Removing Buffer Swirls

A

Anthony O.

New member
This is the hood of a black, single stage, Lexus. It is the hood that I used to demo Optimum Polish and Optimum Car Wax while at the World Car Care Expo held here in San Antonio back in April of 2005.



Ron is keeping it at his shop for right now until he makes a sign out of it for his detailing business and I figured it would be ideal to test Optimums new compound out on.



So I swirled the crap out of it with a wool cutting pad and some other abrasive compound that Ron had laying around.



This is pretty ugly, not for the weak.....



swirls3jb.jpg






angleswrls2fb.jpg




The new Optimum compound is very much like the Opt Polish in that it is very low dusting, can be worked for a long while, perhaps not as long as the Polish, but far longer than other compunds I or Ron have used.



It doesn't feel abrasive at all, nothing like Menzerna PG and is perhaps slightly more liquidy than Opt Polish.



The Opt Polish was designed with FOAM pads in mind and not wool. I am sure wool can be used with it but I did not use wool on this hood. I used a rotary with an orange leveling pad set at about 1400 rpm's. I noticed the swirls being leveled right away. Very fine swirls were left in place of the heavy ones.



I then switched to several different pads, only because I wanted to test some of these other pads out, but I used the Opt Compound with the medium cutting pads. Some of these medium cutting pads are in between the orange pad and blue polishing pad. These all worked well but it was starting to get too stinking hot to mess around anymore so I then switched to a blue polishing pad and Optimum Polish, rotary set at 1200 rpm's. Thsi leveled the paint out very nice and I began to see a very nice reflection coming out.



I dragged the hood out of the shop and checked it in the sun. Very fine swirls left so I dragged it back in and now went over it once more with my rotary and a ultra fine finishing pad, Opt Polish and the speed set to 1000 rpm's.



I removed the polish and dragged the hood back out in the sun, which was setting fast. I 4 after pictures but this is the closest one I have to being a full sun reflection.



aftr8xt.jpg




There are some super fine swirls left that I am sure would of all come out with either one more pass with the rotary or maybe the Cyclo.



All in all though I liked the results and really only used 3 pads with 2 products and all done with the rotary. This is why I always say.....the finer the pad and product the fewer the swirls!



The Opt Compound may need some tweaking before ready for sale. It may need just a bit more on the abrasive side, but what do I know I am just a detailer:D



Thanks,

Anthony
 
You scarred me there - for a second I thought this was actually on a car (Lexus) and not just an old hood.

I didn't know that Optimum is working on a compound. Sounds like this will be another good product.



Thanks for sharing your experience. :xyxthumbs
 
Anthony,



You mentioned a wool pad. I'm curious have you/do you use sheepskin polishings pads? I've been reading some of Ketch's posts and I might want to do a little practicing with these just to experience them. Apparently those that are properly tanned retain their natural lanolin oil good for polishing and these pads can be used with polishes. Although Optimum is designed for wool, and I'm not sure if that is a designation only for the aggressive, cutting variety.Seeing a sheepskin with Optimum would be quite interesting.
 
Just for something to measure this against, do you know what level grit it can remove (maybe 1200?)?



Thanks!
 
Hey guys.....:wavey



Let me try and reply to as many here as I can....



sullybob



If I didn't mess around with the few different pads I guess my time spent on removing the swirls would have been around 35 minutes. Seemed like alot longer though as it was just stinkin HOT:angry in South Texas today!



Ron needs a swamp cooler in that place.....or I need a haircut:shocked



Bill D



I have several of the ValuGard lambskin pads. There are also called "belly pads" so called because of the area they come from on the lamb.



They are very nice for medium type polishing, little to no linting and depending on the product used they leave mild swirling. A foam finishing pad should remove all of them.



One should never wash a true lambsskin pad as this will wash out all the natural oils.



Actually Optimum compund is designed to be used with foam pads and not wool BUT one can use a wool pad I am sure. Optimum Compound and Opt POlish were designed with automakers in mind more than detailers. GM amd Ford may use the product in their production lines but they don't use wool pads, only foam. So David and Kevin worked with that in mind.



pigeonbus



I was told it could remove 1200 grit sanding marks, I have not tried this yet myself but hope to give it a try soon.



Hope this answers your questions, if not let me know and I'll try my best to do so.



Thanks,

Anthony
 
Originally posted by Anthony Orosco



I have several of the ValuGard lambskin pads. There are also called "belly pads" so called because of the area they come from on the lamb.
Click to expand...



Yeah, I'd want the ones that are plusher than the "belly" ones as I would use them on dark vehicles. He he, with my obsession of picking lambs wool or sheepskin, I might pass because I don't have them in front of me to pick :o ;)
 
You scarred me there - for a second I thought this was actually on a car (Lexus) and not just an old hood.
Click to expand...



I telll you this. There in not another Lexus Hood Cleaner than this one in San Antonio.



Kartoon.

The compound will remove 1200 grit sanding marks. Fot this it will be necessary to usw a wool compounding pad. This compound is a little milder than most. It will not zip through your paint like most will. It is being designd for the auto Mfgs. They want a compound that can be used with foam is low dusting and has light swirling to be removed. The main purpouse is on the Factory line. to remove paint blems.
 
Anthony Orosco said:


lxushdrflctin6xe.jpg
Click to expand...



Howard! Have fun when you go to Sirrus. :lol



Thanks for the heads up on the Optimum compound. Any idea if it needs the heat of a rotary to fully break down? What type of finish does it leave? One you definitely need to follow with a swirl remover type product or can you go straight to a glaze?
 
Wow, yeah, now that you said it, you could mistake him for Howard! ;)



JK. Your work and info never fails to please Anthony! :up
 
Man, if Anthony put of a LV sun shade and perm his hair alittle abit. He'll diff look like Howard Stern. :D
 
That Lexus hood looks like a mirror. Stunning before/afters.



It's good to see a pic. of the man behind the machine!
 
Scottwax said:
Howard! Have fun when you go to Sirrus. :lol



Thanks for the heads up on the Optimum compound. Any idea if it needs the heat of a rotary to fully break down? What type of finish does it leave? One you definitely need to follow with a swirl remover type product or can you go straight to a glaze?
Click to expand...



I used it with my Cyclo and it worked just fine in the area of breaking down.



I didn't want to make any comments on the compound until I had used it a few more times and talked with David @ Optimum. I used it on a black Porsche yesterday that had been painted on the rear bumper. They left some sanding marks in the paint so I placed some orange pads on my Cyclo and used the compund. It removed the sanding marks/swirls and amazingly it finished out with hardly any marring. In fact I just waxed right over it.



It is about a level and a half just above the Polish in terms of abrasiveness yet it finishes out almost just as nice as the polish. I am guessing that someone with a silver or light colored car could use the compound with a rotary and a polishing pad and go straight to a wax when done.



If used with a cutting pad it would need a swirl remove followed after it, not so much from the compound but from the pad.



Anthony
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top