Stupid newbie here.

[Liquid_Table]

So I finally mustered the time and energy to go after my A6. Black clear coat is a real pain to maintain and neither I nor the previous owner seemed to have much time to do so. My paint is a mess of swirls and scratches and generally looks like hell.



So today I went after it in the following fashion:

Wash

Clay

Pre-Wax cleaner

Clay

Polish

Glaze

Wax



I am using my PC 7424 with a 5" backing flex plate, 5.5" Lake Country orange Smart Pad with Meguiars M105 and a Green Pad with M205. After polishing on the hood for the better part of an hour today I think it is worse off than when I started and I am at a loss as to why.



The M105 really didn`t do much to remove any of harder scratches. It did get the swirls, but only after a lot of elbow grease with the PC at setting 5 to 5.5. After that I finished up with the M205 and when I thought I rid myself the haze and holograms I called it good.



It looked fine under normal garage light. But in the unforgiving glare of my halogen work light it looks absolutely terrible. Scratches and swirls galore. I don`t know how the hell this happened. Some of the scratches are obviously swirls from before and some look like micro-marring from the buffter but a lot of them are vertical as well. Basically it looks like someone took a wire brush to the clear coat. What the hell could cause that?

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/2801/dsc1869z.jpg



The paint looks like ****. I am wondering how the hell can it still look like that after so much polishing? Did I make a mistake? Do Audi`s just have REALLY HEARD clear coat? What`s going on here? I`m really at a loss and I am pretty sure the whole thing looks worse than when I started. I am especially confused since the 105/205 combo had such excellent results on my friend`s F150.

[sacdetailing]

Audi clear is SUPER HARD. Try using purple foal wool pad and m105, then orange pad and super intensive.

[Liquid_Table]

Audi clear is SUPER HARD. Try using purple foal wool pad and m105, then orange pad and super intensive.



This is rather what I figured. I know some of the German/European cars use clearcoat made from crushed diamonds and Jean Claude VanDamme`s ego but this is ridiculous. On another note I wasn`t aware it was safe to use wool pads on clear coat. I assume the wool is going to provide some extra cut? Might it also be prudent to invest in a yellow pad as well?

[Accumulator]

Liquid_Table- Missed this thread when I was out of town...



Your approach is just too gentle. Audi clear is hard, but it can be corrected OK (I`ve done fingernail scratches behind door handles *by hand*).



Get some 4" orange pads. Those work OK on Audis for me, but it will still take a few tries and I don`t mean just four or five. Be sure to use the M105 correctly (no time to elablorate at present).



Wool pads *in 4" size* can work OK on harder clear but from what I see you don`t need to use that approach.



PFW pads are different from other wool pads, and are a viable alternative to orange foam.



You could get *really* aggressive with SurBuf pads, but I don`t think you oughta try that.



Similarly, I`d rather do X passes with orange foam than X-n passes with yellow (or SurBufs or wool, at least in your case), but that`s just me. Instilling extra micromarring on Audis is a recipe for more headaches IMO.

[imported_Bert]

So I finally mustered the time and energy to go after my A6. Black clear coat is a real pain to maintain and neither I nor the previous owner seemed to have much time to do so. My paint is a mess of swirls and scratches and generally looks like hell.



How deep are the scratches in your clear coat? If you run your finger nail across a scratch, does the scratch "catch" your finger nail? If so, that scratch is most likely too deep to fix, it has cut through too muc clear to be safe to fix. All you can hope to do is improve a scratch that deep assuming you don`t want to have the car repainted or try your luck at touching up the scratch.

[bmw5541]

Beside your choice of pads, you also need to take into consideration your technique. Always do a small section at a time. Start with a 12` x 12" section and make sure you can correct that section first before you move on to the entire car. This is why it is so important to constantly check your work. No need to do the entire car, only to realize that you are not getting the desired results. Take your time, and do as many passes as it takes to get the desired results. Once you get that technique dialed in, you know what you will need to do for the rest of your car. Too many beginners get impatient and are in a rush to do the entire car quickly. I learned this the hard way.

[RaskyR1]

I worked on an S4 the other day and the paint is definitely hard. Even so, I thought I was able to get decent amount of correction with Power Finish on the PCXP equipped with a 6.5" orange LC pad, speed 6 with a good amount of pressure to start.



Though I did end up going with a rotary and PFW pad on this car, you can still see how much of an improvement I was able to make with just the PC and Power Finish.





Before

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i288/Raskyr1/s4.jpg



After

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i288/Raskyr1/s4_1.jpg

[Accumulator]

RAskyR1- Heh heh, you guys who can accomplish correction with those 6.5" pads just kill me! I just waste my time with those unless I get out the Flex or a rotary :nixweiss

[RaskyR1]

RAskyR1- Heh heh, you guys who can accomplish correction with those 6.5" pads just kill me! I just waste my time with those unless I get out the Flex or a rotary :nixweiss



Hahaha, well as you can see it didn`t touch the deeper stuff but the light marring came out fairly easily. The deeper stuff require several passes with my rotary and PFW pad and even then I only achieved about 90-95% correction. Power Finish has really impressed me lately though. ;)

[EricDawg]

Why not use a yellow pad here? Orange is a good place to start, but I wouldn`t hesitate to use a yellow pad here. Also go slower.

[Alexshimshimhae]

no one favoring the hydrotech pads anyone?

[Bunky]

no one favoring the hydrotech pads anyone?



I bought some to fill up an order but have not used them. From what I read, they are not as durable as non-HT pads under similar use conditions. I hear they are switching to a different notching on the back side to reduce the tearing of the back many have discussed.

[Alexshimshimhae]

Last night I found out about their 7/8 ht from Mr. Fermani .. It just seems as though 99% of the pros and general popn use the lc flats so just wondering if the ht pads were just unsubstantiated hype

[lee@glosshaus]

I just tested out the Hydro Cyan pad, and I really like it a lot!!! Even though it is rated as aggressive as the LC Yellow pad, my feeling is it is slightly less aggressive, but works much more predictably and comfortably, with less pad marring than an LC Yellow. For really hard clear, I`d probably go back to the yellow and an aggressive polish (I use GlossHaus). I think orange/tangerine LC pads are going to be too mild for what you seem to be working with.



(Also tried the Tangerine and Crimson pads with great results, too)