Correction with a PC

Nick1214

New member
I tried out my PC for the first time and here are afters.



P5084462.jpg




P5084469.jpg




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The car is a silver 2002 Mazda MPV. I honestly was not able to tell if the paint was hard or soft as it was my first car doing a paint correction. It has 85,000 and was in rough shape. It was not washed often and when washed it was through the car wash.



Process

Orange pad with M105

White with M205
 
I only did the hood and it was washed and clayed with the zaino wash and clay.



How can I achieve better results because this still does not look that great. I feel like I did everything correctly. Is there imperfections to deep to come out?



These pics are before any sealant or wax.
 
Personally I'm no pro however i probably would've tried 105 with a yellow... *light pressure... then depending on how deep it cut either a white with 205 or even a green pending the cut...



That's just me.. i'm sure there are many others who would have a differing opinion...



Just curious.. did u have a before? (just want to know how deep it was to begin with... seems like it could've been quite deep)
 
What size pads were you using? How much pressure did you apply?



PC, even with M105, is a very weak correcting tool. For correction work, you really need to be using 4" pads on the PC and working with some moderate pressure; it is just not strong enough to keep a 6.5" pad rotating when using enough pressure for correction...



I have no doubt that the scratches you show in the photos could be 95% to 100% fully corrected with a PC, using proper pads and techniques.



Edit: wanted to add, look up the Kevin Brown Method on this forum; you will learn all about proper correcting techniques using a PC. Good luck!
 
good point... i forgot about the pad size.. usually for the larger surfaces I'll use the 3401 and then the pc 4" for smaller areas..



the poster above has the good question though.. how much pressure did u use?
 
XSNSX said:
Personally I'm no pro however i probably would've tried 105 with a yellow... *light pressure... then depending on how deep it cut either a white with 205 or even a green pending the cut...



That's just me.. i'm sure there are many others who would have a differing opinion...



Just curious.. did u have a before? (just want to know how deep it was to begin with... seems like it could've been quite deep)



Keep yellow pads as far away from your paint as possible if your only tool is a PC. If orange + a cutting compound such as 105 isn't cutting it you need to either work on your technique, learn to live with the defects, or learn to use a rotary for correction; yellow cutting pads on a PC marr paint finishes badly, and require at least 2 extra steps to get back to LSP-ready. That is fine if you were ANTICIPATING the yellow pads to marr and needing to do the 2 extra polishing steps, but for the weekend warrior that is expecting a 1 or 2 step process, throw those yellow pads out...
 
DefiningDetails said:
Keep yellow pads as far away from your paint as possible if your only tool is a PC. If orange + a cutting compound such as 105 isn't cutting it you need to either work on your technique, learn to live with the defects, or learn to use a rotary for correction; yellow cutting pads on a PC marr paint finishes badly, and require at least 2 extra steps to get back to LSP-ready. That is fine if you were ANTICIPATING the yellow pads to marr and needing to do the 2 extra polishing steps, but for the weekend warrior that is expecting a 1 or 2 step process, throw those yellow pads out...



completely agree...



I just thought he was going the distance considering he was looking for perfection.
 
Even with 105 you may need to make additional passes. I remember seeing a before and after scratch pic on a corvette that took 10 passes of 105 with a wool pad. There are a lot of variables including paint hardness, pad size, and technique. Keep at it!
 
This is my friends moms car and I know it is a PIG. Barely washed(every 10k) and when it was it was through the car wash. It would certainly make a good before and after for someone who knows what they're doing.



Both pads were 4 inch. I don't think I have yellow but if I do I am willing to try it knowing that there may be extra steps involved.



So I think I am going to give it another shot. It made the paint look much better with a deeper look.



Is Mazda paint hard or are these imperfections just very deep?
 
I am pretty sure you just get a feel for different paints and how hard/soft they are. This was my first car so I am not totally sure but maybe someone can clarify that for you.
 
I agree you need to keep at it, i too am a noob and my first atempt look like yours there in the pic, but after a 4" orange with 105 and moderate pressure and few more passes it looked really well i thought,90% gone.
 
I have a 2002 MPV and I use the PC/4" and/or the Cyclo to do all of its correction.



The clear on these is medium-soft and the paint is *THIN*. The single-stage areas are even thinner and won't take much of any correction (one pass of M105 might cut through to primer).



The scratches are simply deep relative to the thickness of the clearcoat.



M105/orange is more aggressive than I've ever used on mine. Interesting that that combo didn't do the job :think:



The first pic shows residual marring but the edges of the scratches appear rounded over. This might be a safe "good enough" point on that vehicle.



The second pic shows a scratch that *might* well be too deep for safe complete removal on that paint. But it also appears to show some micro-marring (and I'm using the term "micro" a little loosely).



The third and fourth pics show scratches that still appear to have hard edges (as opposed to rounded over edges). I would *NOT* try for perfection on marring like that in this case, but I would want it a bit better than that.



I'd probably try the M105/white then do the 205/white. Then one light burnishing pass with the M205 on a finishing pad (to clear up the micromarring) and call it quits. IMO/IME this is a case where you could quickly move from "just a little more..." to "oops!".



Note that I had to have one area spotted in after I killed the clear with the PC/4" and a fairly mild pad/product combo; I was working around a deep scratch (already needed paintwork to fix) seeing how well I could do the more shallow ends of the scratch..thought I could get a away with a *LOT* more than I did, I ran out of clear *fast*. It's easy to overdo it on these vehicles.



FWIW, I do a two step when I polish the MPV: 3M PI-III RC 05933 (much milder than M105) followed by PI-III MG 05937 (then the Klasse twins). I use Cyclo brand green pads. So I've never been very aggressive with it. (Even where I went too far I was just using 4"green/05933.)



I would *NOT* use a yellow 4" pad on that paint. Getting more aggressive with a rotary/Flex would be asking for trouble IMO.



I've corrected mild marring on maybe four occasions that I can recall and I don't have much clear left to work with at this point (some ETG readings are a little scarey). IMO trying to get that one in "Autopian condition" would probably result in its needing repainted. I just can't over-emphasize that this is *NOT* a vehicle where you can do some amazing Click-and-Brag type transformation. Say "good enough" before you have to say "sorry..." ;)
 
I just did a 97 mustang and used a PC/flex combo just to have some fun. Used m105

with a 3 inch PFW pad on the PC and it did very nice job for correction , it took some time but it did work rather nice.Just need to meek working small section ,of coruse with the flex i was able to work a larger area with a PFW and and a few other pads i was trying out the purple compressor pad seem to work pretty good but i need to use it a bit more i only did a few spots on the hood it that but again it did work rather well nice for all the valleys and it conforms well to the the hood on the mustang
 
Yes the MPV paint is very soft/thin in my opinion. My parents have one and it is scratched to death, being in parking lots, etc.



However, Ive removed some pretty deep scratches with PB SSR 2.5 via orange. Id almost not want to use 105 on it due to how soft the paint is.



Make sure your process is right. I think those should come out.
 
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