Newb at the PC, started off well, now struggling.

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Whitethunder46

New member
Well I got my PC a few days ago along with the full line of Edge 2000 pads and XMT 3, 2, 1, and glaze. Also have DG #105 and PB's Natty Blue.



I've researched a lot in the last few months and felt pretty good going into it.



Let me post some experiences so far.



My first time at the PC, bad half and half.

Used yellow pad/XMT 3... finished with orange pad and #1:

HalfandHalf.jpg




After more practice, I got better. New car, used green pad and XMT #2. (half and half)

SL553955.jpg




Back to the first vehicle. Much better. yellow/#3 and orange #1 again.

dadhalfhalf-1.jpg




Now for my car, and this is where the trouble starts.

It's a 2001 Mustang GT and is really heavily swirled and scratched.

This door alone took me abour 30 min total.

Process: yellow/#3, then green pad/#2, finished with orange pad and #1.

halfhalfclose.jpg


Halfhalfmycar.jpg






I tried the other side of the car today, and tried to eliminate one of the polishing steps. I tried a ton of different combos, and I still have a good amount of swirls/scratching on the door. I think I'm working it in plenty, but damn, this is frustrating. Do I really need to use all three steps to get the results I want? Or am I doing something wrong? pressure? pad combos? Do I need a more powerful combo? Or am I just asking to much of the PC and it's capabilities?
 
The reason for the three steps is for bad medium and good, for the deepest scratches head right to the strongest swirl remover. The strongest swirl removers might leave micro marring of their own so after you remove the big scratches you might have to go over the spot with the least aggressive swirl remover in order to get the surface ready for an lsp.



Obviously the more pressure you use the more cut you can get, but if the scratch is deep enough to catch your nail when you run your finger over it then you might need paint work and you'll never completely fix it.
 
The varying hardness of different paints has an effect has well, so while a light abrasive may remove 100% of medium swirls from one car, it may only achieve 20% correction on the next. The severity of the swirls also plays apart.



Every car is different, even the same makes and models, so I always treat a car as if I've never worked on it before as who's to say it hasn't had a full respray at some point in its life changing the hardness of the paint... With this in mind, I will always mask up a test spot on an area that represents the swirls across the car, generally on the bonnet. Here I test out the combos to see what works best. Starting with a light abrasive polish and polishing pad to see what correction can be achieved and working up through the abrasive list until I get to a combo which delivers me the defect correction I require... Once I have found this, if I have used an aggressive polish I will then follow this with a finishing polish to refine the finish. Once I am happy with my procedure on the test spot, I will continue with the entire car.
 
I use XMT#3 with an orange LC pad, using a PC it will finish down good enough that you can go right to your LSP. Unlike a rotary, you can buff for quite a while. I'd spread the polish with the PC off, turn on to 3.5 for a covering pass, then bump it to 6 and work the crap out of it till it finishes off clear. Wipe down and check your results.
 
I also have the PC with the XMT polishes and Lake Country pads. I have gotten good results from using the #3 with orange pad and and then going to #1 with a white polishing pad for harsher swirls. I skip polish #2 to save time and I have always gotten good results. For minor swirls, use #2 with orange pad and then finish that with #1 with a polish opad.



Also, I don't think you need to use the yellow pad unless there are REALLY bad swirls or heavy oxidation. You might be causing more micromaring than you need to with the yellow pad and you might be having to do more work than you need to because of that.
 
Ok, I know the basics of polishing.



I don't have the LC pads, but Edge pads. But I know which ones are similar for each brand.



I know I possibly need to use a lighter polish/pad to get rid of micromarring. I'm not even talking about that, I'm talking simply about getting rid of all swirls/scrathes. I still have a good 30% of scrathes left after using Yellow pad and #3 XMT. After using a #1 polish and light cutting pad, I still have at least 25% left.



Yal.... why do you say white paint would be harder? Wouldn't that vary on make/model? For instance, wouldn't a red or black or blue mustang of same year, model, etc. have the same CC and hardness to it?



I've worked in the polish for at least 7-8 minutes for the 2x2 area I would work in. Still not good enouugh. It looks much better, but still not getting some deeper scratches. I know about the fingernail test, blah blah blah.



I'm going to order a heavier polish, probably PB's SSR #3. I might try OHC, but the way it sounds, is that's meant more for a rotary sense the PC might not be able to build up as much heat.
 
having both the XMTs and the Optimums, I would try the Opt Compound first, its much more aggressive than the XMT #3. good luck, these PCs take a long time to get it where you are happy:waxing:
 
Whitethunder46 said:
Yal.... why do you say white paint would be harder? Wouldn't that vary on make/model? For instance, wouldn't a red or black or blue mustang of same year, model, etc. have the same CC and hardness to it?
Click to expand...



Sorry about that, I didn't realize it was clearcoated:o
 
For heavy swirls and scratches, a PC does not provide enough paint correction. I always thought a PC would be enough, until I used a rotary for the first time this week. 18 passes with a medium cut and SSR2.5 was not enough to beat a rotary with a light cut pad and SSR2.5 doing just 6 passes. Of course, after the rotary I had to use a light polishing pad with SSR1 to remove the holograms, but that was easy. Just another 6 passes using PC.
 
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