Test area outcome with Meguiars products

[hankdog101]

Got my new polisher and did some test areas on the car. It's a black mustang. I have some minor swirls and spider webbing, nothing to bad but seen in the sun drives me nuts. I used a clay bar on the area first then used the Swirl X with a Porter Cable 7424XP with a Orange pad, followed by the Deep crystal polish with a white pad and gold class liquid wax with a gray pad. Used about 5-6 passes with each. The Swirl X took out the swirls in the paint but I noticed it left behind very small swirls. After all the steps above I took the car out in the sun and I can see these very small swirls. I tried to take pictures of them but they won't show up on camera. You have to get kind of close to the paint to see them but I feel like it's holding the high gloss look back. Seems like I took out the main swirls marks but added these smaller one. Any idea ?

[gmitch23]

Re: Test area outcome with Meguiars products

Try putting a piece of clay next to the swirl and take the picture. The clay will give the camera something to focus on.

[Murr1525]

Re: Test area outcome with Meguiars products

Yeah, would be called 'marring'.

You may have used a pad that was too strong, would haeve to have someone familiar with your pads comment on it.

Or you may need a milder cleaning step after SwirlX, before waxing.

It seems like the marring was after the SwirlX, and not added at all from the polishing/waxing steps?

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Test area outcome with Meguiars products

SwirlX is pretty mild stuff, but the LC orange cutting pad is fairly aggressive. It may well be that the micromarring you're seeing was brought about by the pad. Now, that's not to slam the pad, it's just that such an aggressive pad may be a poor match for this particular paint.

Try using a less aggressive pad with the SwirlX - either the white or gray - and see where that gets you.

Now, it may well be that SwirlX/White pad isn't an aggressive enough combo to remove all the swirls you want to remove. In that case, step up to a more aggressive liquid, like Ultimate Compound, but stay with the white pad. The white LC pad is very similar to our yellow W8207 in overall cutting ability and that combo (UC/W8207) can remove a heck of a lot of defects from all kinds of paint systems. We use it all the time in our Saturday classes with great results across the board.

[2011Murano]

Re: Test area outcome with Meguiars products

Gentlemen,

In my search through the forum to find something that reflects what I encountered, I think this is it.
Last night I, washed, clayed, then used the Meg's DA with yellow Soft Buff 2.0 pad and SwirlX . I did a test spot with a speed setting of 3 -4 . All looked good. I then moved on to my next section, as I was making passes with the DA , I spotted little mini swirls. I stopped to inspect and I definately was putting those swirls into the paint. They were small and tight swirls, think of a spring inside a ink pen and spread it out a bit. This was upsetting of course ,I have never seen this before. I am relatively new to DA polishing, and was unsure what to do, but wanted to get this resolved. I decided to change to a new pad ( same yellow) and increase the speed to 5 and made many passes to remove these new swirls. That seems to have corrected it for me. My question would be , is this what you refer to as micro-marring ? I suspected some dirt or contaminat was trapped in the pad ? Or is this something that can be caused just by lack of technique ? I don't claim to have a lot of experience with the DA, but have not encountered this before. My paint is a 2011 Nissan superblack, the car is 3 months new to me , but factory painted who knows when, maybe up to a year ago. I am glad I could resolve the issue , but would love to hear a proffessionals take on the situation, and ways to avoid it , if , infact it was more likely technique rather than a contamination related problem.

Thanks

[davey g-force]

Re: Test area outcome with Meguiars products

What you've described sounds like "pigtails", which are caused by dirt or contaminants on the pad.

Changing to a new pad was a good idea and fixed it for you because it must have been clean.

[2011Murano]

Re: Test area outcome with Meguiars products

Thanks for the feedback. Maybe I was just unlucky, I will be on the look out for these as I proceed. Is this something you run into often, I don't know how I could have prevented it.

[davey g-force]

Re: Test area outcome with Meguiars products

You probably were just unlucky.

Try to keep your pads as clean as possible at all times. Store them in a clean environment, preferably in their own zip-lock bags. Don't let the pads come into contact with the ground or anything else dirty / dusty.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Test area outcome with Meguiars products

If the defect in question was an isolated situation, meaning just one or two of these little curly-cue looking things (pigtails, technically) that stretched for even several inches, then that is definitely down to something getting trapped on/in the pad.

Sometimes, however, you can see a widespread grouping of fine "tick marks" that are also curved in shape, but not like a stretched out spring. These are fairly common on very delicate paint when using even moderately aggressive liquids or pads. It's also known as "DA haze" and is partly a function of the movement of the DA and the sensitivity of that particular paint.

From the sounds of it, though, it sure seems like you had a pigtail situation. Keeping foam pads clean while buffing is very important so as to minimize this, and keeping the DA Microfiber System pads clean is even more critical due to the nature of microfiber. It likes to hang on to stuff.

[2011Murano]

Re: Test area outcome with Meguiars products

Thank for the additional information Michael, once davey gforce gave the name "pigtail" on his post , I was able to search the forum for pigtail pictures.
Previous to that I did not know if it had a name . There is a post on the forum where someone with a corvette posted pictures of little small "c" swirls. I also found many other posts that had pictures that identified exactly what I encountered. That made it clear.
So , thanks to everyone , I will say they are pigtails and little c's, unfortunately lots of them . They were definitely caused by the pad.
Since I did not know any better and changing pads, increasing the speed with the same SwirlX product allowed me to remove most if not all it. I have to believe it was something contaminated on the pad.
Considering this, is it possible to get this same effect from my technique ? because now that I see many posts about pigtails, it does seem more common. Can this happen without contamination? With my black car , I have a hard time determining whether the product has started to dry , could I have worked the area a little to long ?
Sorry to drag this out , Thanks for all the help, I have not worked on a newer paint or black before, mostly older cars for friends and family, I don't do this for a living, just a hobby I enjoy ,but all my equipment is new and clean and have had good results until this happened.
I appreciate all the resources here !