jeweling paint

**jrock817** · 03-25-2010, 06:32 PM

so ive begun the process of trying to "jewel" the paint on my black cobra. to most everyone says it looks great.... unfortunately i got myself into detailing. so after much research, i have in my arsenal 85rd and ultrafina. after cleaning the surfaces etc... i polished the trunk 1/2 and 1/2. i followed a video by someone on here, and i spread the polish, hit it for a pass or two on speed 2 (makita 9227), then bumped up a little past 3 for 4 passes. i finished by going back to 2 for one pass. wiped down with the plushest microfiber i could find, ipa wipedown. i have to say the 85rd before the wipedown appeared superior, but after, i cant tell the difference.

now my question is, can it ever be perfect? there is still some marring on both, im looking at it with halogens, and an LED light.

for conversation sake, the ultrafina was way cleaner as far as dusting, but i hear the fina gets awful slingy once the pad gets full, and i only did the trunk.

**Barry Theal** · 03-25-2010, 07:02 PM

Your paint should be free of micromarring before you jewel thepaint. To me it sound like the paint wasn`t perfect before you attempted the jeweling. Jeweling is designed to enhance a finish not to correct it. Now keep in mind this is just my opionion. I can say this, if I`m jeweling paint prior to jeweling its lsp ready prior to jeweling.

**Rtom** · 03-25-2010, 07:04 PM

By marring do you mean marring defects or micro marring from the "jewelling" stage? If there are no longer any visible defects and YOU think it looks great, I`d leave it at that. IMO, rarely can anyone ever tell if you`ve even attempted to jewel, the drastic difference is just, not there.

The burnishing stage (I prefer burnishing), in my books, is only meant to bring out absolute maximum gloss. Once the paint is defect free that is.

Not saying you can`t use it like a final polishing, but it might just not be "aggressive" enough.

I`m a bigger fan of glazes

.

**craigdt** · 03-25-2010, 08:59 PM

Indeed. It is not truely jeweling until the finish is perfect.

**Accumulator** · 03-26-2010, 12:15 PM

Note that you can still burnish/jewel even if there are some flaws that can`t/shouldn`t be (safely) removed. But all the "general correction" should be taken care of before you try that extra step; yeah, the car should be LSP-ready.

You get things basically perfect, nothing left but *RANDOM, ISOLATED* flaws. That`s like having 1% imperfection on a 99% absolutely perfect panel. Then you try to bring up the gloss on that 99% a bit more.

It`s bordering on truly microscopic levels of polishing.

If you can`t see the diff, it either isn`t worth doing, or *MAYBE* you just aren`t inspecting in the right light (or, heh heh, *BOTH*

). When I burnished the S8, I thought I was wasting my time, couldn`t see any benefit in the shop. When I pulled it outside I initially felt the same way, but then the light hit it just right and "wow!" ...it looked better than it ever had before, truly a special appearance.

BUT...IMO after enough washes that extra-polished look starts to fade away even if the paint continues to look marring-free. Yeah, even *MY* kind of washes. So to be honest, I haven`t done a real burnishing for a long, long time. More of my Autopian Heresy I suppose, but I juess I just don`t care that much. That said, I`ll probably do it to the S8 again, whenever I give it another polishing (which sure won`t be any time soon

).

**jrock817** · 03-27-2010, 04:52 AM

i guess my words were wrong writing the post the other day. there is not marring on the car. what im talking about is the very random holograms left by the machine. these marking are hidden by any product i put on them, but i was really wondering if there is ever "perfect" paint. i know i am not a pro, but i wanted to know how close i should consider perfect for my skill level. i have to use both a halogen and led light to see it. i guess i just misunderstood the burnishing process. i thought there was some correction, but now i realize it should be treated as an lsp step. thanks everyone for your advice!

**Accumulator** · 03-27-2010, 12:14 PM

Originally Posted by jrock817

i guess my words were wrong writing the post the other day. there is not marring on the car. what im talking about is the very random holograms left by the machine. these marking are hidden by any product i put on them, but i was really wondering if there is ever "perfect" paint. i know i am not a pro, but i wanted to know how close i should consider perfect for my skill level. i have to use both a halogen and led light to see it. i guess i just misunderstood the burnishing process. i thought there was some correction, but now i realize it should be treated as an lsp step. thanks everyone for your advice!

Thanks for clarifying!

At the risk of sounding insufferable pedantic, all caught up in the semantics of this stuff

....those "random holograms" are still what *I* would consider "marring". I`d absolutely want to eliminate them 100% before I even thought about burnishing.

I won`t even accept marring like that which is only visible under extreme inspection conditions that are more demanding than natural sunlight (i.e, the SunGun in a perfectly dark room). I`m just...adamant about it, moreso than I am about RIDS/etc. by a long shot.

I`d fix those. THEN maybe consider jeweling/burnishing the paint. But I don`t consider fixing a visible flaw to be burnishing, it`s still part of the "correction".

Wonder what advice might help you get rid of those :think: Are you trying to finish out with a rotary? Are you using M205 for the final polishing?

**imported_advs1** · 03-27-2010, 11:06 PM

color sand it, then jewel it. i think its a waste of time to try and jewel paint if it has a ton of orange peel. i have done some cars that have had more visible orange peel after just a regular polish. yeah the shine was great, but i hate orange peel.

**Accumulator** · 03-28-2010, 11:36 AM

Originally Posted by advs1

color sand it, then jewel it. i think its a waste of time to try and jewel paint if it has a ton of orange peel. i have done some cars that have had more visible orange peel after just a regular polish. yeah the shine was great, but i hate orange peel.

Eh, I dunno...both my D2-series Audis have horrendous orangepeel, especially certain areas of the S8 for some reason (so much for their fancy robotic paint sprayers at that high-tech factory

). It was still worth jeweling IMO as the car looked better overall, but yeah, it did make the orangepeel even more obvious.

Heh heh, actually, it seems like most of my vehicles have awful orangepeel, guess I`m just used to it!

**Barry Theal** · 03-28-2010, 11:40 AM

One day I want to sand down all Accumulator`s cars for him............ Barry Theal

**Accumulator** · 03-28-2010, 12:44 PM

Originally Posted by Barry Theal

One day I want to sand down all Accumulator`s cars for him............

Heh heh heh.....Actually, it`s a good thing I got my wash regimen sorted out, some of them have such thin paint that even a good compounding would cause problems. Sorta a drag how compounding/polishing doesn`t fix orangepeel; you can buff the paint away to the "uh-oh" point and *still* have that crappy texture.

Besides that, of the big things for me is that almost all of my vehicles have had paintwork, including a lot of spot-in repairs. Heh heh, the painters here are already amazed that I don`t have issues in those areas!

But yeah....that M3 I had, my painter saw it and told me I oughta wetsand, starting with 1500

Probably shoulda listened to him as I spent forever rotarying away with Extra Cut instead.

Actually, I think some people *oughta* do some (gentle

) wetsanding instead of going nuts with the polisher. When you`re taking off a lot of paint, the sanding can offer more control in some ways.

**Barry Theal** · 03-28-2010, 12:57 PM

Originally Posted by Accumulator

But yeah....that M3 I had, my painter saw it and told me I oughta wetsand, starting with 1500

Probably shoulda listened to him as I spent forever rotarying away with Extra Cut instead.

Actually, I think some people *oughta* do some (gentle

) wetsanding instead of going nuts with the polisher. When you`re taking off a lot of paint, the sanding can offer more control in some ways.

The best darn thing I heard come out of your mouth yet!!!:laugh: Its about time you see things my way.

Jrock how did you make out with the whole jeweling/burnishing thing. I would love to see pics!

**Accumulator** · 03-28-2010, 01:17 PM

Originally Posted by Barry Theal

The best darn thing I heard come out of your mouth yet!!!:laugh: Its about time you see things my way.

Heh heh, yeah...per usual, whenever somebody here might think you and I are :argue on some subject we`re actually a lot more in-synch than it sounds :hifive:

**jrock817** · 03-28-2010, 03:35 PM

Barry... i ended up finishing with power finish on a white pad. that left me with over 99% correction. i think my "non-pro-ness" will only allow me that level of perfection. in the sun i couldnt see anything. then i did the burnish/jewelling with ultrafina on a red kompressor pad using the instructyions on your video. i think it made a difference to me, but i had my wife come out and look at it before and after and she honestly thought it was the same. i took one picture before my camera died, and now its raining, so ill get more up on the next nice day. thanks again to everyone chiming in and helping out, especially barry!