Imperfections Help

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Imperfections Help

The deeper, isolated scratches can be very frustrating to remove by hand, no doubt about it. Now that you've picked up a proper DA you're going to find that this process is a whole lot faster and easier. You will be able to put much more consistent energy into the paint than working by hand, so we highly recommend staying with the yellow foam polishing pad and Ultimate Compound for the entire car. This should easily remove any of the light to mild defects in the paint, and most likely take out the deeper ones you were struggling with by hand. It may need two passes, or maybe just one longish pass, but the odds of doing any real damage to the clear coat are slim to none (and that's even if you try to mess it up!). Usually when people make mistakes the DA buffer they do things like not keeping the pad flat against the paint, moving the buffer too fast over the paint, working too large an area, not using enough pressure, or running the tool at too slow of speed setting. Start to do two more of these errors at once and your results do downhill really fast. You do zero damage by making these mistakes, but you also don't make any real progress.


If you haven't already, do yourself a favor and read through D/A Buffing 101 - An Introduction to the G110v2 and similar tools before you get started with the DA.

[futekisenshi]

Re: Imperfections Help

Ok. Thanks. That's what I was thinking with the fix them once, then won't need to for a long long while, and then at that point, can probably use something a lot less aggressive as well.

[futekisenshi]

Re: Imperfections Help

Yes, it makes things easier.

Anything a da does can be done by hand, but will be difficult to be as uniform and consistent, and as quick.

Some scratches may be too deep to remove of course, so want to keep that in mind.

After doing a whole car, would you say that most cars usually have a couple scratches/swirl marks here and there remaining?

[futekisenshi]

Re: Imperfections Help

I don't know if it's already been mentioned, while it's OK to use different products such as Scratch-X and UC, you still want to avoid cross contaminating your applicator pads (if by hand) or your polishing pads if you're using a machine polisher. Don't use the same pad when switching up products. It's not the end of the world if you've already done it, just something to keep in mind for the future.

Luckily I haven't mixed them up. I didn't read it anywhere but thought it would be best to be safe than sorry, so I switched it out after ever product.

[futekisenshi]

Re: Imperfections Help

The deeper, isolated scratches can be very frustrating to remove by hand, no doubt about it. Now that you've picked up a proper DA you're going to find that this process is a whole lot faster and easier. You will be able to put much more consistent energy into the paint than working by hand, so we highly recommend staying with the yellow foam polishing pad and Ultimate Compound for the entire car. This should easily remove any of the light to mild defects in the paint, and most likely take out the deeper ones you were struggling with by hand. It may need two passes, or maybe just one longish pass, but the odds of doing any real damage to the clear coat are slim to none (and that's even if you try to mess it up!). Usually when people make mistakes the DA buffer they do things like not keeping the pad flat against the paint, moving the buffer too fast over the paint, working too large an area, not using enough pressure, or running the tool at too slow of speed setting. Start to do two more of these errors at once and your results do downhill really fast. You do zero damage by making these mistakes, but you also don't make any real progress.


If you haven't already, do yourself a favor and read through D/A Buffing 101 - An Introduction to the G110v2 and similar tools before you get started with the DA.

Thanks for the tips and for the link to your awesome write up! From reading the write up, it didn't mention too much when to use the compound pad(burgundy). I was originally planning on using them when I used the UC on the whole car, the write up said to use the yellow pads. When should I use the burgundy pad? Thanks!

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Imperfections Help

Thanks for the tips and for the link to your awesome write up! From reading the write up, it didn't mention too much when to use the compound pad(burgundy). I was originally planning on using them when I used the UC on the whole car, the write up said to use the yellow pads. When should I use the burgundy pad? Thanks!

We caution against the use of the burgundy pad on a DA because it's so aggressive that the chances of hazing the paint is quite high. This doesn't mean you should never use it, just that for the most part it's really not the best choice. You might use it in a situation where you have a really nasty isolated issue, like a deep etching from a bird dropping, where you need a bit more punch to remove it. In a case like that you would just go back over it with a yellow pad and Ultimate Compound to remove any hazing that might occur.

If, on the other hand, UC and a yellow pad simply are not potent enough to remove swirls from your paint (primarily due to extremely hard paint) then instead of using the burgundy pad on a DA you're going to be better off stepping up to the DA Microfiber Correction System.

[s word]

Re: Imperfections Help

We caution against the use of the burgundy pad on a DA because it's so aggressive that the chances of hazing the paint is quite high. This doesn't mean you should never use it, just that for the most part it's really not the best choice. You might use it in a situation where you have a really nasty isolated issue, like a deep etching from a bird dropping, where you need a bit more punch to remove it. In a case like that you would just go back over it with a yellow pad and Ultimate Compound to remove any hazing that might occur.

If, on the other hand, UC and a yellow pad simply are not potent enough to remove swirls from your paint (primarily due to extremely hard paint) then instead of using the burgundy pad on a DA you're going to be better off stepping up to the DA Microfiber Correction System.

DAMF (DA Microfiber Correction System) is the way to go on hard paint.
I made little to no progress on my car with pads due to hard paint. Jumped to DAMF for instant results.

Next level action when combine with Rupes 21 and 6" finishing Disc.