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Swirl marks after polishing?


Sixx
12-26-2008, 10:19 AM
I'm in somewhat baffled by a recent experience with polishing. I'd like to think I had the whole polishing concept down, I've done it numerous times with several different mediums.

Here are the players:

Hiroboys Finishing Compounds; Coarse, Medium & Fine

Tamiyas: Coarse, Medium & Fine

3M polishing compound

Novus: Step 1, 2 & 3

Tamiya Wax

Carnuba Wax

Micro fiber cloths


The car has been sprayed a urethane base coat, topped with a urethane clear coat that's had micro flake added to it. Dried, wet-sanded, dried and cleared with Dupont Clear. Everything was going well up until this point. The car was very smooth but I wanted to level out any high spots so I did as usual as began with Hiroboys Coarse compound, then subsequent polishes after that.
When it left faint swirl marks and hazing, I used Tamiyas compounds which too me at less gritty, still swirl marks and hazing.

I waxed her up with Tamiya wax, still hazy with less obvious swirl marks.

I followed that with 3M, then the Novus polishing system......same results

A final coat of Carnuba wax and still the same results..........
The car is smooth and shiny, but there are a few swirl marks and very faint hazing upon very careful inspection.

Due to the final clear not really needing much as far as smoothness is concerned, I'm wondering if I should have skipped the coarse compound for something more mild. I have been very happy with the results using Hasegawas ceramic compound also.

Any suggestions on what might have happened? and a possible answer to how to buff out the final faint swirl marks?

robrex
12-26-2008, 04:00 PM
I've had mixed results with the 2K clear as well after polishing. I think it's because 2 pack paints need to be polished within a certain time period or they get too hard therefore leaving small scratches that, as you have found, are almost impossible to remove. I'd be interested to hear others opinions though.

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