A few questions after frist DA polish [Archive] - Autopia Forum - Auto Detailing & Car Care Discussion Forum

WetLookinPaint

02-18-2012, 10:07 PM

Car: 1997 Acura 3.0CL

Process

I washed my car using the 2 bucket method and foam gun

Clayed it

Then I used my PC7424xp with LC 5.5 inch White pads and XMT 360 AIO.

My questions:

After polishing i noticed that there was some black residue on the pads. The car is black, but I think that this car does not have a 1stage paint. I believe it has a 2 stage. What could this residue be?

Also, I noticed that sometimes when polishing some dry polish would flake off and "spray" around. What are the complications behind this and what is the cause?

1 more. I noticed that the XMT 360 AIO did not remove that many scratches. I tried and orange pad and it did not seem to do any better. Is this normal? I am not that concerned about it right now, I just wanted to put some protection on my paint when I had a window of nice weather.

Thanks!

Matt

Nth Degree

02-19-2012, 01:51 AM

After polishing i noticed that there was some black residue on the pads. The car is black, but I think that this car does not have a 1stage paint. I believe it has a 2 stage. What could this residue be?

A few possibilities. The paint could be that dirty under the surface, but not likely. I have had light colored vehicles leave a little bit of dark color on pads before when the paint was neglected and heavily contaminated. More likely you have passed over some sort of plastic or rubber trim. Was it primarily on certain surfaces? If it happened on the hood and there are several tiny paint chips then you could have picked up a little of the base/color coat from those.

Also, I noticed that sometimes when polishing some dry polish would flake off and "spray" around. What are the complications behind this and what is the cause?

You are most likely using too much polish. If it "splatters", meaning it is still wet you can try starting with a lower speed until it is spread, then pick up the speed. If it is "flaking", meaning it has dried on the pad you can clean the excess from the pad by simply wiping it off with a MF towel periodically to reduce that. It is not uncommon to go through 2-3 pads for a whole car to prevent a loaded pad causing this problem. In any case, too much product is likely the problem. Once the pad is primed it only takes 3-4 pea-sized drops to be effective for an 18" x 18" area.

1 more. I noticed that the XMT 360 AIO did not remove that many scratches. I tried and orange pad and it did not seem to do any better. Is this normal? I am not that concerned about it right now, I just wanted to put some protection on my paint when I had a window of nice weather.

An AIO does not have the cutting ability to remove scratches. Typically an AIO will only remove minor swirls. If correction is the goal it will require something more aggressive. An orange pad can up it a little, but on black it is more likely to diminish the gloss than increase the correcting ability enough to notice. On the positive side, an AIO will be relatively safe to use every few months on what is likely to be rather thin paint on that Acura.