PC problems

[x350Zx]

Ok so I just received my order of sonus pads and I was totally stoked. I washed the car, dried it and started to apply 3M finesse IT swirl remover for darker cars onto it via a pc 7336 with orange cutting pad. Now I set the pc to 4 and started buffing the hood, polished it off with the polishing bonnet from sonus then touched up the hood with a towel. It turned out semi-decent. Then later that night I noticed under some fluorescent lighting that I had swirled up my whole hood. Not minor swirls like I had before but extremely bad swirls. Now this is all on a black car but what I`m wondering is what did I do wrong? Previously when I used the pad that had originally came with the pc this never had happened. Oh and I forgot to mention that I applied this 3M compound on top of some water spots. So in essence I have a few questions.



1. What could have caused this?

2. What is an ideal speed to set the buffer to when using a compound, polish, etc?

3. Is the orange pad too aggressive for my purpose?

4. Is using a slower speed on the buffer better for taking out swirls?



Thanks in advance.

[Accumulator]

Originally posted by x350Zx

1. What could have caused this?



First off, I`d get some better lighting so you can tell what`s happening while you do the work. A halogen worklight would be very helpful.



I`d guess that it`s a combination of the orange pad and not breaking down the product completely.






2. What is an ideal speed to set the buffer to when using a compound, polish, etc?



I do most all my polishing at 5 or 6.






3. Is the orange pad too aggressive for my purpose?



Perhaps, and it apparently needs to be followed by a milder pad (this varies depending on the paint and product). And I`m not sure about using the orange pad with a SMR, which is usually a pretty mild product better suited to a light polishing pad.






4. Is using a slower speed on the buffer better for taking out swirls?



No, I use a *higher* speed. But you do have to pick the right product, match it to the correct pad, and often go over the area *many* times to get it perfect. Move the PC very slowly over the area being worked. The whole process can take an incredibly long time. And use good lighting to help you see what`s happening. That way you won`t find that you messed up an entire panel; you can spot a problem when it only affects a small area (and is thus more easily corrected).



I haven`t used the SMR-dark for a long, long, time. I get much better results with PI-III MG (pn 05937), which can be used with different pads depending on the severity of the defects you`re working on.