Paint correction on Panamera TT - looking for guidance

Hi. I have been inteinterested in making my car live up to its maximum potential in the looks department. I have been looking around here, collecting some info, and gathering materials.
So far I have

• da polisher up to 7000rpm
• 6", 5" 3" pads - white, black, blue, green orange, yellow
• Meguires polishing system
• Polishes vss, v36, v38, sealers
• Foam cannon
• Clays
• Lots of micro fiber towels
• Buckets and all for washing

My main interest is in paing corr ed ction exterior.
My car is about
- 9.5 out of 10 new look wise interior
- 7 out if 10 new look on outside

Most of my car paint defects are swirl marks from washing I assume.
Th here are couple chips but I already hace chipex matching paint for rhat. Waiting until after paint correction (assume that is the rught thing to do).
Yesterday used blue pad and vss and da polisher to remove minor swirls on the rear wing.
I can see marks when light shines on wing and I look closely.
Pladed 4 pea dots on blue pad, 2 sprays of qater on pad, use slowest settjng on da to spread on half wing. Then 6000rpm with less than moderate pressure for about 45 seconds. Repeated on right side of wing.
After doing this, cleanwd up wing, and saw the marks did not get removed much.
Am I using right equipment? Am I doing this with too little oressure? Bad pads? Bad polish?

Suggestions or guidance very much appreciated. Thank you.

Hey, welcome to the forum!

Posting pictures of your vehicle in its current condition can help with answering your questions.

Its always important to do test spots with your least aggressive/ to most aggressive combination of products.
The VSS from Chemical Guys is generally a one step compound/ polish meaning it will usually be pad dependent for the cut/ finish so may need to use a more aggressive cutting pad to get the results. I am not a huge fan of the CG polish line up but that does not mean they will not work for you. You may need to use a more aggressive pad like an orange cutting pad or a microfiber cutting pad.

Out of curiosity which DA polisher do you own? You may need to apply more pressure depending on the machine. i.e. short throw DA (Porter cable of gg6) vs. long throw like a rupes/ boss. Trying different combinations of compounds/pads and pressure is going to really help you gauge and dial in your compounding and finishing process.

If you find the combinations you currently have is still not giving you the optimal results you need you may want to look into different polishes/compounds like the Griots Garage BOSS Fast Correcting Cream/ Perfecting Cream, Sonax CutMax/ Perfect Finish, Menzerna fg400/ 3500 etc. all sold here on Autopia.

Also, ensure you have enough pads for cutting i.e. 5 to 6 cutting pads and 4-5 polishing pads. Make sure you clean the pads often, every correcting cycle after each 4 to 6 passes, with a pad brush or compressed air. Working clean will ensure you maintain the results you achieve around the entire vehicle.

Thank you for pointers. I will take some pics and will post some worst spots and average spots to get better idea how to approach this.

Here are a couple pics of the car, showing swirl marks from what I assume is many washes likely in those rotary wash places. Regardless, I hope the pics are good enough to show.
I did try to use VSS with the DA and blue pad, polished for about 45 seconds, pressing about 3 on scale 1 (ultra light), to 10 (very hard). Result was not many swirls removed.

Recently heard Porsche has very hard paint, which would imply I would need harder pad, like an orange one (hope i am right).
Advice is very much appreciated, as I am in pure learn mode so I can get this stuff right.

Ciaka- Welcome to Autopia!

FWIW, most of my vehicles have quiet hard paint.

The marring in your pics is pretty severe, so it`ll take some work to improve/correct. Most people starting out in this stuff are surprised how tough it is to polish off significant amounts of clearcoat (i.e., effecting significant correction).

I have not used the product you mentioned, so I won`t comment on it other than to say I suspect it`s far too gentle to do much serious correction. I *will* say that the compound I use (Meguiar`s M101) would take care of that pretty well if used with an Orange Light Cutting Pad, so moving up to that pad should be an improvement but I bet you`ll need a more aggressive compound. Then you`ll need to follow up with a milder pad/product combo to refine the finish.

Depending on what polisher you have, you might need to drop down to pads as small as 4" to get the job done in a timely manner.

I`d be pressing as hard as I could without stopping the pads rotation (marking the backing plate with something you can keep an eye on will help you tell whether the pad is rotating), but see comment below about non-metallic panels.

It can take many passes to get the job done, depending on the aggressiveness your polisher/pad/product. I don`t mean just five or six.

Don`t overwork the product to where it starts to dry out, but don`t cut the work time too short if you`re using a product with diminishing abrasives.

Don`t work too large an area at a time. The Conventional Wisdom is to do a 2` x 2` area, but that`s larger than I do when doing serious correction; I like to keep the area of operation small as it gives me a better sense of control and makes it easier for me to do the serious work incrementally (rather than either not getting it done or conversely hogging off more clear than I need to).

Pick a small area and try to get it as nice as you want. Note that this might take longer than you`d ever imagine.

Remember that plastic/fiberglass parts (the wing, perhaps? I don`t know from Panameras..) don`t absorb heat the way metal panels do, so do the work on such surfaces more gently/incrementally than the work on metal panels.

Unless you`re *absolutely confident* that the paint won`t get marred again, I`d settle for "significantly improved" rather than aiming for perfection. There`s only so much clear on there and you can`t take off much before you lose the UV-resistance and precipitate paint failure (at least if it`s parked outside much).

Accumulator, thank you for your advice.
I also have the CG V36 polish, and V38 final polish, so I think I will use orange pad with V36 on a small area to see if it cuts well.
How would you advise me to know when to stop with the V36, and switch to V38? Given I have the paint in the pic.
Trying to get a better understanding of the level I should be looking for, to stop removing finish and finish it up.

My plan for polishing is:
- wash surface to remove wax and dirt
- dry surface
- clay surface
- put cutting polish onto orange 5" pad, and spray pad couple times with water
- work on 2x1 area with slow, firm press (as you say `as hard I can, enough to keep pad moving`), slow 5-6 passes before check
- between applications, blow out pad with compressed air to ensure it is clean before I put more compound on pad, and spray water twice again
- buff with microfiber cloth to see improvement
- switch to final polish with black 5" pad, pressing lighter than earlier pad, same area
- buff area 5-6 passes then check for progress under light
- same as above for pad cleaning between applications
If the above works, I know to complete the entire surface of the car part

Thank you again for help.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Accumulator

Ciaka- Welcome to Autopia!....

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Ciaka- Oh man...I`m leery of offering advice about products I`m not familiar with. But OK, let`s see...

Generally, you`d keep going with the most aggressive pad/product combo until the marring is "good enough", whatever that means to you (and remember that bit about not taking off too much clear). That aggressive combo will leave some light hazing/"micromarring" of its own, which might only be visible under the most demanding lighting/inspection. Then the milder combo clears that up. So don`t switch to the mild combo too soon, wait until you`re ready to say "good enough".

I`d work more like a 1` x 1` area at most, at least when getting your approach dialed-in, but that`s just me.

I can`t say how many times to go over the area before stopping to inspect/clean pad/etc. as there are just so many variables. But again, don`t overwork/dry out the product.

Clean your pads *A LOT*, like far more often than you can imagine being necessary. I spend more time inspecting and doing that than I do polishing! Once a pad is loaded with old product/cut-off clear it just doesn`t behave properly. I *love* using the compressor to clean my pads, but it works much better with MF pads than with foam ones as it`s easy to just force the [crap] down into the pores of the pad rather than blowing that stuff off/out of the foam.

I don`t moisten the pad unless I have a specific reason for thinking it`s a good idea. And that` pretty rare. No, I don`t "condition" my pads with anything. Adding water adds a real wildcard variable, at least with some products.

Oh boy, I really with somebody who uses those products would chime in, but the silence might speak volumes about whether those are optimal choices (I say now that you`ve already bought them :o ).

I still question whether you`ll need 4" pads. If you do ten tries and still haven`t made progress, I`d stop to rethink your approach rather than drive yourself nuts. It`s easy for me to spend *your* money, but it can be mighty frustrating spending hours and hours with little to show for it. Hey, the abrasion *does* happen as long as you`re spinning that pad/product against the paint...it`s just so minimal that seeing decent results can take forever.

A small MF pad, with a product like M101 (and there are other effective/aggressive ones too) might be an incredible eye-opener. When I have a Random Isolated Deep Scratch ("RIDS", and *my* version of a "deep scratch" isn`t much different from what you`re dealing with), I often reach for a 3" MF cutting pad and that M101 and in short order the problem is *gone*. Before such products were available, such a "little fix" would take forever, and I don`t mean just a few minutes (for one very small area).

Don`t drive yourself nuts ;)

Once you get the marring livable, the follow-up won`t be so such a chore, it`ll go much faster. Don`t press so hard when doing the Finish Polishing, be kinda gentle about that since you`re not trying to do so much work.

Completely wild guess: that V36 won`t be aggressive enough. Don`t buy into that "removes 2K scratches" talk, they all say that and I guess it`s true if you spend a few hours on every little spot. Generally, if it "finishes out LSP-ready", or rather if it claims to, it`s probably way too mild for what you`re doing.

But again, it`s really just about the time involved. Abrasion is abrasion and abrasion takes off clearcoat and guys were polishing things like steel and granite just fine for centuries before we had "polishers". But they sure spent a lot of time doing it ;)

Good to know. I will give the V36 a try with orange pad and try out a section.
Based on your info, I assume I will know there is progress, and I am ready to switch polish and pad, when the area I am doing does not show the scratching anymore, but a bit hazed spot that will be cleaned with final polish.
I will check after I clean area with microfiber, then will do the final polish in similar way, gently. My idea of done is the area will be glossy and either no scratches, or most scratches will be out. It should be contrasted from the touched area. Roger on making sure pads are clean as much as can be, and do not dry out the polish when polishing.
Thank you again.

Glad to help.

The "hazing" may well be so mild that you won`t see it readily. I`d still do the Finish Polishing anyhow so you don`t have a nasty surprise in different lighting.

Note that, for future reference, when trying a "mismatched combo" I`d rather use a harsh product on a mild pad than a mild product on a harsh pad. Just something to consider when trying the V36 on the Orange. There are exceptions though, so it`s not like I`m sure you`ll be on the wrong track. See how it goes and remember to settle for "better" ;)