *hammered* it with the rotaries/wool/rocks-in-a-bottle at high speeds and *still* needed countless passes! Hardest paint I've ever worked, harder than single stage white.

Sometimes it just takes a whole lotta doing :(

[rant] See why I hate doing correction? All that work, with at least equal time spent inspecting (e.g., on silver) just to remove the clearcoat that needs to be thick to do its job. All because I want it to look nice even though nobody else will care : [/rant]
 
There are always outliers, but generally speaking each step should be completed in 4-5 passes

I particularly see this as an issue if you are using DAT products. In my opinion, if you do 5 passes, clean the pad, apply more product....you have to do an additional 4-5 passes to break the polish down.

If there is a deeper RID left over after compounding with 4-5 passes, I hit it with a 3" DMC on my PC. It saves a lot of time and clear coat on portions of the section that do not need the extra passes
 
allenk4- heh heh, I suspect that four of my vehicles might qualify as outliers ;) I will say that the Crown Vic is *so* easy...the ~4 passes will fix anything safe to correct on that one.

And yeah, a 3" polisher is *great* for spot-correction/RIDs! I only have the so-so Griot's 3" pneumatic but it's a defect-killer with the right products, gets more use than my other polishers these days (since I basically never do whole-vehicle corrections any more).
 
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