A question and a possible issue

[PeteH]

.........

[Chewy]

Hey all,

Yesterday I started a full paint correction on my 2007 Toyota Tacoma. I started with the tailgate and it came out perfect, other than a few swirls I failed to notice, it came out great. The hood and roof were very disappointing. I worked for hours on these panels but couldn't get rid of etched spots. I made pass after pass with a pc and shr but the spots remain. I just ordered an Adams green pad and some ssr and will give them another try later on this week. I wish I could post pics but I just wasn't able to get an angle where the camera could get a good, clear pic of the etching. It's there, clear as day, but I can't get them to show up with my cheap Cannon digi camera.

 

I was also wondering about how to polish textured stone guard paint? My truck has this textured paint on the bottom 1/3 of the door. Should I do this area by hand of can I still use my pc?

 

Thanks

 

A picture of the texture would be great, but if it's just if it's what I'm thinking it is; the pc should work great. Otherwise Revive will clean it up well.

 

As for the etching, I'd hit them with the focus pads or a rotary. Orange with SHR should do the trick. Take it slow and stop and look often if you've never used them before. You just need more cutting power. Just do the spots!! NOT the whole hood, and then finish with the PC.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using special algorithms and data nodes.

[RedexInLA]

A picture of the texture would be great, but if it's just if it's what I'm thinking it is; the pc should work great. Otherwise Revive will clean it up well.

 

As for the etching, I'd hit them with the focus pads or a rotary. Orange with SHR should do the trick. Take it slow and stop and look often if you've never used them before. You just need more cutting power. Just do the spots!! NOT the whole hood, and then finish with the PC.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using special algorithms and data nodes.

 

Not sure about using the PC on textured surface because I never used one before but used my rotary and had no problems.

[Team Adam's]

Pete,

 

can you go into more specifics about your process?

 

How much product are you using?

What speed are you working at?

How many passes did you make?

How much pressure are you using?

Are you seeing any improvement after each pass?

 

Keep in mind, if etching is severe enough the PC may not be capable of removing it in a reasonable amount of time. I've seen etching severe enough to require wet-sanding on more than one occasion.

[MAYBEN]

sub'd

[Chris@Adams]

How deep are the etchings? I have seen them so deep that you couldn't get them completely out!

[PeteH]

........

[Chewy]

I will get a pic of the texture tonight.

As for the etching, the spots completely cover the entire hood and roof. Looks like water beading that had something in it and was allowed to dry on?

The etching forms almost perfect rows that cover all the flat areas of the truck,

 

 

 

 

I'm still very new at this so I am confident that my technique is lacking. I did break the hood and roof down into 2x2 sections and worked them. I started with a mist of ds and a small "x" of product on the pad and worked it until it appeared to be broken. The truck is a light silver color and telling when the product breaks down is still difficult for me. I worked it until I thought it was broken, hit with some ds, then worked again. Wiping off with a mf towel after

As for pc speed, I apply the product to the pad, daub it in, then spread it around my work area with the speed on 3. Once I get the product applied the speed goes to 5 and I work the area in a side to side then up and down fashion like Junkman describes. Pressure was enough to hear the machine change pitch but not so much that the rotary action stops. As for the number of passes, I made a ton. I literally spent all day sat working on just the hood and roof and overall I did see a great deal of improvement. The paint is very shiny and free of swirls but is loaded with prefectly aligned rows of etching

 

WOW that's bad... Pictures would help, but it sounds pretty bad. I've only had a few spots here and there.

 

Personally, I've done both AJ's method and then the method that Dylan and Adam use and prefer the faster method. AJ calls it slow cut for a reason... SHR and an orange pad, crank it to six, put pretty good pressure on it, but make sure the pad's still spinning rotationally (mark it with a marks-a lot) and have at it. After SHR and if the paint looks good but a little "fuzzy" or not quite 100% shiny, grab your white pad and FMP and set the PC to 5 and repeat. SSHR and a green pad may be necessary if the etching is that bad.

 

Let's see what Dylan has to say. (we have to wait till he wakes up)

[PeteH]

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[Team Adam's]

OK Pete, heres a couple of notes -

 

On the etching, if you're noticing the swirls are gone, but the etching remains then you are removing clear coat enough to correct the swirl marks, but not enough to remove the etching. This means the etching is possibly more severe than can be reasonably removed by the products/technique you're using. You may need to step up to the SSR and Green Pad or even take it further and go to something like the flex, and even further wetsand to remedy the problem.

 

Still, pictures of the specific issue would help a great deal.

 

Now on the textured rocker panel areas, that something thats going to be difficult to polish out. The pad won't be able to make positive contact for any worthwhile time on the low sections. In an area like that you may just want to take a few drops of polish on a towel and rub it out by hand.

 

Anything on a surface like that won't be really effectively polished by the machine simply b/c its going to tend to skip along on the raised surface... the pressure you'd put down would impact the high points, but not the lows.

[PeteH]

.......

[Team Adam's]

if your camera has it, set it to 'macro' turn your flash on, and fire a shot off directly into the panel you're having the issues with.

[Chobbs]

This has been interesting and the op has done a great job of describing the issue IMHO. And although I am a newbe, I believe the hard water spots have etched their way very deep into the clear coat. I am curious, though, how does one tell if etching has made it all the way down to the paint or when should one stop trying to correct the problem and concede that anew paint job is in order? Are there tell tale signs of this?

[Junkman2008]

... I am curious, though, how does one tell if etching has made it all the way down to the paint or when should one stop trying to correct the problem and concede that anew paint job is in order? Are there tell tale signs of this?

 

Not without using a paint thickness gauge and some sandpaper, or a more aggressive removal method like a rotary and some seriously aggressive compound. Finding this out requires a skill level that a novice is not remotely going to possess.

 

Here's a before and after shot of a demo car I did this weekend. The damage was beyond perfection but as you can see, I removed everything but the paint chips, including the etching. This was not and did not come out with just a PC and Adam's polishes alone. I had to use Adam's polishes, along with 1000-3000 grit sandpapers and a Bosch rotary to get the paint looking as it does in the second picture. That is NOT by and stretch of the imagination something that a novice should try.

 

 

[Chobbs]

Wow! That is quite a difference! I really hope my paint never looks that bad! You are very skilled!