Help on technique or product

[HoweMan]

i have a 2004 tahoe, black. i feel like i've gone at this thing for a while and am not seeing any correction in the paint. i've pretty much only have worked on a couple of areas to try and get a good process down, and i'm not seeing the results. here is my process:

wash (2 bucket method)
dry w/ microfiber
clay w/ QD
this next step is where i have stalled. I have the DA power system. for this step, i am using the maroon pad w/ heavy pressure. i have used a couple different products at different times following the above process each time: Swirl X, Scratch X, and UC. None of which seem to remove swirls or scratches based on my current method. I run my corded power drill as fast as it goes, press down very hard and vary my speed on the passes (very slow to moderate). Here is a pic i snapped last night after using swirl x in this method on the hood:



it seems to me that I would be seeing better results based on the effort that i'm putting forth. does anyone know if the Tahoe has hard paint? I'm a newbie so I'm sure it's my technique more than anything. any thoughts?

[C8N]

Re: Help on technique or product

I cant comment on the hardness of your paint but are you priming your pad and how many section passes have you done?
If technique is not at fault, perhaps you may want to invest in a DA as depending on your drill, the DA power system will not have the same output as a regular DA.

[HoweMan]

Re: Help on technique or product

thanks for the reply, C8. i am not familiar w/ priming the pad so, no - i haven't done that. I will look into. what are you priming with, the product itself?

[C8N]

Re: Help on technique or product

Yes, you should prime the pad with the product.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/how-articles/35292-how-prime-foam-pad-when-using-da-polisher.html

[Detailing by M]

Re: Help on technique or product

keep working the area.
eventually you'll fix it, your just not working it long enough.
Your paint is pretty hard.

[HoweMan]

Re: Help on technique or product

ok, another round this past Saturday. results seem better. less swirls. still have scratches.

[HoweMan]

Re: Help on technique or product

[Detailing by M]

Re: Help on technique or product

ok, another round this past Saturday. results seem better. less swirls. still have scratches.

keep working the area.
eventually you'll fix it, your just not working it long enough.
Your paint is pretty hard.

When we detail we try to remove defects. Not all defects are the same depth.
So you removed the shalloww" scratches and now you can see the "deeper" scratches.
So your around 75%-80% of defect removal. This is fine.
The most we do is 95% correction unless we get paid good money to remove ALL of the defects.

So don't dry yourself crazy. As you keep polishing this over the next year you'll get more and more of those defects out.
Your truck looks great!
I think you excellentxcelent job.

[HoweMan]

Re: Help on technique or product

thanks a lot PWMD. I do think i had a breakthrough regarding my technique whereas having just started this I knew I was in for a learning curve. Plus I do need to level-set my expectations.

[C8N]

Re: Help on technique or product

Wow... that's a great reflection shot!

[HoweMan]

Re: Help on technique or product

thanks C8N! i think i'm gettin it!

[C8N]

Re: Help on technique or product

thanks C8N! i think i'm gettin it!

The results speaks for themselves and it looks great!
Now the difficult part is keeping it that way

[The Guz]

Re: Help on technique or product

The last photo speaks for itself. You did a great job. Looks like the DA power system delivers good results.

[HoweMan]

Re: Help on technique or product

thanks Guz, i was getting frustrated but did realize it was most likely the technique. I took me a while, I completed the hood and the tailgate (with full badge removal). i'm pretty happy with it now. now i just need another saturday to finish her up...