Critique my PC technique (vid)

One thing I am wondering about is whether I may be working the polish TOO long. In an effort to completely break down the polish I worked the panel for almost 7 minutes, could a dry pad be the culprit?
The vid I posted was only a minute of me polishing. The actual work time was between 5-7 minutes(on a fairly small area). I did spritz the pad before polishing, but in hindsight there was almost no polish left at all on the panel when I stopped.
 
One thing with the Poorboy's line that I have employed is to not use water to spritz the pad. I try to get the pad charged with product then use less and less product as I go around the vehicle. I have found not using water with SSRs has helped in the reduction of dusting.

It is something to consider.
 
Tried some more polishing today....with less than stellar results. I tried SSR2 w/ orange then SSR2 with gray, SSR2 w/ orange then SSR2 with white, SSR2 with white (swirls still present).....SSR2 with orange, then SSR2 w/white, then SSr1 with gray. All combos caused different degrees of micromarring.
I'm now going to go over the entire car to get the swirls out then go back and try to remove the marring. I'm worried now that (1) 16 oz bottle of SSR1 and (1) of SSR2 may not be enough at the rate I'm going. So I figure I'll at least get the swirls out and hope for the best when it comes to the micromarring.
If I can't get the micromarring out....will DG #104 and AW sufficiently hide the marring?
 
I don't know what to say now...

Every car is different and some require more work than others. I can usually tell by looking at a vehicle what products it'll need to get rid of the swirls. It's hard to tell what you are trying to takle without seeing the swirls and micromarring. Try to get full sun pictures or pictures under a halogen light where the swirls are present. This may help the next step.

If the swirls are similar to my pictures below try SSR2.5 and SSR1 both on different, clean, dry polishing (white) pads. That is what I did and here are the results. I didn't remove every single swirl because it is practically impossible and really isn't worth it. But as you can see, the finish wasn't hurt by not having a 100% perfect finish.

Here's what I was working with:
hl4.jpg


Looks good right?
hl9.jpg


Still a few small swirls:
hl8.jpg


But the overall finish was outstanding:
hl12.jpg


Not sure if this helped or not but don't get discouraged if you can't get the finish 100% perfect the way you want it. Chances are 99% of people won't notice a few stray swirls on a nicely detailed finish.
 
I wish I could take a pic of the swirls. For some reason I can't get my Canon A80 to take a good pic of the swirls(my fault I'm sure). I'll try tomorrow to get a decent pic. The swirls I'm dealing with aren't as bad as you showed, but there definitely are a lot of them.
I haven't tried the SSR2.5 as you described...I'll give it a try .
I do manage to get 99% of the swirls out of the panels I polish(so that's a positive)...it's just the damn micromarring that I can't get rid of. Unfortunately, I only have 1 white pad so I'll have to clean and dry it when I try the SSR2.5. If it works then I'll polish a few panels with the SSR2.5 then clean/dry the pad and change polish, so I'm not going back and forth every few minutes.
Most folks that see my car don't even see the swirls now, let alone after I polish. I just don't want to find out that the DG doesn't hide the marring at all....and i end up with a car that 'sparkles' cause of the marring.
 
nathansdad04
I have never used the PB polish so I can not say what you should do but I never use the orange pad unless I have bad scratches. I would use the 2.5 with the white pad and try not working it so long.If you are working it in too cold a temp or buffing it dry you will get the results that you describe.
I have been able to make factory paint very near flawless but on a daily driver it may be a waste of time. Unless you wash it properly the first wash will put the swirls back. Constant polishing will remove the clear coat I polish once or twice a year and focus on keeping from putting swirls in the paint rather than removing them.
Can you find someplace to get the car inside where it would be warmer that may help the polish would break down better if the surface of the car was warmer. Two questions that you ask have not been addressed.
#1 NO DG105 will not hide your swirls.
#2 This is difficult to say but while removing swirls about 15lbs pressure should be about right. Set the PC on the bathroom scale and practice putting 15lbs pressure on it. After you have removed the swirls then use less aggressive polish and less pressure to finish.
A Black pad and a very mild polish will leave the surface looking like a mirror
 
It's gonna be 60 degrees tomorrow so that should be warm enough(it's gonna have to be).
As for the DG104...I'll be swirl-free, just not micromarring-free...will the DG hide the micromarring is the question.
 
After 4 hours of polishing I'm ready to throw my PC in the damn garbage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I used an orange pad with SSR2 and managed to nothing but HAZE my entire car! And I still have swirls, too! Not to mention I use the whole 16 oz bottle of SSR2 in the process.
Obviously, I must be in way over my head. Tomorrow, I'm going to have to at least go over the car with a white pad and SSR1 to try and correct some of the damage I've caused.
I've got to get a coat of DG #104 by tomorrow night and a second by wed morning....cause it'll be in the 20's later in the week, and it probably won't be warm again til spring.
I'm totally exhausted and completely disappointed now.
 
How did this come out? SSR1 should clear up any hazing easily, it always has for me. Perhaps you may want to try moving the PC in figure 8 shapes... that's what I've always done. :)
 
Autogeek has some good PC videos too. It helped me when I was using a PC. Another good resource is properautocare.com, they have some pretty good step by step instructions - yeah, if you contact them you'll find them helpful and eager to sell you some Menzerna or Blackfire, and that ain't such a bad thing either. I've never used PB's except for Natty's Blue (didn't care for it) for swirls I've used Meg's - available on-line and for me - at CarQuest. I love DG 105 for a finish though!
 
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