knfeparty

Car looked alright other than moderate swirls. After clay and IPA wipe down, I did menzerna IP on green pad. It looked great while polishing but after IPA wipe down it wasn't. It cleaned up the water spot etching and light swirls, but made the RDS seem more apparent by comparison. I used a stiffer orange pad and it didn't really affect the RDS. I noticed I now had some holograms, not sure if they were pre existing but I think they're from the IP. I used micro polish on a green pad and it seemed to not affect the holograms at all. So now I have RDS and holograms and I'm stuck. I have power gloss but I feel that's too much cut to use for polishing out swirls. This is a daily driver. I have pics but the mobile won't upload them...some issue with the forum app. It's worth mentioning that the car looks great under normal light and awful under the spotlight.

AudiOn19s

if it's the factory GM paint it's really really hard and the combo you are using is not going to do much correction to it at all. If it's been re-painted throw all of that out the window but from the sounds of it the car has OEM paint and had something on it with tons of fillers in it and you've cleaned up all the fillers and in the process uncovered what was hiding below in the horribly hard GM paint.

Assuming you're using an orbital???...if so there's no chance you're leaving holograms behind unless it's just polish residue that is in a pattern that's not getting cleaned up completely.

If you want to fix any of these issues you're going to have to bust out the power gloss and at least an orange pad. You'll probably haze the surface badly in the process requiring 2 more polishing steps to clean it all up but it's the only way you're going to even remotely get the results you are looking for.

knfeparty

I have an orbital, but no I'm using my dewalt rotary. I've been spreading polish at 1000rpm, then stepping up to 1400, then back down to 1000 to finish it off.

AudiOn19s

ahhhh. The holograms are probably from you then if you're using a rotary. For the 14 years I detailed professionally I was never comfortable finishing with a rotary on black cars...too much risk of leaving behind a stray hologram and needing to re-do work. The only combo I ever had luck finishing on black with a rotary was Menz. PO85RD on a black LC finishing pad. Anything more aggressive and I'd always find holograms.

Grab wool on the rotary and go after the RIDS as much as you are comfortable with but know when to call it quits...you can't win them all unless you're willing to sacrifice paint failure. Then put down rotary and go to the orbital with IP and orange pad then your final polish with a green or white polishing pad. That will net you the best results.

GM paint is frustrating...Wait until you try a C5 corvette. You'd have better luck getting swirl marks out of your driveway.

knfeparty

Thanks a lot. So far I haven't needed the orbital outside of the nanoscrub and the interior brush. I guess they're supposed to be easy though. Here's some photos of the carnage....the first, 3rd, and 4th pics are after IP. The 2nd pic shows what the power gloss did. I put down a tape strip; IP is on the left, PG is on the right. You can see the PG knocked down the RDS, but left a lot of swirls behind.

knfeparty

Going a lot better today. Using softer pads on the rotary, with micro polish, is really cleaning things up and not leaving holos. I haven't needed the orbital yet but will probably use it on the hood to be sure. I'm also cleaning my pads more often. The RIDS are actually becoming less noticeable with the micro polish smoothing them out. They are still there but only under really direct light.

detailersdomain

pick up your orbital polisher and do the work with that machine it will be quicker over time and you will have less risk doing any damage to your paint.

also the you may need more cut with maybe something like Menzerna FG400 and a microfiber cutting pad, clean that all up and polish it down and you should get some great results.

Marine Blue

My recently accquired Volvo, also black, had swirls that made those halo's look mild. The car had some minor bodywork done and apparently an apprentice picked the buffer pad up off the floor (face down) and started buffing away. Ok that last bit is just a hunch but it seriously looked like the pad had stones in it and made little squigglies all over the paint. It took Meguiars 105/205 and an orange cutting pad on my DA to level the paint. It looks as smooth as glass now but unfortunately I don't have much to work with anymore so it'll take that much more care to minimize future scratches.

knfeparty

Thanks for all the help. The car is done and the customer have me a huge tip for the extra work required.

I tried a few things and had a rather strange combo work well. I used a green über pad with the power gloss instead of the orange I had been using, and for whatever reason this seemed to allow the polish to break down better. The PG did a great job on the really bad spots, but broke down enough that I was able to follow with micro polish and a finishing pad to get it completely polished out. I was amazed at what the micro polish would cut through with enough patience. Since I had already done the entire car with intensive polish, most of it requires only the micro polish to finish it out and I was done. I topped with 1Z Glanz, but had a hard time buffing it completely clean. It wanted to remain wet on the surface.

knfeparty

Customer submitted a few pictures to my Facebook page.

Francisco_FL

I have seen a lot of times when IPA ration wise will either not show the defects correctly, or damage the paint. I use CarPro Eraser and its the best and safe solution to uncover the truth. I have been detailing for many years and I have seen a lot of Poole thinking that they thought they removed the defects when the reality, was that the defects was still there to begin with.

For me finishing it off with a foam pad is a must. You should try the new pad from CarPro, Flashpads. Probably one of the best pads period. Removes defects easily, get either FG400 or M105 mix with D300 ( long working time ) a few passes is all it takes. Then finish it off with either Reflect or M205 on a white foam pad.