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Hey guys,
I've been doing a bunch of reading on the forums as well as from other resources online lately. I first purchased a machine back in April (Porter Cable 7424XP) as well as an assortment of Lake Country CCS pads: Yellow (cutting), Orange (light cutting), White (Polishing), and Black (Finishing). I have both of the common sized backing plates, 5" and 3.5" if I remember correctly. I'm using Meguiar's Ultimate Compound, Ultimate Polish, and Ultimate Liquid Wax.
I have a 2015 Tacoma that I bought last year that was full of swirls and scratches and had obviously never been polished and possibly off-roaded. I did the whole bed of the truck back in April (box, tailgate, rear bumper, etc) with awesome results. I didn't have time to use the polish at the time but was very happy with the results just from the compound and wax. Fast-forward 4 months and I've finally got back to polishing the rest of the truck. I completed the front end up to the cab this week. It turned out quite well but I ran into some concerns and questions. I started with the orange light cutting pad in a test area on the hood but the results after 4 passes weren't to my liking so I stepped up to the yellow cutting pad. I found 4 passes was sufficient in all areas with this pad. Would most people try an additional 4 passes with the less aggressive pad before stepping up right away? Possibly increase pressure? Even if the additional 4 passes with the lighter pad produced results, wouldn't it be a bit of a waste of time to work the whole vehicle with 8 passes with a less effective pad when you could do the same job with 4 passes on a slightly more aggressive pad?
Unlike when I did the rear of my truck earlier in the year, I did notice some circular swirling (the same diameter as the pad) on the fender after cleaning the area. I was using the smaller diameter pads in this area. Would this be what people refer to as marring? I followed the compound up with the polish on the white pad and it seemed to correct this. Everywhere else though (hood and bumper) I noticed no difference at all from doing the additional passes with the Ultimate Polish when compared to the results of compound only. Is this common? If I don't have any areas that look like they need refining after compound, would it be best to just save the time and move straight to waxing?
I'm planning to do the cab next weekend so I will officially be done the entire truck! This is the video I used primarily to reference for priming the pads, how much product to use, how large of areas to work, etc.
It's a Meguiar's UK video. It talks about priming the pad for compound starting around 5:55. Basically he covers the surface of the pad in quite a decent amount of compound and works it into the surface of the pad. Then he puts 5 dots of compound on the pad and spreads it out on the area being worked on followed by 4 passes. The priming is only done once or anytime you start a new pad. He mentions that when he moves to the Ultimate Polish that the pad doesn't need to be primed and instead he draws two intersecting lines of polish across the pad in a cross hair style (14:08 in the video). However, he only does one section in the video and it isn't clear if he uses less product for subsequent panels now that the pad is going to be somewhat primed or if you should apply that much for each section? It seems common in other videos to only use 4 small dots and this is definitely much more product.
As far as the number of passes, I know this depends on what sort of results you are seeing, but I'm curious if others practice this same concept that he suggests in the video. He suggests speed 5 (4800-5800) for the compound, moving approximately 1"/second, and doing 4 passes. Then for polish slowing down to speed 4 (3800-4800), moving at a faster pace, working a section twice the size of when you compounded, and doing this for half the number of passes (2 in this case). As far as waxing, I did it by hand. The tacoma has so many curves in the front panels that I found this easier rather than trying to apply the wax with a machine and having to worry about all the convex and concave lines and having to roll the machine etc.
Other questions and concerns...compound drying on the outside of the pad and then flying off as I work the section (I can't imagine this is good for the paint). When I noticed this it was while I was working on the fender, which also happened to be the panel that I noticed swirls in after compounding. I realize the smaller pads I was using in this area generate more heat which probably contributed to this. I will be more careful next time to watch out for this. I was using a tooth brush and detail spray to try and brush this dried product off the pad which worked only half decently, not great. Is there something I'm doing wrong to have product drying on the outside of the pad? Not primed enough? Working too large of an area? I'm going to invest in a pack of 100% cotton terry cloths for when I continue the job next weekend on the cab. I found a video about cleaning the pads on the fly where you wrap a terry cloth around the pad while it's on the machine still and hold on to it with your hand and turn the machine on for a few seconds. That seemed to work well to clean the pads on the fly. Will that get the dried product off the edges as well or is there a better way? I did use multiple of each pad for the job but never did really clean any of them on the fly other than when i had the compound drying on the edges a couple times. The drying on the pads only happened with the compound and not the polish. Afterwards I cleaned all the pads in the sink with warm water and some dawn dish soap.
One other thing I noticed is the compound wiped off really nicely, but the polish took much more effort. I'm not sure if I was maybe using too much product? I did try experimenting slightly with more/less product and working it more than 2 passes, up to 4 passes, but didn't exactly figure out what was going on. It did come off but like I said it took more effort and wasn't as simple as just lightly wiping it.
And finally my last thoughts/questions and I apologize because I know there are a lot! The next time I polish (maybe 1 year from now) and say I don't quite feel the need to compound, if the Ultimate polish with the white polishing pad doesn't produce satisfactory results, can it be used with an orange (light cutting) pad to achieve more cut? Or would you move to a compound instead of polish if this was the case? I was thinking of maybe polishing once a year and compounding every 2 or 3. It's just too time consuming for me to do it more than this and I'd like the clear coat to last during my ownership of the vehicle.
Thanks!
I've been doing a bunch of reading on the forums as well as from other resources online lately. I first purchased a machine back in April (Porter Cable 7424XP) as well as an assortment of Lake Country CCS pads: Yellow (cutting), Orange (light cutting), White (Polishing), and Black (Finishing). I have both of the common sized backing plates, 5" and 3.5" if I remember correctly. I'm using Meguiar's Ultimate Compound, Ultimate Polish, and Ultimate Liquid Wax.
I have a 2015 Tacoma that I bought last year that was full of swirls and scratches and had obviously never been polished and possibly off-roaded. I did the whole bed of the truck back in April (box, tailgate, rear bumper, etc) with awesome results. I didn't have time to use the polish at the time but was very happy with the results just from the compound and wax. Fast-forward 4 months and I've finally got back to polishing the rest of the truck. I completed the front end up to the cab this week. It turned out quite well but I ran into some concerns and questions. I started with the orange light cutting pad in a test area on the hood but the results after 4 passes weren't to my liking so I stepped up to the yellow cutting pad. I found 4 passes was sufficient in all areas with this pad. Would most people try an additional 4 passes with the less aggressive pad before stepping up right away? Possibly increase pressure? Even if the additional 4 passes with the lighter pad produced results, wouldn't it be a bit of a waste of time to work the whole vehicle with 8 passes with a less effective pad when you could do the same job with 4 passes on a slightly more aggressive pad?
Unlike when I did the rear of my truck earlier in the year, I did notice some circular swirling (the same diameter as the pad) on the fender after cleaning the area. I was using the smaller diameter pads in this area. Would this be what people refer to as marring? I followed the compound up with the polish on the white pad and it seemed to correct this. Everywhere else though (hood and bumper) I noticed no difference at all from doing the additional passes with the Ultimate Polish when compared to the results of compound only. Is this common? If I don't have any areas that look like they need refining after compound, would it be best to just save the time and move straight to waxing?
I'm planning to do the cab next weekend so I will officially be done the entire truck! This is the video I used primarily to reference for priming the pads, how much product to use, how large of areas to work, etc.
It's a Meguiar's UK video. It talks about priming the pad for compound starting around 5:55. Basically he covers the surface of the pad in quite a decent amount of compound and works it into the surface of the pad. Then he puts 5 dots of compound on the pad and spreads it out on the area being worked on followed by 4 passes. The priming is only done once or anytime you start a new pad. He mentions that when he moves to the Ultimate Polish that the pad doesn't need to be primed and instead he draws two intersecting lines of polish across the pad in a cross hair style (14:08 in the video). However, he only does one section in the video and it isn't clear if he uses less product for subsequent panels now that the pad is going to be somewhat primed or if you should apply that much for each section? It seems common in other videos to only use 4 small dots and this is definitely much more product.
As far as the number of passes, I know this depends on what sort of results you are seeing, but I'm curious if others practice this same concept that he suggests in the video. He suggests speed 5 (4800-5800) for the compound, moving approximately 1"/second, and doing 4 passes. Then for polish slowing down to speed 4 (3800-4800), moving at a faster pace, working a section twice the size of when you compounded, and doing this for half the number of passes (2 in this case). As far as waxing, I did it by hand. The tacoma has so many curves in the front panels that I found this easier rather than trying to apply the wax with a machine and having to worry about all the convex and concave lines and having to roll the machine etc.
Other questions and concerns...compound drying on the outside of the pad and then flying off as I work the section (I can't imagine this is good for the paint). When I noticed this it was while I was working on the fender, which also happened to be the panel that I noticed swirls in after compounding. I realize the smaller pads I was using in this area generate more heat which probably contributed to this. I will be more careful next time to watch out for this. I was using a tooth brush and detail spray to try and brush this dried product off the pad which worked only half decently, not great. Is there something I'm doing wrong to have product drying on the outside of the pad? Not primed enough? Working too large of an area? I'm going to invest in a pack of 100% cotton terry cloths for when I continue the job next weekend on the cab. I found a video about cleaning the pads on the fly where you wrap a terry cloth around the pad while it's on the machine still and hold on to it with your hand and turn the machine on for a few seconds. That seemed to work well to clean the pads on the fly. Will that get the dried product off the edges as well or is there a better way? I did use multiple of each pad for the job but never did really clean any of them on the fly other than when i had the compound drying on the edges a couple times. The drying on the pads only happened with the compound and not the polish. Afterwards I cleaned all the pads in the sink with warm water and some dawn dish soap.
One other thing I noticed is the compound wiped off really nicely, but the polish took much more effort. I'm not sure if I was maybe using too much product? I did try experimenting slightly with more/less product and working it more than 2 passes, up to 4 passes, but didn't exactly figure out what was going on. It did come off but like I said it took more effort and wasn't as simple as just lightly wiping it.
And finally my last thoughts/questions and I apologize because I know there are a lot! The next time I polish (maybe 1 year from now) and say I don't quite feel the need to compound, if the Ultimate polish with the white polishing pad doesn't produce satisfactory results, can it be used with an orange (light cutting) pad to achieve more cut? Or would you move to a compound instead of polish if this was the case? I was thinking of maybe polishing once a year and compounding every 2 or 3. It's just too time consuming for me to do it more than this and I'd like the clear coat to last during my ownership of the vehicle.
Thanks!
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