Looking for Polishing advice.

i was reading through some threads for polishing. i wanted to know how i can determine what type of clear coat a vehicle has so i start with the correct foam and compound combo. also how do you determine the correct speed for the different types of compounds.

i have some menzerna products, a bunch of LC foam pads, and flex 3401 and porter cable 7424.

Heavy cutting=what speed

medum cutting=what speed

polish=what speed

glaze=what speed.

i do not know if someone has asked this already and i did not see it so i wanted to ask. thanks

 

You mean in terms of hard vs. soft?

 

Yes, i assume the bmw, benz, and other European cars have hard clear coats, right.

 

No, clear coat hardness can vary by the color. BMW jet black is a PITA to work on because it's relatively soft, and then the BMW white is hard as a rock.

This in on a rotary: I always start at about 1500 rpms, stay there for the main duration, then go down to 1200, then 900 for most polishes. For finishing polishes, I use lower speeds more than the higher speed.

 

Experience. And even then the car could have been repainted. So you need to be able to spot those. And there are differences between years, colors, etc. Chances are, if the clear on a car is super soft, or extremely hard you will read about it on one of the forums.

 

Not necessarily. Sometimes even the same car model and year will have different hardness. I have a GTI MKV with a hard clear, friend of mine has a GTI as well and his seems to be a bit softer clear than mine. Point of painting makes a difference. So you generally can not say brand X has hard and brand Y has soft.

 

ok i am starting to understand now.


i need more information.

 

See "Hard and Soft Paints" detailing school section

 

I hope there is a simplier way or devices that could determine the hardness of clearcoat. For me, i need to look at the defects then base on pass experience to select the first polish/pad combo. After polishing, examine the result with different lighting and by looking at what you left behind or achieved, you could have an estimation of the clearcoat hardness and reflect on your polishing technique. However, it is easy said than done, you would need lots of experience and practise to get it right fast since every car is unique.