removing stubborn fine scratches

[Nuscence813]

Ok first off the vehicle is a 2011 Yukon in black. Equipment used is g110v2 and new mirror glaze foam pads red, yellow and black. Products in arsenal are scratch x UC UP and Wax like UW #26 and GCC.

So I have plenty of fine scratches throughout the vehicle. I've tried combos red pad scratch x red pad UP 5 to 6 overlapping passes slowly moving the v2 at 4 and 5 speed level. I do not remove them at all. They are all existing marks. I can say that the paint is hard at this point. Lol I am applying about anywhere to 8-10lbs of pressure. Should I call in for the mf pads? I was told in a previous post that red foam pads are pretty aggressive. I've compounded the vehicle twice within 2 months already to remove the defects. I am not satisfied of my results with the day long project after I am done. Looks good in the shade but in the sun it looks eeeewwwww!!!

[Murr1525]

Re: removing stubborn fine scratches

Is there any chance of a pic of the surface?

You will most likely want to focus on a test spot/area before doing the whole car again. No sense doing the whole thing when one spot wont turn out right.

You are quite certain that a particular scratch is remaning in one place, and not just a general haze over the area?

[Nuscence813]

It is throughout the body just wear and tear from my kids and dog. They are not deep at all. They are mostly just really fine scratches that show through no matter what I do. The we're swirls but they are gone. I am stumped guys don't know what to turn to know. I didn't seem to remove any scratches at all when using any of the products mentioned.

[davey g-force]

Re: removing stubborn fine scratches

You said you tried ScratchX and UP. They are both quite mild, especially the UP. Did you try the UC at all? That would be the next step up.

And as Murr suggested, just a test spot at first to see if you're getting the desired results.

[Nuscence813]

Yes tried UC first

[Nuscence813]

Here are the pics I promised

[davey g-force]

Re: removing stubborn fine scratches

Those two bigger scratches you may not be able to get rid of, as they look quite deep - although you can probably improve them.

The other cobwebs / swirls you should be able to correct with the right products / technique.

How big of an area were you working on at once? How much pressure were you using? How fast was your arm speed? Try shrinking your work area down to say 1' x 1'. Increase your downward pressure so the pad just stops rotating, then back it off a little so it is just spinning. Slow down your arm speed, or how fast you're moving the buffer across the paint.

Failing that, you may have to step it up to M105 or even the MF Correction System.

[Nuscence813]

Well I bought the mf cutting pads and they have already improved with 6 slow passes. Will this show an uneven coat now when I'm done since I will be more aggressive over the deeper scratches?



So this is an after pic of the scratch after mf cutting pad and UC.

[ethereal45]

Re: removing stubborn fine scratches

I'm not an expert on this, but you shouldn't any trouble "spot correcting," where you're working the product a little harder over a smaller more scratched area.

[davey g-force]

Re: removing stubborn fine scratches

Will this show an uneven coat now when I'm done since I will be more aggressive over the deeper scratches?

I wouldn't think so - you should be fine, as long as you didn't go through the clear coat or something.

..Speaking of which, you might want to call it done in that area now - UC on MF cutting pad is quite an aggressive combo! Looks good anyway, well done

[Nuscence813]

I don't think I removed too much. It wasn't that deep. I couldn't even get a fingernail in there. I think it looked worse than it was. For some reason when using the foam pads I can't tell a difference in the correction but can in the shine. I'm just going to go over it with pure polish and wax now

[Michael Stoops]

Re: removing stubborn fine scratches

OK, so the only pads you've used so far are the burgundy foam cutting pad (W7207) and the DMC5 microfiber cutting pad? If so, then regardless of what liquids you used it is highly probable that you're creating some haze even while removing the original defects. From the images shown, it doesn't look like you've created as clear and glossy a finish as you could, and that's really going to be down to the aggressiveness of those pads.

We normally caution against using the W7207 Soft Buff 2.0 foam cutting pad on a DA for exactly this reason, and to then pair it with some pretty light duty liquids like you did is going to provide very limited defect removal while very likely creating some haze. The better move is to step down a bit in pad aggressiveness and step up in liquid aggressiveness. We would expect a better finish, and better defect removal, using UC on a W8207 yellow polishing pad. But we would recommend setting the tool at speed 5 with this combo, and using more pressure than what it sounds like you used. We would go so far as to recommend that you apply enough pressure on the pad to actually stop the rotation, then ease up enough to get the pad spinning slowly but steadily. It then becomes really important to keep the pad as flat as possible or you're lose rotation again, so pay close attention to that.

When working with the microfiber pads, if the paint is at all delicate, you can create a lot of haze. In fact, on really delicate paint you can sometimes see the trail of the buffer in the paint due to the highly aggressive nature of the DMC5 microfiber pad. Now, sometimes you need that aggressiveness to remove really severe defects like that pair of deeper scratches you showed, but you then need to follow up with a less aggressive liquid and pad to really clean things up, add gloss and clarity. In this case, we'd recommend using the Ultimate Polish you already have paired with a W8207 foam polishing pad at speed 4 with light to moderate pressure. If you've created a fair bit of haze and all you apply over it is a pure polish and wax, you'll just be concealing the haze and it will come back fairly quickly.

It really sounds like you need to alter your product pairings here to get the sort of results you're after. We've worked on plenty of Chevy/GMC SUVs and pickup trucks and we've never found the paint to be terribly hard on them. Of course there are always exceptions and we're the first to tell you to do a test spot on any vehicle the first time you work on it, but that aggressive pad/light duty liquid combo just isn't going to give you a show car shine no matter what the paint is like.

[Nuscence813]

Ok mike I did the hood already with the UC and mf cutting pad and followed up with UP before I read this post just to test it out. I used alot of pressure and speed setting 5 for the cutting and moderate pressure and speed setting 3 for the polishing. Looks great right now. The final test will be in the sun. I will let everyone know tomorrow about the turn out. For some strange reason I do not benefit from the yellow pad when cutting.

[Nuscence813]

This is how the hood turned out. Do you think I can get more gloss than this. This is after UP yellow

pad

[ethereal45]

Re: removing stubborn fine scratches

You might be able to get a little more gloss with something like #07 Show Car Glaze. You will also get some addition depth of color and reflection when you apply the wax -- probably go with Ultimate Wax for that color.

Alternatively (I haven't tried this, just a theory), you could put on some more Ultimate Polish and not really work it (maybe even do it by hand) and just let the polishing oils do all the work. You wouldn't need to be aggressive because you've already done your polishing step where you put the abrasives to work. Just wipe on / wipe off to maximize the amount of polishing oils you're getting on there.