Hologram removal

[michael2364]

Hi, just did my 911 over the weekend and the main reason why was because there was always a hologram on the passenger door which was noticable in the sun. I used a g110 and fine cut from the proline and the car came out amazing. looks like a comp-letely different shade of metalic black i didnt even know existed. However, the holograms got a little better but were not removed completely. I'm hesitant to use a more aggressive product because I'm a novice at this. If I continue to make multiple passes with the fine cut product, will these eventually be removed? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Michael

[Murr1525]

Re: Holgram removal

You can certainly try a few more passes of the fine cut, that would be ok.

You could also go to a slightly stronger product if you wanted.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Holgram removal

I used a g110 and fine cut from the proline and the car came out amazing.

Is this a single stage paint or a basecoat/clearcoat?

What speed setting did you use?
What type of pad did you use?


M02 is close to the same cut as M83 DACP

This assumes you have the reformulated M02 which should say on the back label its safe for use by rotary buffer, HAND and DA Polisher. If it includes working by hand and DA Polisher then you have the right/safe product to use.


You also might consider trying SwirlX, it uses new abrasive technology that the majority of the world is finding works quite well.

Check out this thread, the new formula M02 is close in aggressiveness to M83 in the picture. So SwirlX would be one tick above that in aggressiveness but in the real world they are both gentle products, at least compared to a true rubbing compound.

Aggressiveness Order for New Consumer Products - This will surprise you!

Since we introduced these 3 new swirl and scratch removers in our Consumer Line and our new M205 Ultra Finishing Polish in our Professional line, many people have asked how aggressive these new products are as compared to some of our existing products that our forum members are already familiar with to help them understand the cleaning and/or abrading ability of these new products I've listed them in order of most aggressive to least aggressive reading from left to right.

(Apologies ahead of time if you have to horizontal scroll)

Most aggressive to least aggressive -->




That would be from most to least aggressive,

• M105 Ultra Cut Compound
• Ultimate Compound
• ScratchX 2.0
• SwirlX
• M83 Dual Action Cleaner Polish
• M205 Ultra Finishing Polish - M80 Speed Glaze (Different types of abrasives but close in cut ability)
• ScratchX (Current Version being discontinued)

[michael2364]

Re: Holgram removal

Hi,
its a clear coat base coat. I used a yellow soft buff 2.0 pad with M0216. The speed on the machine was between 3 and 4.The label said it's a 5 on a scale of 1-10. My buddy let me use his machine and gave me the product to use. I would imagine I could go with a little heavier of a product. Also The car is a metalic black, so if the light hits it right you see the imperfections. I also noticed I have some mild water spot on the top of the rear wing that were improved, but not removed. Thanks

[Bounty]

Re: Holgram removal

Hi, just did my 911 over the weekend and the main reason why was because there was always a hologram on the passenger door which was noticable in the sun. I used a g110 and fine cut from the proline and the car came out amazing. looks like a comp-letely different shade of metalic black i didnt even know existed. However, the holograms got a little better but were not removed completely. I'm hesitant to use a more aggressive product because I'm a novice at this. If I continue to make multiple passes with the fine cut product, will these eventually be removed? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Michael

Here was my solution to severe hologramming...

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33431&highlight=flex

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Holgram removal

I used a yellow soft buff 2.0 pad with M0216.

Look at the back label under direction for application and make sure it doesn't say, For use with rotary buffer only. Just want to troubleshoot that potential issue from the get go.

The speed on the machine was between 3 and 4.

That's not fast enough for removing swirls out of clear coats in most cases, you need to bump it up to th 5.0 setting. Place a black mark on the back of the yellow pad, or a couple of lines so you can see if the pad is rotating against the paint. To remove swirls you usually have to run the polisher on the 5.0 speed setting and push down on the head of the polisher unit with firm pressure but keep the pad rotating.

Just for fun, mark your pad and place it on the 3.0 to 4.0 setting and try to duplicate what you did last time you buffed and see if the pad is rotating.

Removing swirls means removing a little paint and paint is removed best when the pad is moving across the surface, (rotating), not just vibrating against it which is usually what happens on the 3.0 setting and lower. Sometimes you can get some correction at the 4.0 setting, but it's usually pretty hard to keep the pad rotating at the 4.0 speed setting especially once your pad starts to become wet with product.

If you haven't already, read through these to threads,

How To use: G110 - G220 - G100 - PC/Porter Cable - UDM
If you're moving up to machine polishing, be sure to read the below thread before starting...
Tips & Techniques for using the G110, G100, G220 and the PC Dual Action Polisher
(These are all similar tools)


Using the G-100 to remove swirls with the Professional Line

[michael2364]

Re: Holgram removal

Look at the back label under direction for application and make sure it doesn't say, For use with rotary buffer only. Just want to troubleshoot that potential issue from the get go.

it says i can use it with a random orbital,DA,rotory buffer

What would be your order of progression with a case like this.?
Bounty posted a link to a past post which a more powerful (flex) machine was used with an aggressive pad and mild profuct yielded a better result.
Is the flex machine worth the investment? Your thoughts?

Michael

[Bounty]

Re: Holgram removal

Bounty posted a link to a past post which a more powerful (flex) machine was used with an aggressive pad and mild profuct yielded a better result.
Is the flex machine worth the investment? Your thoughts?

Michael

You don't need to jump into the investment of a Flex just yet without exhausting your options with the machine and products available to you at this stage...

1. Give it another pass with your current combo on speed 5 and check your results. This alone may clear things up for you.

2. If not, give the M205 and its SMAT abrasive technology a try. The "cut" guidelines are a rough relative comparison, especially when dealing with different abrasive technologies (SMAT vs DAT).

3. If neither of the first two work, then you'll need to look into more aggressive pads, compounds, or both...

4. Once you've exhausted all possibilities with your machine and not acheived the desired results, then it's time to look at a serious defect-correction tool like the Flex. Obviously would have been better to start out with it but since you're already stuck with the random orbital, try to get the most out of it you can.

Hope this helps and feel free to PM with any questions...

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Holgram removal

1. Give it another pass with your current combo on speed 5 and check your results. This alone may clear things up for you.

Correct.


Try again using a yellow polishing pad on the 5.0 speed setting. Mark the back of your pad and even backing plate if you want like this so you can easily see if the pad is rotating or just vibrating.






Apply product to the face of your foam pad using one of these styles,


How to apply product to the face of your foam buffing pads

Below is how to apply fresh product to the face of you foam buffing pad when first starting out and your pads are dry. After you break you buffing pad in by working this initial amount of product over a section of paint, you can cut down on the amount of product you're using as the pad will be less likely to absorb as much product as it will become damp with product.





Remember don't turn the polisher on until the face of the foam pad is in contact with surface of your car's paint.


Technique
Quickly spread the product out of the surface you're going to work then slow your arm speed down and begin to use overlapping motions to work the product.


For this test, only work a section about 16" squarish, don't tackle too large of an area at one time. The tool is gentle in it's abrading action and can only effectively remove paint from small sections at a time when move the polisher slowly over the surface with the firm pressure.

In most cases, you want to apply as much pressure as you can while still maintaining a fairly fast rate of rotating speed. What you don't want to do is apply so much pressure that the pad rotates s-l-o-w-l-y.

Overlap your passes by 50% and do your best to keep the pad flat to the surface. If the pad is held at an angle so there's uneven pressure applied to the face of the pad this will keep the pad from rotating. (test this yourself and you'll see how important it is to hold the pad flat).


After working an application of product, wipe the leftover residue from the worked area and inspect, if the results look good move onto a new section overlapping a little into the previous section. Continue this procedure until you have finished a panel or the entire vehicle.

If you're not seeing what you want to see, the post back here and we'll do our best to help out...

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Hologram removal

After we get your technique dialed in, remember to clean you pad on the fly and and to do this often. This insures the best experience while machine cleaning and polishing as excess product build-up on a foam buffing pad can cause gumming up.

Cleaning Your Pad On The Fly

The question often comes up,
How do I clean my buffing pads?

Or more specifically,

How do I clean my buffing pads after they become wet or saturated with the product I'm working with?


One way is to do what we call, Cleaning your pad on the fly. This means to take and hold a clean, soft, dry terry cloth towel, hopefully a towel with a thick nap, (the little cotton loops), against the face of the pad while it's still on your polisher and then with your hand that's holding the polisher, use your finger to turn the polisher on and then move the towel around and against the face of the foam pad. This will act to cause the excess product built-up in the foam pad to move out of the pad and saturate into the terry cloth towel. Then you can place the towel down and get back to working on your car.

This is called cleaning your pad on the fly because it's quick and simple and fairly effective for what you're trying to do.


Here's Cisco from one of our recent Saturday Detailing Classes learning how to clean a pad on the fly



Mike Stoops Cleaning a pad on the fly



As you clean your pad you'll see residue build-up on the towel.



Clean your pad often
Besides knowing how to clean your pad on the fly you also need to remember to clean your pad often, usually after every other application of product to the pad. That is, apply some product to your pad and work it to a section. Wipe off the spent residue and either re-clean the area or move onto a new area. After a second application of product to the pad and after you've worked it to a section, now clean your pad. This is cleaning your pad every other application of product to the pad. You can clean your pad after every application if you like too. Most people don't clean their pads often enough, so err on the side of caution. Cleaning your pad often maximizes your effectiveness and thus your speed and quality of end result.

[michael2364]

Re: Hologram removal

you guys rock. Thanks for all of the advice. I picked up some scratchx 2.0 ond some swirlx today. Gonna try them by hand if a few more passes with the fine cut doesnt work out. So my homework is speed 5,clean and mark the pad. apply some more pressure., and make a few more passes. I'll let you guys know how I make out.
also one more question. My local auto store only had cotton terry applicator pads for the hand work. will they work out ok, or should I try to find the foam ones? Thanks again.

Mike

[Bounty]

Re: Hologram removal

you guys rock. Thanks for all of the advice. I picked up some scratchx 2.0 ond some swirlx today. Gonna try them by hand if a few more passes with the fine cut doesnt work out. So my homework is speed 5,clean and mark the pad. apply some more pressure., and make a few more passes. I'll let you guys know how I make out.

Good luck...sounds like you have the right idea! Let us know how you make out and as always, remember we love pics!

Also one more question. My local auto store only had cotton terry applicator pads for the hand work. will they work out ok, or should I try to find the foam ones?

Generally speaking, the terry applicators will have a bit more "bite" or cut than pure foam or mild microfiber applicators but either will do.