Some time ago I purchased the equipment to do a good job detailing my car; it does have swirls in the paint, and I want to eliminate them with my PC.

Like most folks, I am pretty busy with my own tasks, and of course have to service my wife's honey-do list as well. But another reason I have not tried to polish my car is my apprehension about removing the paint.

I have been informed on this forum and others that the San Marino Red paint on the Accord Coupe is not covered with a clear coat.

RTF, I1, MCH: is there anything I should do differently from the copious advice you have provided about this subject, because I do not have clear coat on my car?

Thanks for your time.


RFT!!!
Dave Kelsen
--
My current hobby is not collecting stamps. I'll be adding not collecting coins as soon as I don't have time.

I doubt that it has no clear but the steps would be exactly the same either way. You will be able to tell very quickly.........once you begin polishing the pad will slowly turn red if there is no clear.

=========
Remember, every day above ground is a good day!

RTF,

I found one of the documents that gave me this idea:

http://www.driveaccord.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=14145&d=1218123756

It states that for those paints with a superscripted '3' (for the Accord, only the San Marino Red and the Taffeta White), no clear coat is applied. This is distinct from those with a superscript of '2', which don't have a *separate* clear coat, but instead have it mixed in with the regular paint.

In any event, I suppose I'll give it a try; if I'm getting a lot of red coming off quickly, I'll just give it up!

Thanks for the reply.


RFT!!!
Dave Kelsen
--
My dumb brother says life is all about compassion, wisdom and love for our fellow man. What an idiot! Life is about peace and understanding and building a world full of friendship for all mankind. Dumbass.

Indeed it does not have a clear top coat, nice digging to find that information and you taught me something. You cannot help but take a small amount of the paint off when polishing, in fact you must to correct the problem. That is 100% normal and absolutely no reason to freak out. I have done some single stage paint cars that were pink. After working them over (and staining many pads red) they were bright red again. When you polish a car with clear you remove a tiny bit of it. The only difference is that you can't see it because, well, it's clear!

As always use the LEAST abrasive measures to get the results you want. You can't take enough paint off with a PC to harm anything so proceed with confidence.

Please educate the uneducated, what is PC? It's not in reference to Porter Cable orbital sander, is it?

Yes, PC is the shortcut for the Porter Cable 7224 or 7336 random orbital sander which is also a buffer when equipped correctly. It is the starting auto buffer for many, including myself, thanks to Inspector 1. It's also a hell of a sander, oddly enough :)

To RTexasF:

Thank you, sir. I shall proceed, albeit with caution.


RFT!!!
Dave Kelsen
--
The sentencing guidelines for killing time must be incredibly redundant.

Go for it! You'll be glad you did.

Kelsen,

Use the PC on the car yet?

No, sir; I have a three day weekend coming up, so I hope to try it Friday. If my wife doesn't give me a list of things I can't get out of... ;^)

RFT!!!
Dave Kelsen
--
A diagnostic is someone who doesn't know whether there are two gods.

Here it is, only 5 1/2 months later. Today I managed to polish my car.

Here are the steps I took, and what I learned.

1.) I washed the car, 2 bucket, using Dawn.

2.) I got my Poor Boy's 2.5, and put a 5" orange pad (I have 2 each of white, orange and yellow) on my PC. It works, by the way. I bought it a year ago, but today was the first time I turned it on. So sue me...

3.) I looked at a video or to, to remind me of the process. I polished a section as prescribed. It did not get the job done.

4.) I put on my yellow pad, and did the same section again. A marked improvement, although there are still microscratches.

5.) I did the whole car.

Now, my yellow pad is fraying a bit at the edges. This may mean I applied too much pressure, or didn't use enough polish, but I think it's related to the fact that I polished over the many countours and openings (such as doors, gas cap door, etc.)

There was a lot of polish dust created, and I found that if it blows onto the glass and stays there, it becomes more difficult to get off than you would think.

Because the microscratches in my paint were diminished but not removed, I did not do a second trip around the car with the 1.0 polish. Besides, I'm tired! I did apply (and rub off, of course) a layer of DuraGloss 105.

The car's look is much improved, but I will have to do this again, hopefully soon, with other tools. So my question is this: since using the yellow pad didn't get the job done with the Poor Boy's 2.5, I assume I need some stronger polish.

Any recommendations, either for polish or for process improvement?

Thanks.

RFT!!!
Dave Kelsen
--
"Events in the past may be roughly divided into those which probably never happened and those which do not matter." -- William Ralph Inge

In my view you used a very abrasive polish and a very abrasive pad. That removed a great deal of the major marring but left marks of its own. The yellow pad for the PC is the most abrasive available and you must work down from there.

Now you must step down with a less abrasive polish and a less abrasive pad to complete the job. This is EXTREMELY difficult to guess with no pictures but you might want to try white pads with 1.0 and make several passes. Let us know how it turns out. If no good then go to orange pads and the least abrasive polish, then white pads and the least abrasive polish.

This is what detailers are talking about when they discuss a One, Two, or Three stage polishing process. If the finish is horrible you must grind it down. Then you lessen the abrasives (both chemical & pad) & do it again. Then you reduce the abrasives and do it again until the finish is correct. I hope this makes some sense to you.

Thanks, RTF. I did think of that, because you (and other authoriatative sources) said it was a two step process - I even bought the less abrasive polish. It seemed to me that the microswirls there were left over rather than new. I confess, I don't know why.

I just went out this morning (I was going to take some pictures), and the different light tells a different story; the swirl marks I see now are more regular, indicating that they are from the action of the PC.

So I will do the polishing job again, probably in 2 weeks when I have another Friday off.

And I will take and post pictures. Right now, the car looks better than it has in the year I've owned it.

One last thing: although I had some concern, and even though I used the most abrasive combination I have (and I applied a fair amount of pressure), my pad did not begin to turn red. I was very pleased at that.

Thanks again, RTF.


RFT!!!
Dave Kelsen
--
"I'm Hub McCann. I've fought in two World Wars and countless smaller ones on three continents. I led thousands of men into battle with everything from horses and swords to artillery and tanks. I've seen the headwaters of the Nile, and tribes of natives no white man had ever seen before. I've won and lost a dozen fortunes, killed many men and loved only one woman with a passion a flea like you could never begin to understand. That's who I am. Now, go home, boy!" -- Second-hand Lions

Should have taken before/after pix...

Should have taken before/after pix...

Yes, I know. The reason I didn't is that I don't have the proper lighting. For a general picture of how it looks, that's no problem. But trying to show the amount of microswirls in the paint requires a particular amount of light, and at a particular angle.

The sun can provide that light, but you're depending on luck. Also, when you get done, the sun is at a different angle, so the what the picture shows may not be the same.

I will take some pictures when I start on the 1st of May (to do the second polishing), as well as after I finish.


RFT!!!
Dave Kelsen
--
I walked into a bar the other night and ordered a double.
The bartender brought out a guy who looked just like me.

I'm anxious to hear/see the results also come May. The pad not turning red does indicate that clearcoat is there in spite of the info you turned up saying otherwise.

Kelsen,

You may want to perfect your polishing technique on a small test patch(2ft x 2ft) before doing the entire car and having it not turn out the way you wanted it to. Move the car into the sun and inspect.

Kelsen,

You may want to perfect your polishing technique on a small test patch(2ft x 2ft) before doing the entire car and having it not turn out the way you wanted it to. Move the car into the sun and inspect.

That's what I did (or tried). After the first square, I inspected my work. I convinced myself that the microswirls I could still see were leftover, rather than the product of the polishing. So I went to a more aggressive pad and did the same square. Although I could still see microswirls, I decided to do the rest of the vehicle (I had put doing this off for nearly a year since I bought the Porter Cable).

My usual method would have been to take some pictures, ask some questions, get some feedback, and (in this case, anyway) decide to do the second polish with the less abrasive polishing compound.

In this case, noting that I wasn't rubbing off paint, I decided I wasn't hurting anything, and went ahead and finished.

As far as I can tell, a second round with the 'finishing' polish will get me pretty close to where I want to be, so this (probably) wasn't a waste of time.

Hopefully I'm learning something...


RFT!!!
Dave Kelsen
--
"There is no moment like the present. The man who will not execute his resolutions when they are fresh upon him can have no hope from them afterwards: they will be dissipated, lost, and perish in the hurry and scurry of the world, or sunk in the slough of indolence." -- Maria Edgeworth

Today I did a second polish. I don't have 'before' pics, because although I took them, it was cloudy, and they don't show anything (some were even out of focus, 'cause that's hard to do when it's cloudy).

I washed the car, blew it dry (with my leaf blower), then began a polish. It took about 3 hours. I followed that with a light coat of Duragloss 105 polish.

Here are some after pics; the last three are closeups. They show that the swirls are just about gone, although my paint has other problems, clearly.

When I do this again, I will start with a good claying. I am, in any event, pleased with the results. Thanks to RTF for his time and recommendations, as well as MCH.

RFT!!!
Dave Kelsen
--
"I'm Hub McCann. I've fought in two World Wars and countless smaller ones on three continents. I led thousands of men into battle with everything from horses and swords to artillery and tanks. I've seen the headwaters of the Nile, and tribes of natives no white man had ever seen before. I've won and lost a dozen fortunes, killed many men and loved only one woman with a passion a flea like you could never begin to understand. That's who I am. Now, go home, boy!" -- Second-hand Lions

Here are the other pictures.


RFT!!!
Dave Kelsen
--
Universities are places of knowledge. The freshman each bring a little in with them, and the seniors take none away, so it accumulates.

Looks good :thmsup::thmsup: It takes practice and developing your own routine ... Still for 3 hours that is pretty good :yes:...

Looks like it had some repainting previously.

At least it does not look like this....... sand scratch city :thumbsdow


I1:wave:

Like I1 said there's either been a repaint or you are still getting used to the machine/pads/procedure. Frankly I think you should be pretty damned proud of what you have accomplished in such a short time. The whole machine thing is new to you and apparently your time off is precious and rare. Well done! If you had no red paint on any pads then it is indeed celarcoated.

Like I1 said there's either been a repaint or you are still getting used to the machine/pads/procedure. Frankly I think you should be pretty damned proud of what you have accomplished in such a short time. The whole machine thing is new to you and apparently your time off is precious and rare. Well done! If you had no red paint on any pads then it is indeed celarcoated.

I bought this car a year ago, with 47000 miles on it, so although I wasn't told about any accidents or probelms which might have required repainting, it's certainly possible.

I1, bear in mind that this three hours was in addition to over 5 hours two weeks ago. I am indeed pleased with the result.

I did not have any red on either pad, so it must have clearcoat, which points to repainting as well, since Honda said it didn't originally have clearcoat. Whoever did it did a pretty good job, so I have no heartache with it.

The truth is I probably have as much free time as most folks with a job, but like everyone, it's had to slice time out of my schedule. We recently went to being off every other Friday, and *that* time hasn't been taken up by anything or anyone else... yet!


Dave Kelsen
--
"Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching." -- Satchel Paige