tiny swirls that won't go away, a friend who's cocky and a burnt spot!

[flight567]

hey guys, first post! whoohoo! i've been "detailing"(or what i can do without tools/products.) being 17 i'm limited. budget, time, space, just about everything i need to really detail a car. but i'm doing well enough. one step at a time. right now i've got an orbital (10 inch turtlewax variety.) ultimate compound, ultimate polish, swirlX, and ultimate wax. next upgrade will probably be aflex polisher.

the story begins

today, i felt the need to do something different. so i went out and bought some 3M high grit sanding blocks (you can see where this is headed.) and drove home. got there, pulled out the hose and began to sand. i started in my normal test spot (left side of the hood.) when by buddy John comes over and asks what i'm up to. i tell him i'm trying to get orange peel off of my car. he takes a second and asks if he can help, i hesitate, recalling all of the stories of burnt paint, carnage and tears i read about foolish sanders. but his father owns a detailing shop in town so i agree, assuming(we all know what that does.) that his father has taught him a thing or two, but still being wary i give him a piece by the rear bumper and another hose.and i begin to sand away. eventually i get everything that i have problems with off. and go to check on him. the top bit (closets to the hood) is excellent. but there's a burn near the bottom! and not even just a black burn, he cut all the way down and made it white!! ugh.

so here my first question arises, what do i do with the burn? how can i fix it?

but i digress; i try to take this in stride and he goes home after a short discussion of what had happened. i go back to my hood and focus on it.
compound
compound
compound
did a good job of doing what a compound does. (taking big swirls/scratches and replacing them with smaller ones).
three layers of swirlX didn't really seem to do a lot.
finally, i've done three layers of polish. made everything wonderfully shiny. the cut&buff has made the left side of my hood so deep that it's wonderful! however! from a side view, there are little swirls... and i can't get them to go away for the life of me... please help?? i've got $20 to buy a product that will fix it. then i'll go over it with the wax and take a look. if it looks especially good i'll do the whole car. maybe... it's a LOT of work lol.

this is my first car, a 96 blazer in forest green that's oxydized into a lighter color. it was my fathers. i love it. it's mah babay. i would love for it to look as good as it can. please help guys.

thanks in advance.

Tyler.

[aiminglow]

Re: tiny swirls that won't go away, a friend who's cocky and a burnt spot!

Sorry to hear about that! First off, the burn through. Is the burn right through to the primer or deeper? If so, that's an area that needs a respray...

As far as the swirl marks, what I like to do is go by hand with either swirl-x, ultimate compound, or scratch x, depending on how stubborn the marks are. Of course, start from the least aggressive (Swirl) to most aggressive (compound). I go in straight lines, never in a swirling motion. The reason for this is when using a swirling motion, those marks have the capability of staying in the paint. But if you go in straight lines, alternating back and forth, side to side, and diagonal patterns, if any marks are left, they can typically only be seen in certain lighting.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: tiny swirls that won't go away, a friend who's cocky and a burnt spot!

Ouch.

Well, for starters, as aiminglow mentioned, the area your friend sanded through is only going to be fixed by repainting it. End of story.

As for the rest of the work that you've done to the vehicle, you've got some work ahead of you. What grit were these sanding blocks? With the buffer you have, even when using Ultimate Compound (heck, even if you'd used M105) you're going to be seriously challenged to remove your sanding marks. That job is usually best left to a high speed rotary buffer, a wool or foam cutting pad, and M105. To ask the low powered 10" orbital of yours to step up is asking a LOT. And the coarser the grit of the sanding media, the bigger the ask for that buffer. And we're talking anything coarser than 3000 grit is going to be a major challenge. And then there's the way in which you used the sanding media: if you used a circular pattern when sanding you're going to find it even more difficult to remove the marks due to the inconsistencies in them.

You will probably be able to do a better job removing the sanding marks by hand with Ultimate Compound than you will with that buffer, but understand that very aggressive hand application in a very small area can easily rub through the clear coat, too. We see that far too often.

Please understand that we don't mean to sound like we're beating you up over this; we figure you're doing enough of that to yourself right now. But you're 17 and young, and you were eager and enthusiastic about improving the appearance of your ride. We get that - and we've been there, done that. We've all done things that we wished we hadn't, but we learn from those experiences and keep moving forward. This could even be a funny story to tell your kids someday!

But back to trying to fix the existing issue. Skip the SwirlX here as it's just too mild. Stay with Ultimate Compound, but test a small area (about 1' x 1' only) by hand with a foam wax applicator pad. Use smallish overlapping circular motions, a fair bit of pressure, and work the product for a couple of minutes until it becomes very thin looking on the surface. Don't press down with your fingertips, though, or you'll create a pattern of "cheetah spots" in the paint due to the pressure points. Wipe off the residue before it dries and inspect the area very closely. Without seeing the paint up close it's hard to say whether the marks you're seeing are the remnants of sanding marks (which we highly suspect), marring left behind by whatever material you used on the buffer, or a combination of the two.

[flight567]

Re: tiny swirls that won't go away, a friend who's cocky and a burnt spot!

thanks, to both of you. i've really got no clue what grit the block was.. it said high grit finishing block (or something to that effect.) i'll try to figure it out. i'll do the square taped off thing on the hood. what do you guys know about the "applicator" handles? such as the ones sold at AutoZone. in the mean time however, i've waxed over the issue. is it a good idea to compound off the wax? or should i just wait until it fades? i've done two layers.... what would you guys recommend?