Question On pads, with M205 & UC

[rdfkentucky]

Hi
I'm working on my mother-in laws 2004 Ranger Truck, which is in bad shape. I know I would be able to remove all of the defects, but trying to make it look better. I'm using it as a test bed to see what works. With the UC i'm using the LC 6.5 orange and white pad, but not really seeing a difference between them. With the M205 I'm using the LC white and black pad. I do see some difference between them. I have been using the white then going back over it with black. I did tape out 2 sections to see what the UC and M205. I really didn't see a difference. Which could be me. Is this common?
The truck is in bad shape body and paint, I washed it then clay it. A big difference with just the clay. I have about 2/3rds done, I still need to decide on what put on top. Should I be going over it with the white pad then the black pad, is this unneeded or normial?

[ChevyNick]

I'm kind of confused about what you're getting at. It shouldn't be necessary to use 2 different pads for each step. If your seeing a difference though then I guess its worth while... You say you didn't see a difference between UC and M205? Is that in terms of finish? UC has been known to leave a good finish that you can just go ahead and wax. Id still run M205 over the whole car just to get that little extra clarification and gloss to the paint.

[Marc08EX]

Re: Question On pads, with M205 & UC

You don't need to hit a section using 1 product with 2 different types of pads. You only need to use 1 pad per product. For example, you use Ultimate Compound with the LC orange and M205 with the LC black afterwards.

[rdfkentucky]

Re: Question On pads, with M205 & UC

Sorry for not explaning myself. I was trying the products using 2 different pads to see how it worked. The paint is in rough shape, and this is my test truck to see how things work. I still need to work it to see if it makes a difference in the paint. I just didn't notice a difference between the UC and M205.

[Marc08EX]

Re: Question On pads, with M205 & UC

What color is the truck you're working on?

Ultimate Compound finishes extremely well on most cases (except for soft paint) so you might not see much difference with M205 especially on a lighter colored vehicle.

If M205 doesn't make a difference and you're happy with the finish after the Ultimate Compound step then your job is done. You finished your polishing stage earlier than expected by reducing a step in the polishing phase. In addition, doing a test spot in this case benefited you big time!

[rdfkentucky]

Re: Question On pads, with M205 & UC

My mistake, the truck is a 1994 Ford, Light Brown in color. The truck still has defects, some swirls, gouges, in it, but for the age I'm happy with it. I'm going to Wax next.

[Marc08EX]

Re: Question On pads, with M205 & UC

Yeah, light colors usually don't benefit from finishing polishes especially if the initial step from Ultimate Compound finished very well.

We would love to see pictures of the truck after it's been detailed!

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Question On pads, with M205 & UC

Sorry for not explaning myself. I was trying the products using 2 different pads to see how it worked. The paint is in rough shape, and this is my test truck to see how things work. I still need to work it to see if it makes a difference in the paint. I just didn't notice a difference between the UC and M205.

There is a huge difference in cut between these two products so there should have been an obvious difference - unless you're working on paint that is very delicate in which case M205 may be all you need to correct it, in which case comparing it to UC may not yield much of a difference with regard to defect removal. However, this certainly does not sound like the case with your truck.

If you were to take a large panel, the hood for example, before doing any work on it all and tape off three sections, using UC/orange pad in one, M205/black pad on the other, and leaving the third area untouched, are you saying you can't tell the difference between the two treated areas? If so, is there any correction at all? Here's where "reading" the paint comes in. If both look the same because neither really did much of anything, that means you've got very severe defects and/or really hard paint and even UC/orange pad isn't aggressive enough with that tool. If, on the other hand, both of them cleared everything up, that means you don't need anything more aggressive than M205/black pad (which we find highly unlikely). So, can you expand a bit on your comment about not being to see a difference between them? Was there any chance to the appearance of the paint at all?

[rdfkentucky]

Re: Question On pads, with M205 & UC

I tape off two sections with some of the original between them. I clay it with QD, before trying the above. It look good after the clay, except it had defects. When I tried the UC and M205, it still looked like it did when I clay it. I didn't see a difference between them, except the finish was slicker in feel. The truck is a 1994, has dents, scratch's, swirl marks, and acid rain, and bird dropping stains.

[Marc08EX]

Re: Question On pads, with M205 & UC

You don't see a difference at all even after using Ultimate Compound? Do you have pictures (preferably with halogen lighting) of the paint you're working on? How big of an area are you working on? How slow are you moving your arms? How much downward pressure are you applying?