What's the right combination

[Gen2]

Hi there

New comer here and first time posting. Here is my story.

I am driving a red car and I have swirl marks on the car. I tried to remove the swirl with a Rupes Random Orbit polisher, 3M PI3 RC and 3M compounding foam pad. After trying many times, the light swirls are removed but you still can see some deeper swirl there.

Than I thought the pad might not be aggressive enough, so I went to buy the W-7000 and W-8000 pad to test it out. First I tried using W-7000 with my Rupes (speed set at 4) and 3M PI3 RC. The deeper swirl marks and some scratches are still there after a few rounds. Than I switched to a rotary machine set to 1500rpm with W-7000 and 3M PI3 RC. This time I am shocked to see that the light swirl marks reappeared.

I would like to know where did I go wrong? Can the W-7000 be used with a orbit polisher ? If W-7000 cannot even remove the swirl with the orbit sander, can the W-8000 do the job ? How aggresssive is 3M PI3 RC as compare to #83 and #4 ? Do you think I can get a better result with #83 or #4 ? I think I will stick to the orbit polisher, so kindly advice what I should do ? Btw I also bought the #16, did a bit of waxing on the hood and I must say the look is wonderful, wet and shinning.

[Mike Phillips]

Hi Gen2

Welcome to Meguiar's Online!


Before going to far, allow me to ask a question, what are you doing for your last polishing step?

The product you are listing and the procedures are fairly aggressive products and procedures for removing swirls and scratches, after these steps, you need to re-polish the surface with a softer foam pad and a less aggressive polish and then apply some type of wax.

If you're stopping after the cleaning process, and evaluating the finish, you haven't taken your process far enough yet.

Mike

[Gen2]

Hi Mike

Thanks for repling so fast, after using the RC, I followed by the 3M foam pad polishing glaze for dark car with the W-8000 pad but still see the deeper swirl and scratches. Then I topped it up with the newly bought #16 and again the "ugly" sight still remains. I am really lost and don know what to do.

[Mike Phillips]

Hi Gen2,

We recently had a thread here that brought up some of these same problems, myself, 2hotford and others posted some very good information that deals with this subject. So instead of re-typing all of the information here, I encourage you to read through the below thread and see if some of the information supplied helps you to understand the polishing process and what it takes to reach your goals.

Need HELP!!! Holograms cure

I'm not sure what a Rupes is? Is this a rotary buffer, or a dual action polisher with an oscillating action?

I will add this, recently I artificially induced swirls into the finish of our clear coated black Honda Pilot. I then removed them using the M83 Dual Action Cleaner Polish followed by re-polishing the area using M80 Speed Glaze, both with their own dedicated W-8006 foam polishing pad using a G100 dual action polisher.

This left a 100% swirl free finish when viewed with the sun directly overhead and beaming down onto the hood.

To be sure that the swirls were not merely filled, I then washed the finish aggressively using a strong detergent dish washing soap, followed by wiping the finish down with All Purpose Cleaner, followed by wiping the finish down with a 50/50 mix of Isopropyl Alcohol and water, followed by yet another wash using the strong detergent dish washing soap.

I then pulled the Pilot back out into direct sunlight and re-inspected the results and they remained the same, a 100% swirl free finish. The paint looked as though I had just polished and waxed it.

So a 100% swirl free finish can be achieved using the right products and the correct technique.

Mike