Help with soft paint/clear...

C

cobrar97

New member
I have a hard time getting the swirls out of soft paint...such as Honda/Acura. With my Hitachi rotary, it seems like everything I use puts swirls into the finish. When I work my way back, removing the swirls I added, I sometimes still have the original amount of swirls I started with.



What's the trick to soft paints? What is a good product combo used for soft finishes? What compond/polish/glaze regiment? Obviously it would vary slightly with the severity of the swirls to start with.



Thanks
 
To better help you, what products/pad combos are you currently using and at what speeds? Assuming you are familiar with how to use a rotary...
 
I use Edge 2K 6" flat pads. I I've tried blue, green, and yellow with Optimum products...OP, OC, OHC. I've also tried Chemical Guys ProPolish and SpiderWeb. Nothing seems to improve anything, but some will actually make the swirls worse...and some much worse. Speed of rotary is 1100-1300.
 
No...none. Someone even told me that I needed to apply some pressure, but I haven't tried that yet. I've just hold the handle...so lightly that if the buffer hits a hood edge or something, it'll shoot off in a different direction.
 
cobrar97 said:
I have a hard time getting the swirls out of soft paint...such as Honda/Acura. With my Hitachi rotary, it seems like everything I use puts swirls into the finish. When I work my way back, removing the swirls I added, I sometimes still have the original amount of swirls I started with.



What's the trick to soft paints? What is a good product combo used for soft finishes? What compond/polish/glaze regiment? Obviously it would vary slightly with the severity of the swirls to start with.



Thanks
Click to expand...



I have done alot of Hondas and the best combo I have found is a medium polishing pad (Green propel or white LC) and Optimum Polish. This is all done via PC.
 
I can usually get really good looking results on honda paint with orange LC and OC all via PC on 6 followed with white LC and OP on 6. I've done two MDX's this way and both were 90-95% flawless when done.



Maybe you just need to try it with a PC.
 
In my experience, I do have just a little of that with Honda products;), there's only a couple of combo's that will beat LC CCS green 6.5" pads with FPII on the rotary. The one's that will beat that are more expensive Menzerna products.
 
My aftermarket hood is so soft that there isnt a MF towel on this earth that wont scratch it. The only way for me to get a perfect finish on it is to use my PC and a finishing pad with a very light cut polish like megs #82 or XMT #1, i cant get OP to finish well on it. I hate using the PC but have no choice on my hood.



As far as hondas go i use the pyramid method when finishing. 600rpm-1000rpm-600rpm, obviously done with a finishing/polishing pad and finishing polish.
 
DSC00473.jpg




This was OP/orange LC/1500 followed by a mix of P0106FF and Ez Creme Glaze/PC 6/LC white topped with Z5pro on a 2006 Accord.
 
cobrar97 said:
I have a PC as well...I'll give that a shot next time. What is the LC to Edge 2k pad conversion?
Click to expand...



Edge green= LC orange

Edge light blue= LC white



There may be some variations but for the most part that's it.
 
try OP/white or even green and if that doesnt cut it enough then go orange and OC, finish off with poli-seal/white or 106FF white/gray.



Btw whoever said tried the triangle method, well it works. Try to work the polish in a bit longer and use a bit less if your having problems with that as well. Soft paint sucks, my car holograms/swirls like crazy, i did a 2000 ford focus and i compounded it yellow/oc and could have probably left it like that.
 
What is the triangle (pyramid) method? I've seen that a few times here, but don't know what it means. Please explain.
 
bjackson8 said:
I have done alot of Hondas and the best combo I have found is a medium polishing pad (Green propel or white LC) and Optimum Polish. This is all done via PC.
Click to expand...



agreed, i use LC white with OP on my 03 civic (haven't had to step up to OC with a LC orange)... :up
 
Tell me this...when using the triangle method an OP...from start to end, how long are you all working the OP? How long should I expect it to take for the product to spread, break-down, and finish? And how quickly are you moving the buffer itself?
 
cobrar97 said:
Tell me this...when using the triangle method an OP...from start to end, how long are you all working the OP? How long should I expect it to take for the product to spread, break-down, and finish? And how quickly are you moving the buffer itself?
Click to expand...





Your just gonna have to play with it yourself, we cant really explain all that with words over the internet.



With OP I always spread at 600rpm then move up to 1200rpm and then go back down to 600rpm. How long it takes to work and totaly breaks down is based on alot of variables like the size of the section your working, how much OP you are using, how fast your runing the buffer, your arm speed, type of paint ect ect ect. Just play with it and try everything.
 
Understood. In general, on a 2'x2' section, how fast do you move the buffer at 1200 RPMs? 2" per second, 1" per second, etc? I don't know if I'm going too fast or too slow. So figure 2'x2' work area, OP as the poish (since I use it alot), and 1200 RPM since it's a common speed.
 
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