Arghhhhhhhh!!! Messed up, now need to re-polish :( How often is too often?

[fliplyricist1]

Well I made one of the biggest boneheaded mistakes last night, when I ONR`d my car in the garage with minimal lighting. Apparently one of my drying towels caught some kind of debrit in them and I ended up swirling the hell out of the entire car Didn`t even notice until I went to the gas station and saw the hood and was like `omfg.`



I`m like, severely depressed lol. My question is...how often is too often for polishing? Since these are very light swirls (no deep imperfections) but are all over, I was thinking just doing Sonus SFX2 on a white pad over the entire car, and maybe SFX3 to finish it off (though I dont really think I`ll need to). I also have Meguiars Professional Polish #7 but I`m not sure if that has more cutting power than SFX2.



Last time (and only time) I machined polished my car was like 4 months...but I`m just curious how often is too often or considered unsafe? Or should I just bite it and use NXT often to hide the imperfections until summer and give it the full treatment? I`m pretty sure nxt will hide most of the swirls since it does have pretty good masking properties...but it just doesnt last worth a damn.



Anywho, any advice would be greatly appreciated...and bad lesson learned on my part :(

[imported_themightytimmah]

You should be fine - I used to deep polish (rotary, cutting pad, 3 step) my car 2-3x a year, back before I knew better, and 7 years later, the paint is still holding up well.

[tibbsonaphone]

You will be okay to go ahead and polish again, you would know if there were exceptionally weak spots on the paint. I think a factory paint job is around 50 microns, your previous polish likely only removed about 1 or 2 microns. Polishing is not considered unsafe as long as there is clearcoat to polish. And a lot of polishes work to burnish the clearcoat instead of actually removing film. Your best way to check your clearcoat is with a paint meter, the digital types are quite expensive, but the magnetic ones are less and you can get good deals on ebaY. I have never polished more than twice a year and I never use deep cut compounds when I do. Sonus sfx 2 and 3 will work out fine for you. And don`t let the swirls get you down, there really is nothing to stop paint marring on a driven car. As you drive, the car is basically bombarded by particles at high speed. If you want to test products with filling properties, I highly recommend Clearkote Vanilla Moose glaze.

[Domas]

Your best way to check your clearcoat is with a paint meter, the digital types are quite expensive, but the magnetic ones are less and you can get good deals on ebaY.

Regarding the magnetic paint gauge - is it suitable for metallic paints? (the product description says for non-ferrous coatings).

[tibbsonaphone]

I`ve never had trouble using meters on metallic paints. You must be looking at one that can be used on steel and aluminum body panels. I should have mentioned in my previous post that magnetic meters only provide a basic result on the thickness of the coating from bare metal to surface (the combination of primer, paint, and clear). They are mainly used by car buyers to determine if body panels have been repaired; because they are imprecise, they are of little use to a detailer. The only meter I know of that can distinguish multiple coats is an ultrasonic meter. Ultrasonics can also be used on fiberglass and plastic body panels. They are too expensive for a hobbyist like me.

[Setec Astronomy]

Regarding the magnetic paint gauge - is it suitable for metallic paints? (the product description says for non-ferrous coatings).



The metal flake in paint is aluminum and therefore non-ferrous (ferrous = iron).



To the OP: Are you sure your drying towel was contaminated? There is some technique to using rinseless washes and some people have more success than others at doing it swirl-free. I would wash a few more times before you polish and make sure you`re not instilling any more marring...since you are already nervous about removing too much paint I`d hate so see you polish now and then have to do it again after your next wash.

[Street5927]

Tibbs is correct. A new car finish is on average about 4.0-6.0 mils or appx. 50 microns. The clear is about 1.5-2.2 mils or appx. 17 microns. They say that you should only safely remove 25% of the clear at most, which would be no more than appx. 4.25 microns. I also agree with Set that maybe you should try it once again to see if you do get any more marring before polishing and then having to polish again. Let us know how you make out.



Also, keep in mind that unless you are using a very aggressive compound or wet sanding, you will most likely use up a very small portion of the clear coat...so to answer your question, regular polishing and buffing will not eat up alot of the clear..again, unless using a very aggressive compound.

[fliplyricist1]

thanks much for the replies guys! You brought a bit more comfort to my soul on my birthday :) lol





setec: yes im pretty sure it was just debris on the towel this time, as I have inspected my paint pretty much weekly under discrimminating gas station lighting and it has been very clear of major swirling/marring until just tonight when I went to fill up...and I just washed it last night. And the last time I washed it was well over a week ago and it was fine before that :( . I think I`ll definitely heed your advice and just wash normally tomorrow under the 500w halogens just to check my progress, then give it an NXT treatment with the pc. Plus the temps are too cold for me to be doing a full out polishing right now. No biggie



Oh wells...live and learn :)