M105 with rotary trouble

[Mister B]

I got an old (probably from the mid 80’s) white Volvo fender from my neighbor to use for playing around with my rotary buffer. I went out into the garage last night and put the fender up on some saw horses and then clayed the fender and then laid down a bead of M105 (new version), put on my Solo burgundy wool pad, primed the pad with some #34 and began to work a small section of the fender. The buffer immediately just grabbed and grabbed, it did not buff smooth at all. I worked it for less than a minute and then tried wiping off the residue with a microfiber. The residue was not coming off, so I sprayed some #34 on it and I could still not remove the residue very well. I had to spray some APC onto the fender in order to remove all of the residue. I don’t know what the deal was. Every time I tried it, I got the same results. So then I switched to a 5.5” Lake Country Hydro-Tech cyan cutting pad and worked the M105 in with that pad. It worked a bit smoother but it was still gummy. I kept working it until it was almost gone though and that time I was able to wipe off the majority of the residue, but there were still spots that I could not remove all of it, so I had to use the APC again.

Last week I used the M105 and the Solo Burgundy wool pad on the plastic hood of my John Deere riding mower after I lightly wet sanded some heavy scratches out of it with 2000 grit sandpaper and I did not have any problems like this with the M105 at all. In fact it worked great. I know that was plastic and this is paint, but I was still surprised how much trouble that painted fender gave me.

Here is a 50/50 of the mower hood. The right side is untouched and the left side is after 2000 wet sandpaper and M105 with Burgundy Wool and then M205 with Polishing pad





Can any of the pros out there give me some tips on what I should try with that fender I am playing with the Rotary on?

[Mister B]

I don't know if it is the paint, the pad I am using, the product I am using or a combination of everything.

Maybe it is just me, and I need to keep practicing at it, but M105 was very sticky when buffing with the Solo burgundy wool on that fender and the M105 residue was almost impossible to remove without APC.

When I used M105 on my truck via G100 I had none of these problems. Application and removal was very easy. It has been quite different with this fender and the rotary however.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated?

[Michael Stoops]

It looks as though you've come across one of those rare cases where M105 is not the right product - good thing for you is that it's on a test panel!!

Keep in mind that M105 was developed primarily for body shop use to remove sanding marks very quickly while leaving minimal holograms. Sometimes on older, dried out paint it just isn't the best choice. That does not mean that M105 was designed strictly for fresh paint, just that this is it's prime target. Speaking from personal experience for just a second, I have encountered only a single vehicle where M105 behaved this way - nothing before and nothing since. That car had paint that I could only describe as "dried out". Oddly enough, it was a Ferrari 360 Modena.

In the case of your test panel you may find that M95 Speed Cut Compound or M86 So1o will behave more to your liking. Both use SMAT to some degree and offer excellent cutting ability.

[Hemin8r]

After the pad has been primed use a little less M105 and try spreading it out about 10"x 10" or 12"x 12" section at a slow speed 600-900 and slowly pick up the RPMS on the rotory see if that works.

[Mister B]

In the case of your test panel you may find that M95 Speed Cut Compound or M86 So1o will behave more to your liking. Both use SMAT to some degree and offer excellent cutting ability.

Since I do not have either of those products on hand at the moment, maybe I will break out the old School M80 and M83 since this is older paint and see how those 2 products perform first.

[Mister B]

After the pad has been primed use a little less M105 and try spreading it out about 10"x 10" or 12"x 12" section at a slow speed 600-900 and slowly pick up the RPMS on the rotory see if that works.

I'll give that a try.

Thanks

[the_invisible]

If you're having trouble removing the residue produced by M105, try spraying the residue with iced-cold water and wipe it immediately. That should remove the residue easily, without the needs of using IPA or APC.

[Mark Kleis]

For the record, Last Touch = your best friend for breaking up dried polish or compound residue for safe, easy removal. It works particularly well with M105.

If you are getting the "glazed" effect with the M105 you may be working it too fast, too long, or moving the pad around too quickly and not letting the product work and break down.

Moving the rotary around too quickly with a higher rotary speed is a common way to get that hard-to-remove M105 residue.

[Mister B]

If you are getting the "glazed" effect with the M105 you may be working it too fast, too long, or moving the pad around too quickly and not letting the product work and break down.

Moving the rotary around too quickly with a higher rotary speed is a common way to get that hard-to-remove M105 residue.

I don't know for sure, but I don't think I worked it around too quicky. I mean the area of the fender I worked on was only 12" or 14" square. I did not work it very long at all either because it would just constantly grab and grab, not smooth buffing at all, very sticky. I also tried it at several speeds, slow and medium speed with the same results.

[PorscheGuy997]

It sounds like a few things are going on here.

First, I would try priming the pad with M105 (same as doing the KBM) and then pick up a much smaller bead of product. Sometimes, too much product will cause M105 to adhere to the paint.

How hot was the panel? M105 does not like heat. If you have a set of halogens near the paint, it will cause M105 to dry up quickly.

Just to be safe, I would also clean the pad after every pass.

If the paint still isn't polishing well, there are still more options. You could switch to a less aggressive pad. Or, you could prime the pad with M205 and pick up a bead of M205. This is not recommended, but I have had great results with this combination. The longer working time of M205 allows you polish tricky paint much easier than just M105 alone. Yes, you lose some of the cutting of M105, but it does finish very well.