Swirls kicked my butt. NOW WHAT?

[busy21yo]

I just spent an entire hour on a 2 by 2 section of my black car.

I was using the Porter Cable, an Edge System white polishing pad with #83. I removed many of the problems, but many scratches still remained. Eventually i got so frustrated i grabbed the orange cutting pad....OF COURSE it did more harm than good, leaving tons of little scratches. SO, went back to polishing pad and #83...

At this rate, it will take 4 months to complete my car, and it will still have little scratches...now what?

BTW- car has lots of clear on it.....1 1/2 gallons total...so product removal shouldn't be an issue...but keep in mind i only have my porter cable.

[Perfectshine]

Re: Swirls kicked my butt. NOW WHAT?

I had the same problem like you do with #83 before. It did clear out defects but still sometimes instilling light swirl. What i did was, i used #80 on a 8000 or 8006 pad and did a pass or two and it works well.

With whatever pad you're using, try to lay the product directly onto your pad rather then on the surface and really try to concentrate on not buffing it near to the word ALMOST DRY. If you think you need to stop, just stop and maybe lay another line of fresh product and execute it with good technique.

[Don]

Re: Swirls kicked my butt. NOW WHAT?

Mike Phillips wrote an in-depth article about white paint, but I can't get it to link-up & it won't cut & paste.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Swirls kicked my butt. NOW WHAT?

83 can have a tendency to haze the paint a bit so the recommendation to follow with 80 is one I would take note of, especially on a black car.

This line leads me to believe the car has been repainted:

BTW- car has lots of clear on it.....1 1/2 gallons total...so product removal shouldn't be an issue...but keep in mind i only have my porter cable.

If so, I have a thought that you may not like to hear: A friend of mine recently had a section of her car repainted and it turned out there were fine scratches in the color, under the clear!! It took a while to figure this out, but you can polish and buff on that clear all day and marring in the color isn't going anywhere. Hopefully this is not the situation you're up against.

[CleanGSR]

Re: Swirls kicked my butt. NOW WHAT?

That's wierd. I would have thought the clear would fill in any scratches in the basecoat. In any case, you should have tried using 80 before ever going to 83 in my opinion, but definately follow up 83 with 80 at this point to see if that finishes it down.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Swirls kicked my butt. NOW WHAT?

That's wierd. I would have thought the clear would fill in any scratches in the basecoat.

Yeah, you'd think. The car I'm talking about was done by a kid with very little experience and the job was just terrible. But, I was thinking about this earlier and there was also a forum member (hi Cindy!) who had a door painted by a reputable body shop, and upon close inspection it, too, had sanding marks in the color under the clear. Stuff happens.

[busy21yo]

Re: Swirls kicked my butt. NOW WHAT?

I DID try 80 first... The paint laughed at me and spit in my face. I busted out the 83 and still, the car laughes at me...Not spit, but lots of laughter!!

And yes, the entire car is a repaint. It is painted with PPG "GLOBE" series(higher end). Paint has dried, cured, and been scratched BEYOND hell.

I'm polishing on speed 6...is that right?

Can i use a cutting pad, followed by polishing pad since its soooo bad????

[BondoKing]

Re: Swirls kicked my butt. NOW WHAT?

Quit playing with the porter cable and get out a rotary buffer and be done with it.. What clear is on it?? you say global, ok which one??
How long ago was it painted??
was it color sanded and buffed then??
how is it scratched all to pieces now??

Are you sure it is not colorsanding scratches that were filled with glazes from compounds and polishes that are showing up??