Pictures from June 16, 2012 - Saturday Open Class

[Marc08EX]

Re: Pictures from June 16, 2012 - Saturday Open Class

Will do. Thanks

Do I have to wash my pads in the washing machine first?

You could if you wanted to but it's not necessary because they're sealed from the factory.

[tbird2340]

Re: Pictures from June 16, 2012 - Saturday Open Class

Ok, I just used the yellow pad with the UC and don't see much of a difference.. I don't know if I'm expecting too much or what..

I think I remember a thread on here (I think it was on here) on how to photograph swirls, scratches, water marks, etc.. Anyone have the link to that thread?

Thanks

[Marc08EX]

Re: Pictures from June 16, 2012 - Saturday Open Class

Ok, I just used the yellow pad with the UC and don't see much of a difference.. I don't know if I'm expecting too much or what..

I think I remember a thread on here (I think it was on here) on how to photograph swirls, scratches, water marks, etc.. Anyone have the link to that thread?

Thanks

Here's the article by Mike ******* on how to capture swirls and defects: How-To capture swirls, scratches, etchings and other surface defects with your camera

Once you get the swirls to show up in your photos, please share it with us. We'd love to see it.

How much pressure are you applying? How slow is your arm speed? Did you set your G110v2 to speed 5 when you use UC with the yellow polishing pad?

[tbird2340]

Re: Pictures from June 16, 2012 - Saturday Open Class

I'm not sure I had much luck getting the defects to show up.. I guess they don't look like swirl marks as much as just very tiny non deep scratches... But they are all over so I'm guessing they are just from a towel / swirl marks? One of them is a little deeper that's on the side of the hood area.. That one I know I got a picture of..

I'm applying a pretty firm amount of pressure. I apply the UC as an X, place it on the hood, (speed 5), turn on, quickly spread out the UC, and then slowly go up down up down up down then side to side side to side side to side then up down up down up down.

Here is a link to a directory with the images: http://tdsconsulting.net/images/Altima/scratches/

[Marc08EX]

Re: Pictures from June 16, 2012 - Saturday Open Class

BINGO!!! I think your finish is already swirl-free. Those scratches are called RIDS (Random Isolated Deeper Scratches). I think those types of scratches require wet-sanding to be removed if the scratch is not down to the metal/primer.

This article might be helpful to you: How to place an image in your messages

[tbird2340]

Re: Pictures from June 16, 2012 - Saturday Open Class

So things like this aren't fixable with the G2 and some compound?

[tbird2340]

Re: Pictures from June 16, 2012 - Saturday Open Class

Or these?

[Marc08EX]

Re: Pictures from June 16, 2012 - Saturday Open Class

IMO, they're RIDS and they're extremely deep to be polished out. I think you need to wetsand them to properly remove them but I'm not 100% sure.

On your first picture, there are some swirls around the light source. That's the type of defects UC can remove.

[ATC4USMC]

Re: Pictures from June 16, 2012 - Saturday Open Class

Can you "catch" your finger nail on them? If so, you can forget trying to get them out with a buffer and UC!

[Wildcat Rudy]

Re: Pictures from June 16, 2012 - Saturday Open Class

IMO, they're RIDS and they're extremely deep to be polished out. I think you need to wetsand them to properly remove them but I'm not 100% sure.

On your first picture, there are some swirls around the light source. That's the type of defects UC can remove.

I have gotten out deeper scratches, but it is not for the faint of heart and I don't recommend anyone try it. It has been a few years and I'm afraid I may have lost a couple of my buffing bonnets in my last move, but I'm due to work on the Acura TL we bought last month.

First, I only have a rotary (not orbital) buffer for now. But to relate this to a story, I had an '85 Merkur and lived in an older house at the time, and they used "hardware cloth" (it's like chicken wire) and made their own cover to put over a dryer vent on the side of the house. So...you can guess who sort of scuffed into it one day while backing into the driveway. The several scratches I made in the clearcoat were white, thin and a couple seemed quite deep...but not through to the primer. As I was none to happy with that lemon of a car, and the scratches had sat there for a year or so, I finally got mad enough and took the wheel to it, figuring if I screwed it up too much, I wouldn't be all that heartbroken.

I used a couple of applications of Meguiars #1 Medium Cut Cleaner, using the buffing wheel parallel to the scratches, and repeating until I worked all but two of the scratches down. Then I did my usual follow-up with #2 Fine Cut Cleaner and #9 Swirl Remover. When I was done, the smaller scratches were gone completely and the deeper one sort of rounded themselves off to where they looked more like a tiny crease than a scratch...and you could not see them unless you were up close. I tried this on a key scratch but it was too wide to do any good. Even by hand. Meguiars probably has a more aggressive compound but I would be afraid to try it myself. I figure that #1 is probably the most I can handle with my rotary (and it can really cut and clean up paint nicely).

So my usual regimen when I buff is to hit the worst of the scratches with #1, do the whole car with #2, and then finish off the whole car with #9. Then I usually apply #26 (High-Tech Yellow Wax) to protect it all, either by hand or with a cheaper orbital I have that only has enough power and speed to apply wax.