Do I need something more aggessive?

Grimm · 09-23-06, 12:27

Holy crap I can't believe how long this is taking! I spent a good three hours on buffing the car, just one step, and I'm only 80% done!

My question is whether I need to go more aggressive. I'm not planning to buff this one to perfection because it's and 11 year old daily driver that I will be selling soon. My process was OHC on an orange wolfgang pad. I was at speed 3 to cover the area, then moved to 6. I was putting on quite a bit of pressure, enough where I'm pretty wore out. I would make 3-4 passes different directions with pressure, than did about 3 more with little to no pressure hoping it would leave me with a swirl free finish. It looks good, but I still have a lot of random scratches in the finish. I know some are probably pretty deep, but most look like lighter scratches. Some are long, some short, mostly all are straight. Do I need something more aggressive in a polish, put more pressure, or what? Any chance I'm not putting on enough compound? I was putting about four pencil eraser size dots on the pad. Or maybe I need the yellow pad? I tried taking pictures, but I have a crappy 5 year old point and shoot camera that doesn't want to show good close up shots.

Coupe · 09-23-06, 12:36

Thats not so bad, on a 3 stage polish job you only have 6 more hours to go.

tdekany · 09-23-06, 01:12

what kind of car?

Grimm · 09-23-06, 01:26

'96 Olds Cutlass. Dark Green.

wannafbody · 09-23-06, 05:45

I'd try the yellow pad first and then follow up with the orange pad

RAG · 09-23-06, 06:39

You may have to compound the car twice to achieve your desired results...up to you. But be sure to finish with a final finishing polish and a white pad. I'd make three or four passes with the compound (heavy pressure on all passes) and then go to a finishing polish (like Optimum Polish) using moderate pressure and 3 or 4 passes.