I have an 05 Boxster with midnight blue (purplely/blackish) metallic paint...I purchased a PC XP with Optimum Polish and Optimum Compound...I also purchased the PC DVD and followed it to a tee...Suffice it to say I don't thik i removed any swirl marks and I ended up with some "zipper" like marks on the hood...I used the compound with an orange pad and the polish with a white pad...I went nice and slow and speed 5 for both...I'm lookng to understand the following... Should I continue with this product line (not sure why my swirls didn't go away) or can you reccomend product that may work better...? Does Porsche have hard or soft paint? I'm told the Menz line may be better...is Meg 105/205 better? I'm not totally new at this but could use some good advice, because i realy don't want to damage the Boxster......thanks kindly in advance...
What am I doing wrong? Need Expert advice...
- Thread starter asharma
- Start date
First thing is make a mark or two on your backing plate or side of your pads. This will help you see if your pads are spinning or not. The zipper marks are probably little hook looking scratches right? If so you may have gotten some debris on your pads.
Porsche paint tends to be pretty nice to work on. Not too hard not too soft. Don't get discouraged. Take your Optimum polish and your least abrasive pad and work on the hood until you feel comfortable with the machine. Once you have that down do some test spots to make one small area (2'X2) look good. Then repeat that process over the entire car.
Porsche paint tends to be pretty nice to work on. Not too hard not too soft. Don't get discouraged. Take your Optimum polish and your least abrasive pad and work on the hood until you feel comfortable with the machine. Once you have that down do some test spots to make one small area (2'X2) look good. Then repeat that process over the entire car.
mikenap
New member
Ok, prepare to have me rain on your parade, sorry
First off, 6.5 pads seem to be too big for a PC to handle very effectively. The machine tends to work better for correcting swirls and scratches with smaller pads. 5.5 and especially 4in. pads will work more efficiently on a PC whereas the bigger pads are better for rotaries or the Flex DA.
Second, and this comes from research and not personal experience, the Optimum line of polishes are better left to rotaries. The PC doesn't generate enough heat to properly break down the polishes and I've also heard they don't cut as well via PC either. Again, this I've learned from this site and not from personal use. You may find them to work better for you than others have.
The mark Jason M refers to is simply a line you make on your backing plate so you can tell when it stops spinning. PCs don't have forced rotations like rotaries and sometimes with enough pressure, the backing plate will stop spinning though the orbit motion continues. I found that before I marked my backing plate, I wasn't able to tell when the spinning stopped but now it's easy to tell when to back off the pressure. And sometimes it takes a fair amount of pressure for the PC to do any real correction.
As for the Megs 105/205 twins, they're popular these days for a reason. They are inexpensive, especially from autodetailingsolutions.com, who sells sample sizes. They work very well, and they are pretty easy to get the hang of for beginners. At least for this beginner!
Good luck with your car and post pics when you get time! :2thumbs:
First off, 6.5 pads seem to be too big for a PC to handle very effectively. The machine tends to work better for correcting swirls and scratches with smaller pads. 5.5 and especially 4in. pads will work more efficiently on a PC whereas the bigger pads are better for rotaries or the Flex DA.
Second, and this comes from research and not personal experience, the Optimum line of polishes are better left to rotaries. The PC doesn't generate enough heat to properly break down the polishes and I've also heard they don't cut as well via PC either. Again, this I've learned from this site and not from personal use. You may find them to work better for you than others have.
The mark Jason M refers to is simply a line you make on your backing plate so you can tell when it stops spinning. PCs don't have forced rotations like rotaries and sometimes with enough pressure, the backing plate will stop spinning though the orbit motion continues. I found that before I marked my backing plate, I wasn't able to tell when the spinning stopped but now it's easy to tell when to back off the pressure. And sometimes it takes a fair amount of pressure for the PC to do any real correction.
As for the Megs 105/205 twins, they're popular these days for a reason. They are inexpensive, especially from autodetailingsolutions.com, who sells sample sizes. They work very well, and they are pretty easy to get the hang of for beginners. At least for this beginner!
Good luck with your car and post pics when you get time! :2thumbs:
WOW,thanks Guys...i had ordered what was recommended from the online dealer, as i am a newbie...and i just double checked, they are Lake Country 6.5inch pads...What does the size of the pad have to do with swirl mark removal?? Also, should i order 4 in or 5.5 in or both..Can i use my 5 in backing plate for the 5.5 pads and do i need to order a 3.5 in plate for the 4 in pads...also where is a good site to order from as I am in Canada...?
Accumulator
Well-known member
asharma said:
This is why I dislike the commonly assembled "kits"; people get the wrong things for what they're trying to do.
Short version: the large pads cause too much friction so the PC can't do its thing properly with any applied pressure. The machine was made to spin a sheet of sandpaper with zero applied pressure and polishing cars is a very different type of job.
Others claim they do OK with 5.5" pads but I never have; I stick with 4" pads for correction via PC.
Yeah, the idea is to keep the backing plate a bit smaller than the pad so you have a safety margin. Yeah, you need a 3.5" or 2.75" plate for 4" pads.
Sorry, no idea where to order in Canada.
BTW, while some people simply love Optimum polishes, I don't. I find the M105/M205 twins to be the easiest products to get good results with via PC, and by a wide margin.
Accumulator
Well-known member
asharma said:
That progression usually works fine, but *sometimes* the M205 works better with an orange pad for the first few passes (then switch to white and then maybe even to a finishing pad). Note I seldom recommend orange pads with mild products, but on some paints the M205/orange combo is a winner (thanks to ebpcivicsi for the suggestion).
I'd do sealants by hand, but I hear the LC gold pad works best for this. Other finishing pads make it too hard to get a thin enough application IME.
I bet the whole car needs enough correction that you oughta do it with the 4" pads. Yeah, I know..but at least they do get the job done.
thanks again Accumulator...another question Sir...given i am a newbie, i have read 105 is an agressive compound, can i do any damage with my pc xp at speed 5? I really don't need to wreck my Porsche by trying to get every swirl and fine scratch out...Oh, and how long should I work 105/205 on a 2x2 area? thanks again...
Accumulator
Well-known member
asharma said:
I wouldn't think so, but I'm not familiar with today's Porsche paint and I hear it's soft. IMO M105 isn't all that aggressive.
That sounds sensible
Don't work that large an area, work something more like 1x1. You work M105/m205 until they've done the desired correction or they're starting to dry out. Read up on how Kevin Brown uses these products (sorry, no link handy).
asharma, if your in canada, you can order from eshine.ca.
theyr not local to you, but at least its in canadian dollars.
i made the same mistake of not researching more and ended up with a combo thar probably wasnt right for what i wanted to do. i have the PC also, and have been slowly buying more 4" pads and tryin those, though i find them flimsy...
i am thinkin of switching up to a FLEX based on Accumulator's suggestions, though id like to get my hands on some 105/205 first and try that before i competely give up on the PC.
theyr not local to you, but at least its in canadian dollars.
i made the same mistake of not researching more and ended up with a combo thar probably wasnt right for what i wanted to do. i have the PC also, and have been slowly buying more 4" pads and tryin those, though i find them flimsy...
i am thinkin of switching up to a FLEX based on Accumulator's suggestions, though id like to get my hands on some 105/205 first and try that before i competely give up on the PC.
RaskyR1
Rasky's Auto Detailing
I've only worked on one Boxster but I found the paint to be easy to correct (soft) except for the bumper covers. 6.5" pads on the PC speed 6 with M105/M205 should have no trouble at all IMO.
RaskyR1
Rasky's Auto Detailing
asharma said:
Opinions will vary on this topic, but I will reach for a different machine long before I grab 4" pads on the PC. I only use the 4" pads for tight areas and spot buffing. While smaller pads on the PC/G110 do offer more cutting power, it also means you have to make more passes to cover the same area as the larger pads.
With the exception of some hard paints, 6.5" pads work fine for average correction work. I also find the 4" pads require a little more effort to keep flat, which could pose a problem for some new users.
IMO I think the main reason they sell the kits with 6.5" pads is because the PC is considered an entry level polisher (even though it can do some excellent correction), and the use of 4" pads increases the chance of someone damaging the paint.
Just my $.02
Accumulator
Well-known member
RaskyR1 said:
Different experience here. Even on my softer-paint vehicles, I just can't get correction via ~6" pads on the PC :nixweiss
For me, it's a matter of getting the job done in a remotely reasonable period of time; the 4" pads cover less ground, but at least they do cut, which is more that I can say about the larger ones. Just IME though, sounds like you and I have vastly *differing* experiences, so it's not some right/wrong issue.
I do reach for the Flex as opposed to using the 4" pads on the PC, but that's just because I *have* the Flex
03F250 said:
Via PC, M105 *is* the most aggressive stuff I've ev!er used. And with PFW pads (or the Cyclo/Edge 4" wool pads), it *can*do some serious correction. But it still isn't like using the Flex, let alone some rocks-in-a-bottle compound via rotary.
With the PC/M105/4" combo, I frequently have to go over a given RIDS many times, and I don't mean just four or five. Just depends on the paint and the flaw and how far I want to take things. But M105 isn't some magical RIDS-eraser IME. Better than 1z Pasta Intensiv or Hi-Temp Extreme Cut though, and those were the previous PC-friendly champs that I'd used.
I was doing some spot-work on the M3 the other day; I wetsanded a touchup with Meg's 2K and I then had to hit that area at least five times with PC/M105/3.5" PFW before I was satisfied (note I was using magnification to inspect and IPAing after every try with the M105; it looked OK with bare eyes and no IPA wipe after much less work).