What to do next?

[Captnp]

Newbie here with a gold/beige(clear coat) '92 Volvo 940. Started to use the Klasse twins but realized I had too many swirls.



I have a PC but no power near the car so I tried #9 by hand without much luck. Turned to some Griot's Fine Hand Polish I had on hand which gave a good shine but didn't do much for the swirls. Found a place with power and tried the PC with ScratchX on a Meg's Cutting Pad (burgandy) and it didn't do much either. Got a hold of some SSR2.5 and used it with another Meg's cutting pad. Again saw little improvement and also ruined the PC OEM hook and loop back plate.



So, I'm confused. I don't think I have scratches. I can't feel them with my fingernail and the car looks great until I look really close under artifical light.



Since I need to get a new backing plate should I get new pads? How about a different polish? Looking through Autopia ssr2.5 seemed pretty agressive but maybe I need ssr3? I assume that since I plan on using AIO that anything which fills in swirls is pretty much useless?



Many thanks.

 

[Accumulator]

Captnp- Welcome to Autopia!



I'll let somebody else recommend polishes as the 3M stuff I like (PI-III RC & MG, 05933 and 05937) are getting hard to find.



Don't beat yourself up about the Griot's, it's almost nonabrasive. Same with the #9, very very mild.



Removing marring from some paints with the PC is very tough to do. It's a pretty mild machine. I had a Volvo 850 of that general vintage and that paint can be a pain to get really nice. I'd probably aim for merely "much better", not perfect.



Get *two* backing plates, one for 4" pads and one for the regular 6-6.5" ones. Use 4" pads to remove the worst of the marring, they work much more effectively (and infinitely more efficiently).



Watch it with the Meg's cutting pads, they can leave some nasty micromarring.