About to give up...

I

imported_series1

New member
I have to be one of the worst when it comes to removing swirls and scratches. I only have a PC and was going to work on a new Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo, Red. First up, Meguiars yellow polishing pad with ssr2.5 and speed 5 Took my time waited for polish to break down. It was noticeably clearer but swirls are still there. Next up, Meguiars cutting pad SSR 2.5 and speed 5. No difference. Next up, I thought the paint might be soft so I did a lake county black finishing pad with meguiars swirl remover 2.0. Nothin. At this point I'm about ready to go to town on the car because the swirls wont budge. No pics cause I can never get swirls to show. The swirls aren't really horrible. Just light swirls that I know a rotary won't be needed for this job. Any ideas? I move pretty slow with the PC but is there a video someone knows of of polishing out swirls and random scratches. Anybody know if Jeep paint is usually hard or soft. Thanks for any info guys it's gonna help me from throwing bottles on the ground and tossing my PC at the wall.:hairpull
 
Series1- If you determine that your current approach isn't aggressive enough, get some 4" pads. If that won't do it, get a more aggressive product. If those don't do it, get a rotary ;)



Note that it can take *many* passes to do correction by PC, and I don't mean just six or eight. I did some spot correction on the Audi that must've taken a dozen. OK, that's hard clear...but the MPV had some RIDS that took eight or nice passes at least, if you count both the aggressive and mild products.
 
Accumulator said:
Note that it can take *many* passes to do correction by PC, and I don't mean just six or eight.
Click to expand...



When you say that, you mean 6-8 fresh applications of polish, breaking it down each time, right? That seems to be a frequent noob misunderstanding.
 
totally yotaguy, don't give up, more speed less movement just give it a try and if youre right put the machine away, if youre wrong, youll find out why it's so much work to actually polish an entire vehicle.





slow down your passes and movement regardless how slow you think they already are. you can always go slower, definitely use speed 6, i havent even tried to correct paint on speed 5 and never would, youve come this far try to tweek your technique a little bit and youll thank yourself.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
When you say that, you mean 6-8 fresh applications of polish, breaking it down each time, right? That seems to be a frequent noob misunderstanding.
Click to expand...



6-8 applications per panel to correct via pc?? i know you don't mean that. if that was the case it would take at least 16 ounces of your used compound and polish to do the job.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. Speed 6 with nice and slow movements it is and then if that won't work than a more aggressive compound. Out to the garage. Thanks again!
 
Setec Astronomy said:
When you say that, you mean 6-8 fresh applications of polish, breaking it down each time, right? That seems to be a frequent noob misunderstanding.
Click to expand...



Yeah, that's what I mean.



VaSuperShine said:
6-8 applications per panel to correct via pc?? i know you don't mean that. if that was the case it would take at least 16 ounces of your used compound and polish to do the job.
Click to expand...



Yeah, I really *do* mean that! No, it doesn't take that much product; IMO most people use a zillion times more product than they oughta and that can make the job even harder/take longer. A quart of product lasts me for many, many details even when I do big vehicles. Even little pint bottles last me numerous vehicles. I'm a great proponent of using the correct amount of product.



[Heck], I'm doing that many passes on the M3 using the rotary/cutting/aggressive compound! The first few get most of the light marring out, but deeper RIDS take quite a bit more work. I could speed things up with wool, but I'm using up my foam cutting pads.



IF/when I'm willing to settle for "much better" as opposed to truly perfect, and if/when I'm working on really soft paint, then you're right, I don't need as many passes.



Oh, and you're right about using speed 6. I only do correction at 5 if the pad in question (e.g., some 4" orange pads) acts "unstable" at the higher speed. Used with larger pads, speeds lower than 6 are pretty much a waste of time IMO.
 
ok say you use an ounce to two ounces of compound going over once. multiply that by 8 is an aweful lot of polishing and product. i admit i most likely use a little more product than needed at times but i don't see how it's possible to not use at least an ounce on a regular sized vehicle let alone an suv. I would be willing to bet this persons problem lies in not working the product long enough/using too much product/or not operating his machine slow enough for correction, if he has zero results the way he's going, i don't think it's going to matter if he goes over each section 8 times identically. jmo
 
accumulator-



youre definitely right and i mispoke when i said i never use speed five, with spot pads 6 just doesnt feel very comfortable to me, it can get a little wild.



i can see taking that much time on your own car i guess, but going over one panel 8 times for correction and say one or two times with a final polish, sounds like around 45 minutes to an hour per 2x2 section. sounds like a loooooong drawn out day and detail.
 
NickelPlated.45- RIDS = Random Isolated Deep Scratches. Term came from Mike Phillips at Meguiar's.



VaSuperShine said:
accumulator-..i can see taking that much time on your own car i guess, but going over one panel 8 times for correction and say one or two times with a final polish, sounds like around 45 minutes to an hour per 2x2 section. sounds like a loooooong drawn out day and detail.
Click to expand...



Sorry, without insight into my specific context, my earlier post must've sounded wacky; I sometimes forget that not everybody here is all that familiar with my situation. I'll try to explain: (Here comes more than you ever wanted to know about me and my polishing :D )



I only do my own cars, with *very* few exceptions. They seldom need any serious correction after the initial just-bought-it work, for which I'll use the rotaries. De-marring a "regular" vehicle with a PC/Cyclo? NOT ME! Life's too short for that ;) Other than RIDS, I just don't do much correction on a regular basis.



Note that I only use the PC/Cyclo for correction on RIDS, at least for the most part. I do use them for final polishing after rotary work, and for all the correction on the MPV, but it has workable (and thin!) paint and again, it never needs much more than one pass with each of two products. The RIDS on it do take me forever and make me wonder if I shouldn't just get out the rotary ;)



The last time I did a RIDS correction by PC on one of the Audis I was gonna count the number of passes. I lost count/lost my train of thought after a while...I got distracted by thinking that next time I *was* gonna use the rotary :D



..if he has zero results the way he's going, i don't think it's going to matter if he goes over each section 8 times identically.
Click to expand...



You just gotta know if you're making minor, but incremental progress *or* if you're simply wasting your time with a too-mild approach (the literally "zero results"). I know the paint/products/etc. of *my* situations through extensive trial-and-error, but the OP apparently doesn't, which is understandable. I think we agree that he just needs to ratchet up the aggressiveness and use the proper, slow-motion techniques with the right amount of product.



If you're using a 4" cutting pad with H-T EC, even if you don't see much progress, it's happening and you just gotta stick with it.
 
Accumulator said:
NickelPlated.45- RIDS = Random Isolated Deep Scratches. Term came from Mike Phillips at Meguiar's.







Sorry, without insight into my specific context, my earlier post must've sounded wacky; I sometimes forget that not everybody here is all that familiar with my situation. I'll try to explain: (Here comes more than you ever wanted to know about me and my polishing :D )



I only do my own cars, with *very* few exceptions. They seldom need any serious correction after the initial just-bought-it work, for which I'll use the rotaries. De-marring a "regular" vehicle with a PC/Cyclo? NOT ME! Life's too short for that ;) Other than RIDS, I just don't do much correction on a regular basis.



Note that I only use the PC/Cyclo for correction on RIDS, at least for the most part. I do use them for final polishing after rotary work, and for all the correction on the MPV, but it has workable (and thin!) paint and again, it never needs much more than one pass with each of two products. The RIDS on it do take me forever and make me wonder if I shouldn't just get out the rotary ;)



The last time I did a RIDS correction by PC on one of the Audis I was gonna count the number of passes. I lost count/lost my train of thought after a while...I got distracted by thinking that next time I *was* gonna use the rotary :D







You just gotta know if you're making minor, but incremental progress *or* if you're simply wasting your time with a too-mild approach (the literally "zero results"). I know the paint/products/etc. of *my* situations through extensive trial-and-error, but the OP apparently doesn't, which is understandable. I think we agree that he just needs to ratchet up the aggressiveness and use the proper, slow-motion techniques with the right amount of product.



If you're using a 4" cutting pad with H-T EC, even if you don't see much progress, it's happening and you just gotta stick with it.
Click to expand...



I follow ya. i dont think ive polished a jeep i suppose the cc is awefully hard if 2.5 is dong nothing. i just don't want him to think all he needs to do is go over it 7 more times, becuase he should be seeing "some" results almost regardless the polish hes using.
 
I poked my nose in here because I think newbs (and some of us non-newbs) get confused between "passes" and "applications". One person may say 8 "passes" and mean that you load up the pad and go back and forth 8 times, or he may mean that you load up, work in, and break down the polish 8 times. There's a lot of variables such as machine speed, arm speed, pressure, pad and polish aggressiveness, paint hardness, and defect depth, so it's difficult to correlate a problem report from someone who's never successfully polished before.



Sometimes you're working on a problem and you don't have available a better tool, coarser pad or polish, etc., so you might have to do a lot of passes (or should I say applications?) with a PC. As has been discussed many times before, some users in the beginning don't really appreciate how much work is involved in swirl removal, even with a machine (that you have to apply pressure, run at 6, etc.).
 
Setec Astronomy- Yeah, a little lack of clarity here can wreak a lot of havoc.



By "pass", *I* mean the full "apply polish to the panel and work it until it's broken down; buff off residue". I hesitate to use "application" as the polish isn't really transferred to the panel in most cases the way a wax or other "leaves stuff behind" product is; or at least that isn't the primary intention. ARGHHH...I know I'm not wording this all that well, the puppy is distracting me something awful just now :o Talk about wreaking havoc....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top