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Disappointed... In need of insight....
Hey guys... 
Well I bought a GG6 and the Meguiars backing plates for their 7inch and 4inch pads. I also bought Meguairs yellow and black soft buff 2.0 pads. After lurking on here for almost month, it seemed like UC, UP, and any LSP would bring amazing results. I was mostly focused on the swirls because thats the only issue my paint had. I already had good depth and reflections, I just wanted the swirls to gone when someone looked up close... after hours of UC and UP, I just wasn't satisfied with what I was getting. I've watched countless videos and read countless articles on all of the techniques using a D/A, prepping the surface, etc... I'm applying what I know the best I can and I'm just beginning to feel careless about removing swirls anymore. I just don't get it. I used to be king of the Drive Thru car wash. So really I am dealing with Car Wash swirls, which I wouldn't think would be that deep, but I guess they could put some deep scratches in paint?
Heres what I was doing, truck was already washed.
1. Clayed
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Problem:
2. UC with yellow pad, on speed 4 and 5 (Tried varying speeds as I read in an article different speeds work better on different cars)
-Prepped the pad like I read on an article on here
-Cleaned the pad on the fly often, usually every other working of the product, sometimes after each "working".
-I marked a black line on the pad as I found this really helped me as in the beginning I was using too much pressure, resulting in the pad not rotating.
-Other then that, I tried both the 7inch pad and the 4 inch pads, it seems like the 4 inch gets the job done a little quicker... Here's the thing though, I worked the UC for around a minute, I worked small areas as recommended on here and other sites, used what I thought was a good pressure (not to the point where the pad stopped, but not to the point where the pad was barely touching), and used the "pattern" of moving the buffer over the paint. After 2 workings of UC, almost all of my swirls were still there, like the surface looked almost unchanged. Mind you this is after 2 workings. Is that normal?? I went over an area like 6 or 7 times and I still have a few fine scratches that look like they could be removed, but at this point I just wanna forget about it.
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3. UP did bring back the gloss as I had a pin stripe I taped off while using UC, and when I removed the tape you could see a noticeable difference in color under lighting.
4. NXT 2.0, worked as it did by hand so that was fine as well.
So all in all, like, I did 2 door panels and they came out alright after 6 or 7 workings of UC. In fact, they came out the best of any other panel I have done so far (hood & tailgate and 1 rear quarter panel). I am satisfied with my door panels actually, very satisfied as they are nearly scratch free except for a RIDS or two. The tailgate just sucked to say the least. I worked just one half of the tailgate (in small sections) around 10 times, with the 4 inch pad!! And I still have swirls and stuff. I don't have any pictures right now as I don't really feel like attempting to get my camera to pick them up as I have failed to do so before.
If you read this all the way through, thank you very much...
Any suggestions please? Maybe I need to step up to M105 or whatever the number is? Maybe my paint is super hard? (2002 Chevy Avalanche Victory Red)
Well I bought a GG6 and the Meguiars backing plates for their 7inch and 4inch pads. I also bought Meguairs yellow and black soft buff 2.0 pads. After lurking on here for almost month, it seemed like UC, UP, and any LSP would bring amazing results. I was mostly focused on the swirls because thats the only issue my paint had. I already had good depth and reflections, I just wanted the swirls to gone when someone looked up close... after hours of UC and UP, I just wasn't satisfied with what I was getting. I've watched countless videos and read countless articles on all of the techniques using a D/A, prepping the surface, etc... I'm applying what I know the best I can and I'm just beginning to feel careless about removing swirls anymore. I just don't get it. I used to be king of the Drive Thru car wash. So really I am dealing with Car Wash swirls, which I wouldn't think would be that deep, but I guess they could put some deep scratches in paint?
Heres what I was doing, truck was already washed.
1. Clayed
-----
Problem:
2. UC with yellow pad, on speed 4 and 5 (Tried varying speeds as I read in an article different speeds work better on different cars)
-Prepped the pad like I read on an article on here
-Cleaned the pad on the fly often, usually every other working of the product, sometimes after each "working".
-I marked a black line on the pad as I found this really helped me as in the beginning I was using too much pressure, resulting in the pad not rotating.
-Other then that, I tried both the 7inch pad and the 4 inch pads, it seems like the 4 inch gets the job done a little quicker... Here's the thing though, I worked the UC for around a minute, I worked small areas as recommended on here and other sites, used what I thought was a good pressure (not to the point where the pad stopped, but not to the point where the pad was barely touching), and used the "pattern" of moving the buffer over the paint. After 2 workings of UC, almost all of my swirls were still there, like the surface looked almost unchanged. Mind you this is after 2 workings. Is that normal?? I went over an area like 6 or 7 times and I still have a few fine scratches that look like they could be removed, but at this point I just wanna forget about it.
-----
3. UP did bring back the gloss as I had a pin stripe I taped off while using UC, and when I removed the tape you could see a noticeable difference in color under lighting.
4. NXT 2.0, worked as it did by hand so that was fine as well.
So all in all, like, I did 2 door panels and they came out alright after 6 or 7 workings of UC. In fact, they came out the best of any other panel I have done so far (hood & tailgate and 1 rear quarter panel). I am satisfied with my door panels actually, very satisfied as they are nearly scratch free except for a RIDS or two. The tailgate just sucked to say the least. I worked just one half of the tailgate (in small sections) around 10 times, with the 4 inch pad!! And I still have swirls and stuff. I don't have any pictures right now as I don't really feel like attempting to get my camera to pick them up as I have failed to do so before.
If you read this all the way through, thank you very much...
Any suggestions please? Maybe I need to step up to M105 or whatever the number is? Maybe my paint is super hard? (2002 Chevy Avalanche Victory Red)
Keep it country!
his paint was pretty dirty/oxidized or something. I ran 2 passes of UC in multiple sections as well as 1 pass of UP in multiple sections and finished with a hand applied coating of Ultimate Paste Wax. He did some of the work himself, mind you he was a first time user with a D/A. With his rookie skill and my several hours of experience using a D/A, and a couple passes, we got this: 
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