PC questions

PhaRO

New member
I have a PC 7336 and getting more familiar with it each day. Used it on a 5 or 6 cars this week with just one step product and stock foam pad. Today I got a shipment of pads in (LC 6.5 Orange, White, Black and LC 7.5 Green) plus two Hi Temp products (Scratch Remover Medium Cut and Swirl Remover Light Cut). Since my truck (Black 1988) is in horrible shape mainly on top surfaces, I decided to practice on that. Minor oxidation is present but surface is dull from thousands of small scratches. I had used a one step and stock foam this week with next to no help. I've seen vehicles with bad oxidation before but never so many scratches. I only used the 6.5" pad and started with the White Polishing pad and the HT Light Cut. Worked a 2 x 2' section with very little improvement. I put on the Orange Cutting pad and tried again with same product. Little better but not much. Ended up with Orange Pad and HT Medium Cut. Worked half the hood for about an hour and looked like new paint. Followed with White Pad HT Light Cut. Black pad and an express wax that I had. Lastly a 3m paste by hand. Looked amazing. 15 years I've done everything by hand and never have obtained result like I did. I have some questions though.

I reloaded the pad at least 6 times, wiping down the half in between. I worked in figure 8, straight lines both side to side and up and down, doing this many times. I ran the PC at 6 most of the time. Question I have is after I've covered the panel and gone over it several times should I stop wipe and add more or keep going till product starts to fade or dry. When I finally cut out enough scratches I could clearly tell the product was going on much smoother.

I don't mind spending a couple hours on the hood and roof but could I speed it up. Possibly the medium cut is not agressive enough. Would it have been easier to wet sand with 2000 or use a heavy compound by hand and then buff out the sand scratches?

Tomorrow my PB stuff arrives and I'll have SSR 2 to start. Any idea how it compares with the HT stuff I have. Wondering if it's more agressive or less agressive.
 
I will echo JimmyB's comments, but in a different way. The PC is not meant to remove defects with a lot of speed. You absolutely have to be patient with it. No rushing it. You also might want to look into getting a more aggressive SSR....at least 2.5, maybe even 3. From your post, it sounds that the marring is pretty bad, but it also sounds like it is repairable. Just be patient - doing it with a PC is going to take more than a day if the marring is as bad as you say it is. Don't be afraid to stretch it out over several days. :)
 
Machine Polish / Foam Pad Combinations:
Always start with the least abrasive combination, i.e. a machine polish comparative abrasion scale CAS =3/10 and the least aggressive (polishing) foam pad. If that combination doesn't remove the imperfections, using the same machine polish CAS = 3/10 and change to a more aggressive (cutting) foam pad. If the surface imperfections remain, then step-up the abrasive to a polish CAS = 4/10 and use the least aggressive (polishing) pad.

The speed at which the foam pad travels across a paint surface is also important, too fast or slow won’t allow the micro-abrasive to ‘beak down’, Machine linier speed (MLS) buffer or rotary machine movement shown as inches per second

It is preferable to polish 2-3 times to restore the paint film surface than to use an unnecessarily abrasive machine polish / foam pad combination. The abrading ability of any polish can be changed by their application method (i.e. machine or hand application, speed and / or pressure used, using it wet or dry and / or type of foam composition (different foam compositions and / or densities have a differing abrading ability)

Machine, foam pad and product; the work is approximately distributed, 60% product, 30% foam composition and 10% pressure applied and / or speed of rotation or oscillation.

It is normal to polish a surface (unless the defects are minor) and to renew the polish to abrade the surface three or more times. Once the diminishing abrasives have reduced in size they become less aggressive and will then burnish the surface to a high gloss finish

The abrading ability of any polish can be changed by their application method (i.e. machine or hand application, speed and / or pressure used, using it wet or dry and / or type of foam composition (different foam compositions and / or densities have a differing abrading ability) Machine, foam pad and product; the work is approximately distributed, 60% product, 30% foam composition and 10% pressure applied and / or speed of rotation or oscillation.
JonM
 
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