Here's a spot on the hood, very tiny that I am in the process of touching up. This is a major PITA. Seems I didn't fill the crater enough. I plan to wet sand the touchup spots but need to get back to those later and PC around them.

Mostly, I'm looking for advise on this bad marring, scratches on the tailgate area.

My goal is to work around the touchup areas then come back to them. The car has been washed/clayed twice and I can't mess around with the paint anymore cuz I only have the car on weekends so I want to protect the darned thing already.

There are swirls in the car. I would call them "light"

I have:
PC (XP), All colors of pad except yellow.
Optimum Hyper compound, Compound II, Polish
4 Star UPP

TAILGATE ISSUE: I "think" I should work on the tailgate marring/scratches. Should I try the scarey Hyper here with an orange pad here?

REST OF CAR: Compound II but with what color pad? Orange or White?

Newbie here. Experience with sanding and furniture refinishing but never touched a PC.

 

And what about taping? At which point in the process do I tape off things?

Or should I wet-sand that tailgate area (bumper)? I have 2000 and 3000. Maybe wet-sand then hyper compound? Though the Hyper states it'll remove 1500 grit sanding. Hmm... IDK what to do with this area.

 

I tried orange pad with Hyper Compound. It did nothing. Wet sanded with 3000. Nothing. Tore into the 2000 and that worked, then went over it with 3000. I think I'm not supposed to use anything lower than 2500 but oh well. There's still scratches but I'll fine tune things in spring.

Sanding the paint touchup spots is next to impossible. The 3000 does NOTHING to make the bumps go down. Might as well be rubbing tissue paper on it. Of course I hit it with the 2000 and that got the bumps down. Then the 3000 again. Then I'll hit these spots with the orange pad/Hyper Compound to smooth that out, then the compound ii (orange pad?), Or should I do Compound II with orange THEN white pad before I go to polish? There's a paint touch up area on the hood that's very small and I'm wondering if I can just take the PC's orange pad and just do that little area by hand.

 

I think everyone is out playing with their cars and I picked a bad day for my project.

There's a spec of sun and I can still see swirls after using white pad with Optimum II.
I think maybe I should try it with the Orange Pad.

This is unfun. Takes forever. Going to go with Orange Pad & Optimum II. Then what? Should I go over it with same but with a white pad?

 

I'm alittle confused by your question? Are you polishing the entire car and still seeing swirls or are you talking about the area you wet sanded?

For correcting swirls the orange pad is very useful especially if the white pad is not giving you the results you are after. The polish II is fairly weak as a polish goes in my opinion. I would use that on a white pad after using the hyper compound on orange. Make sure you really work the polish. optimum polishes have a really long working time. Also you really do not need to follow up the 2000 grit wetsand paper with the 3000 grit. Its just a waste of time, the hyper compound on an orange pad should clean that up with no problem. If this is the first time you are polishing your car don't get frustrated, it takes time! and then a little more time to get really great results. You may have to hit each panel on the car several times with the HC on orange before you remove the deeper scratches. Then you want to use the polish II on white to clean up any remaining haze left behind by the Hyper compound. Good luck and be patient, the results will be worth it!!

 

I polished a regular non-issue area and saw swirls. I switched to the orange pad with the Optimum II and feel this is much better!

OK, I get what you're saying. I did a rear panel and 2 door panels below the TL's groove and my right hand is numb. I'm going to keep plugging away though. Then I'll reassess and try the hyper on scratches if I'm up to it. I keep thinking I wish I could do the Hyper on the whole car - would save time but since this is my first time, I'm trying to go safe.

I might end up just triaging the car and not going for "perfect" as I've so much other stuff to do right now. Anything I pass over, I can fine tune in the spring I think. Right? Nothing's permanent with this stuff. I like that.

My ultimate goal is to put a couple coats of UPP on it. I have DuraGloss Aquawax also. Trying to get the car through winter nice & protected. Heading back out to make my arm even sorer. Wow - Lots of vibration if one holds the handle vs. the head of the machine. I think I'm not hurting the car so that's my first goal LOL

 

I'm just going to babble here....

I think my mistakes are:

1. Only getting 1 Orange pad. At some point, there was some 'debris' spitting onto the car and I think it's build-up/gunk from the pad. I don't 'think' I'm using too much product, just that I could've used a fresh pad or cleaned the pad? I washed it for tomorrow.
2. There are scratches on the roof of the car which I think came from claying. There had to be something in the clay? I'm p*ssed. I might use the Hyper Compound with Orange pad there. Grrr.
3. I've been using #5 on the PC XP. I think I might be more productive at 6. ???
4. Sometimes I find myself moving too fast. I'm trying to keep slow.
5. Not having good light source but not willing to spend the cash on that. Hoping for sunshine tomorrow.

Current plan for Tomorrow: Continue with Compound II & Orange, then examine the car and hit bad spots with Hyper & Orange, then go over the Hyper'd spots with Compound II & Orange again unless that's silly. Then OP with White. Then 1 coat of UPP. Not sure I'll have time for more. I want a few coats cuz after this I plan to be done with it for winter.

Oh! I forgot at what point I do the IPA wipedown. I need to look that up.
I love the Hyper Compound. Worked like magic on a scratched area almost instantly. If I had guts, I'd do the whole car with it as it would fix things AND cut down on my time?

 

You can use hyper on the whole car and finish it up with opII on a white pad, but if you prefer doing multiple passes with the op orange then thats fine as well. IPA wipedown is at the end of your polishing to remove any oils that may remain from the polishing process and give you a nice clean surface to apply your sealant/wax. It is also a way for you to make sure that you have removed all the defects vs being filled in.

 

Got ya. Thanks. The sun is out so I'll be able to better assess what I did yesterday and go from there. Maybe put a piece of tape on trouble spots to go back over.

 

I'm switching gears again. I think the Hyper Compound is PUTTING swirls in the car.
Going back to Compound II with orange and hitting the Hyper on scratches only.

I think I'm going to shoot for the "does it look good from 5 feet away?" concept and lower my expectations.

 

The car looks fantastic. Could I have worked harder getting out every little scratch? Yes. But I can't see them really unless the light is perfect and I get lucky. I just can't deal with it anymore. 2 days.

I put the UPP on with a red pad and the PC. I hope to do another coat at least. There are bad scratches on one side of the roof that must've been done by the clay that disturb me and I should've worked hyper there harder but maybe I'll try in spring.
The WDP is "whiter/brighter". All shiney. I think I did a pretty good job overall.

Still have to make the rubber pretty and clean the glass better.

Too bad the front bumper is chewed up. Have to get a lip or a new bumper but oh well. It was too dark to take photos. Props to you all cuz this is not easy! Hopefully it'll be downhill for me from now on.

Conan - Thanks for your help!

 

Glad you finally finished! how about some pics?

When you mentioned that the Hyper compound was leaving swirls this is correct. Due to its abrasiveness is leaves tiny swirls commonly referred to as "compound haze" and also why it is necessary to do a 2 step polishing process because you have to follow up step one with a second much less aggressive polish ie. finishing polish. This is also why alot of people really love the Meguiars M105 compound. It has alot of bite to level some deep scratches yet it leaves very little to no compound haze which makes it perfect for light colored cars such as yours. Anyway welcome to the club and with experience you will get better and faster. Next time work on a friends black car because it makes it so much easier to see the results of the polishes and give you a better idea of what they are capable of doing.

 

Conan, thanks for stepping up and assisting meagain! I would have mentioned everything you did but was away for the weekend. Lisa, I cannot stress enough..patience. Work, produce and learn on small areas at a time. You would hate to polish or compound an entire car and then realize if you had done something just a tad differently, things may have turned out different.
The actual use of the machine is fairly easy, its the combination of pads, products and speeds which takes time to learn. Its this "curve" which you need to be patient with, on small areas.
Sounds like your hands are full, and you have gained some great knowledge, both self taught and from Conan!!

 

Hi. I just have one coat of UPP on the TL. The intent was to do at least 2 but I've not been able to get to it. Saturday will be a high of 56 here so hopefully I can wash it this weekend for another layer.

My new car, is simply clayed and IDK if I'm going to have the time to Optimum Polish/UPP it. Maybe I should just wash and UPP that and Polish in Spring. Think that would be OK? AND - would the TL be OK over winter with just one coat of UPP? It's really getting crappy out.