TSXinSouthBayCalifornia

Another newbie question -


I've been researching, because I'm having trouble getting rid of the spider webs on my brand new 09 TSX.

I tried using CG Pro Polish, but after the first try it didn't seem to do much. Now this MIGHT be because I didn't break down the polish with the buffer enough (I'm a newbie), so I'm going to try again....

but as I've been researching this CG Pro-Polish, I came across the following quote, from another forum -


Though you're not making much sense, I'll try and clarify things for you. Rule of thumb is to start with the least aggressive approach. In this case, start with AIO on LC green CCS pad, the less aggressive. If AIO doesn't remove your swirls, move to a more aggressive pad, ie: orange. If that doesn't work, move up to ProPolish on Green, then Pro Polish on Orange. You shouldn't need a compound to remove swirls.


Now this quote brings up a question for me, which is what is the difference between measuring the abrasiveness of the buffer pad, versus the abrasiveness of the polish?

Meaning, if I'm trying to start with the "least aggressive" approach (as suggested in this post above), what is the difference in using an abrasive pad with a mild polish, versus say an abrasive polish, and a mild pad?

rlerman

least aggressive polish gets a white pad (using a PC). more aggressive polishes and compounds get orange. buffer speed should be 4-6 and the polish has to break down to be effective.

Jesstzn

I don't know who posted that but its not really right unless your swirls are in the oxidized layer.. AIO's are mostly chemical cleaners with no abrasives.

You can use any combination of polish & pad you like but logic says least agressive polish on least agressive pad first. Keep in mind most pads under a white have little or no cut at all.

And the word compound is pretty loosely used as is the word polish.

Also your going to have to realize your always going to see some imperfection in the paint if you try hard enough and use enough light.

On your car I would have used

1) Opt. polish on a white pad then evaluate .. if little or no improvement after 3 passes then;
2) Opt. Polish on an orange pad for 2 passes and if no luck;
3) Optimum compound on the orange pad. You might get some hazing you'll have to take out with step 1 above . If still no luck go Opt. Compound on a yellow pad.

exceldetail

Dale, this is all quite unusuall, even for a beginner. I would certainly not want him polishing with a yellow pad , which would probably remove the swirls, but leave a mess of hazing and marring, then we're back at square 1, again......I think all that is missing here is a little higher speeds, slower arm movement, additional pressure. I havent really seen alot that compound, with an orange pad, followed up by polish with a white pad couldnt tackle, on soft Acks paint.

Jesstzn

Agreed .. did you notice I went least aggressive first ... the yellow pad would be a last resort. We still don't know what he is talking about for swirling ..


I was more giving him an order of aggression... if he followed the steps with patience he would never get to the yellow. And if he did he would sure know it ..

The Grasshopper just needs to slow down a bit and be patient. One of the problems is he is posting all kinds of questions all over the place instead of focusing on one issue.

OP .. Patrick at Excel have a very good user friendly product line in the Optimum polishes... might be worth a try. On top of it you can mix them if you want something just a little stronger.

n0rm

iTrader: (6)

When we were at CGs last Saturday, Paul was showing him some pointers on the PC and he was able to get correction on some scratches that were visible on a cloudy day with a CGs white pad and CGs Pro Polish.

We also advised OP that the current pads that he's using (the ones he bought from Patrick) need to be cleaned thoroughly before he can use them again. There were remnants of old polish that have dried up in the pores of the pads. If I see OP again on Saturday, I'm actually giving him one of my Orange 5.5" LC CCS pad as I am unable to use them with my new Flex.

Jesstzn

See above in bold. In your oppinion is he dealing with swirling / spider webbing or scratches? If scratches where would the come from on a new car?

Jesstzn

Just as a point of interest I have also removed minor swirling etc from a car with Klasse AIO which is just a chemical cleaner. Reason this can be done is the swirling is very minor and the paint very negleted and oxidized. The swirls go with the oxidized layer.

Even very new paint is oxidized .. even more so from the curing from new.

exceldetail

Yessir, btw, your about as wise as they come..........I totally forgot about mixing it up a bit, good idea.

Jesstzn

Ya I keep a few of those $$ store Catsup bottles around and if Opt. Polish isn't quite doing it I go 50/50 with Opt. Compound. .. Same with Compound to Hyper Compound. I step up slowly .. I learned the hard way on my hard black VW paint.. took forever to remove the hazing from being too aggressive.


I just mark the bottles with a Sharpie to keep track but usually I just mix up enough to use up.

n0rm

iTrader: (6)

Because it was a cloudy day, I was only able to see some scratches. What scratches we found, Paul from CG used those to show him how to correct it using a white pad and pro polish.

His surface paint was rough in some spots and we felt that he was picking these up during polishing and adding swirls and scratches to his car.

exceldetail

Entirely possible........was the surface clayed prior to Paul polishing?

TOGWT

[Meaning, if I'm trying to start with the "least aggressive" approach (as suggested in this post above), what is the difference in using an abrasive pad with a mild polish, versus say an abrasive polish, and a mild pad?]

All abrasive polishes are ‘foam pad dependant’ as far as their paint correction abilities are concerned

If we consider the LC White foam (50 PPI) pad as the baseline; any polish used will derive help from the abrasive abilities of the foam. Then consider the LC Blue (70 PPI) these pads have no abrasive abilities and will contribute nothing to the cutting ability of a polish.

What is derived from this is that a polishes abrasive ability can be ‘fine tuned’ by using different combinations (abrasiveness) of polish and foam (the same thing is true of wool pads) and of course differing the amount of downward pressure applied will also have an effect on the cutting abilities

n0rm

iTrader: (6)

Paul demoe'd the claybar on his right c pillar prior to showing OP how to use the PC.

Jesstzn

Thats odd .. because in the OP post of 14/6 he said he clayed the car. Maybe he didn't follow the instructions on the box.

I never totally rely on visuals when claying ... I learned years ago in a body shop that you can feel more than you can see.

CocheseUGA

I picked up on that the very first time I tried it. I think he needs to stop and step back and relax.

TSXinSouthBayCalifornia

Thanks for the help guys.


Jess, really appreciate you trying to help, and offering your feedback. REALLY appreciate it.


As far as above, I hadn't clayed the car before visiting CG. After I went home is when I clayed the car, and tried again.

It's entirely possible that I didn't apply the buffer firmly enough, and make enough passes, or simply went too fast.

As another poster suggested, I might be "babying" it.

I want to try again, but last night when I bought the Brinkmann's light and tried it, it didn't really show the paint well. I figured this might be because the light needs to be charged and get more power, so I plugged it in to charge. Light came on, and so I left it.

This morning woke up at 6am, unplugged the light, and it didn't come on.

I guess I'll exchange this light for another Brinkmann's, but just hoping that IF I can get the darn thing charged (I'll only charge it for an hour next time), that it will be brighter than what I've seen so far.


And yes, the demo at CG was very limited, cause you really couldn't see shit.

To be honest, I couldn't see much of a difference in anything.

A couple other people said they could see a difference, but to be honest I didn't see anything, because it was cloudy.

Again, I don't understand the whole technique of doing a demo without lighting.

When I took the car home, and in the sunlight, I saw a TON of spiders.

I didn't think to check the area that Paul did, in the sunlight, cause I trusted that things would work. I didn't anticipate having so much trouble.

Jesstzn

TOGWT wasn't it you that had a very good complete and comprehensive listing of the pads and color coding abrasiveness from a bunch of companies?

If so could you post it? TYIA.

n0rm

iTrader: (6)

OP picked up a clay bar kit from CG while he was there. AFAIK, he clayed his car for the first time either the past Sunday or Monday.

Jesstzn

I guess I assume he did it because he said he followed the instructions in the Detail Image page and at the top it states

"How-To Properly Polish (Return to Top)
Properly polishing your paint to remove imperfections can take lots of practice to master, but if you follow these steps as closely as possible, you'll get the best results in the shortest amount of time. Before you polish your vehicle, the paint should already be washed and clayed for maximum results."

TSXinSouthBayCalifornia

Jess,

The first person I went to was Patrick at Excel.

I bought supplies from him, and he walked me through all of my earliest and most basic questions.

He spent a lot of time and emails with me back and forth, getting me ready to start on my own.

He didn't think the car needed to be clayed since it was new.


If Pat was closer, and his schedule not as busy, I would have followed up with an in-person visit.

I tried to hook up with him, but our schedules didn't match, and that was when Norm was nice enough to reach out and invite me to CG with him.


Question - do you guys think the Brinkmann should show everything that the sunlight does?

When I bought it last night, it was working out of the box, but didn't seem very bright.