When to use a Rubbing Compound...

[wannafbody]

when should you use a rubbing copound and how often is it safe to do so? Is it better to live with scratches that require a compound instead of possibly damaging the clearcoat? How much clearcoat will compounds remove?

[Accumulator]

There are rubbing compounds and then there are *RUBBING COMPOUNDS*. Some, like the 3M PI-II 39002/PI-III 05933 are really just sorta aggressive polishes, but others like the PI-3000 are very abrasive.



You only use such stuff when you need to. Unless you have a paint thickness gauge it`s gonna be a gamble with regard to taking off too much paint and nobody can really predict what`ll happen.



The only verified, objective evaluation I`ve ever read about was conducted with ValueGuard/AutoInt Paint Correction Cream (I think that`s the proper name), a compound used, by rotary, to remove flaws such as acid rain etching. It takes off so much clear that you`d *never* want to use it more than once and even one time will limit what you can do in the future. I can`t quite recall how many tenths of a mil it removes, but it gets uncomfortably close the the "3/10ths of a mil" rule of thumb. After you take off so much clear, what do you do when you get a little swirling five/ten/twenty years down the road?



While some here regularly take off whatever paint is necessary to effect correction, I myself would rather live with marring than risk requiring a repaint. "Better imperfect paint than a repaint" is sorta my motto when it comes to paint correction, but that`s just me and I keep some of our vehicles a long, long time.



But then I`m the guy who tries to remove all the marring from his S8 too. Still, I have a few spots I live with, where I just won`t take off that much clear.

[imported_Neothin]

I wouldnt use a rubbing compound more than once or twice. as accumulator said, you never know exactly how much clear your taking off, so it`s better to not risk going thru the clear. I`ve also adopted accumlators approach to marring correction. I use a glaze or some other form of a filler in nearly all of my combos.

[David Fermani]

There`s so many good aggressive polishes(chemical/abbrasive) out there that straight compounding is becoming extinct. Use it when nothing else works.

[Louie]

If "rubbing compound" is the Turtle Wax stuff in a red can do not use this stuff on your clearcoat finish despite what it says about being clearcoat safe. I`ve recently fixed 2 cars where the owners swirled the hell of their vehicles trying to fix their finishes. The first was dark blue, they ran up along some bushes and scratched the passenger side from bumper to bumper. After using the TW rubbing compund they converted it to a swirled mess. Using a PC and Meg`s #9 I was able to remove the haze left behind and then the remaining brush scratches.

[jimmybuffit]

There oughta be a law...



The general public should not have access to `rubbing compound`.



By itself, it will never (cannot) produce satisfactory results.



It is, at best, part of a sequence of events/procedures.



Jim



My previous signature applies here:

"If it was easy, everybody`d be doing it!"