Buffer swirl and Ultimate compund

[2010fusion]

Re: Buffer swirl and Ultimate compund

My spell check on my phone makes my English look awful. I don't think the guy that put the real bad swirls in his black car was working with a smooth surface. Looks like he made it worse. My surface is as smooth as glass minus the swirls.

[davey g-force]

Re: Buffer swirl and Ultimate compund

You'll be fine mate. Sounds like you've got basic knowledge and common sense.
Go ahead and polish that baby out by hand and be sure to let us know how it goes!

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Buffer swirl and Ultimate compund

Well, having just watched these videos, I have to question the technique displayed, particularly with the second Ultimate Compound video: (1) the PC is set for speed 4 but I would think that speed 5 would be more productive; (2) the man polishing does not appear to be applying any pressure; he is simply allowing the machine to glide over the surface; (3) he is moving the polisher too fast; (4) he needs to work a smaller space.

I know I'm a detailing dunce but those are my observations.

That video was done by our Asian distributor. Sometimes our distributors take some liberties with how things are done, sometimes because of regional techniques developed from years of doing things a certain way, etc. While we would not recommend the exact method shown in that video to someone just getting started, it is a bit difficult to argue with the results. The level of clarity in the paint on both cars was hugely improved by both products, and the horrific holograms in the UC video were totally eliminated. How easily the paint corrects has a lot to do with this too. Very hard paint is just flat out going to need more dwell time with the pad and liquid, meaning very slow passes, and probably more pressure as well. Very soft paint that is easy to correct gives you a lot more leeway in terms of speed, pressure and size of work area (half the hood is stretching it a bit, but again we point to the final result).

I'm new to using a DA, but I noticed this also. Not only did he appear to be moving the machine to fast, but initially the product was not spread quickly around his working area at a slow machine speed. I like to spread it around quickly using a speed of 2 or 3 before speeding up the machine and slowing the motion way down.

While it is a good idea to initially the product over your work area, that's maybe a bit less critical when using SMAT liquids like UC and SwirlX. Still, we'd rather see you stick with your "best practices" approach and spread the product out a bit first.

I have to tell you, polishing out an entire car by hand is hard, time-consuming work. There are good reasons why most of us amateur detailers have broken down and purchased a dual action polisher. If your heart is really set on this, may I suggest that you divide the work over a period of days or weeks, working one panel at a time. And check out the various articles and threads in the Hand Polishing forum. Hand polishing is more than just the application of elbow grease. If done improperly, it can create quite the mess (see, e.g., this disaster). Warning to the wise.

That "disaster" thread involved a guy who very aggressively used UC on what turned out to be extremely delicate paint on that particular Honda. We've seen this first hand in the garage during TNOGs and it prompted us to write the article on dealing with delicate paint. It is unfortunate that the OP of that thread didn't come back with a final resolution. As bad as his picture looked, the situation was actually very easy to correct, just as we did on the similar car used in the article on delicate paint. All it took was a more uniform distribution of pressure while applying a much less aggressive product. UC was just total overkill for these incredibly soft paints found on some Hondas - SwirlX did a far better job in that it removed all the swirls and left a high level of clarity to the paint. We very much doubt that the paint on your Fusion is even close to being this soft, but we still strongly urge that you do a test spot with SwirlX first - as shown in that thread - to get an idea of just what you're dealing with.

You'll be fine mate. Sounds like you've got basic knowledge and common sense.
Go ahead and polish that baby out by hand and be sure to let us know how it goes!

Agreed. It sure sounds like 2010fusion has a good bit of experience, not to mention the physical ability to do this job via hand work. We think it's just more a case of "I've got a brand spanking new black car that's been a bit compromised once already and I just don't want to make it any worse". We understand that trepidation. But we also have confidence that you can take this on and end up with the shiniest Fusion in town. Black or otherwise.

[2010fusion]

Re: Buffer swirl and Ultimate compund

Thanks Michael. Does anyone make a product for using foam pads or any other type of pad that helps evenly distribute the weight as you apply by hand? I usually held onto the foam pad with my 4 fingers across the top creating a wide and not focused on putting pressure just on my fingertips.

[2010fusion]

Re: Buffer swirl and Ultimate compund

Just washed and dried the Fusion. I used a test spot and made two applications. The swirls are gone in the two test spots, but I think I am going to wait on the Meguiars DA to do the rest of the job. I purchased one early yesterday from Amazon so I should have it sometime this week and have everything done and waxed by next week. Pics to come.

[davey g-force]

Re: Buffer swirl and Ultimate compund

Welcome to the DA users family!

Can't wait to see some after pics...

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Buffer swirl and Ultimate compund

Thanks Michael. Does anyone make a product for using foam pads or any other type of pad that helps evenly distribute the weight as you apply by hand? I usually held onto the foam pad with my 4 fingers across the top creating a wide and not focused on putting pressure just on my fingertips.

Actually, we make such a product. Our S3HP works great with our 4" Soft Buff 2.0 pads. The S6HP works equally well with our 7" Soft Buff pads too.

The image below is from The Challenge of Delicate Paint and using the S3HP with the 4" pads made quite a difference on that particular car.

[davey g-force]

Re: Buffer swirl and Ultimate compund

^^ I can't see your above picture for some reason Mike.