Help, getting very frustrated!

[Zman12]

I am working on my black 2010 camaro. I have been polishing for about 6 hours already and still not happy with a small sample area.

 

I first did one fender all the way through that was about

 

4 passes sshr

2 passes shr

2 passes fmp

This was all on 4" focus pad mainly on pc. I did try drill for a little while to work on one scratch.

I still wasn't perfectly happy with the fender, but just thought maybe that was the best I could get, I know it's black.

 

So I moved to the hood and front bumber, in some places I have went 4 or more passes with SSHR with big pad on PC. I still see long scratches that I just can't seem to get out I understand I will have small swirls when using the sshr but these are still somewhat big.

 

So I guess my question is when do I give up? At this rate just polishing is going to take me 40 plus hours.

How many passes would be considered normal for SSHR?

Am I expecting to much for black. I really was hoping for perfection.

 

Do I need to try and go pack to the 4" pad?

 

I have tried speed 5 and 6 doesn't seem to matter :help:

 

I didn't really think my car was this bad? It only has 6k on it. It's not like it leads a hard life.

[BlueGenCoupe]

I agree I need practice but I feel I have watched the videos a lot and am trying to do my best to follow instructions. I do think I gave up on my test patch a little quick. However once I saw how many hours it was going to take I wanted to get started and at least get the car back to where I could take it to a show and drive again.

 

I think the car looks a lot better just not perfect, my family would say I am crazy picky. But aren't we all. Like I say the hood and bumpers are the the main things that in my eyes are far from perfect. But I know since the hood has been painted on to add the stripes and reclear it may be a little different. Also since I think that paint maybe harder that was probably not a great place to start working on to figure out process for rest of car.

 

Zman, watching the videos will give you a good idea on how to use the products. Polish you ride a few times and i'll guarantee after every detail your technique will get better.

 

Just remember to take your time.

[Zman12]

Welcome to the heat!

 

If you get bored Mike, and Mike, and me could probably find something for you to polish!

 

Yeah the humidity is a little worse than kansas but the crowds are crazy at animal kingdom today. Makes me like my office job a lot more.

[BlueGenCoupe]

The reason your not getting perfection is because of your technique. You should have taped off a 2' x 2' area and perfected that before continuing on to the rest of the car. Remember, the PC is not a rotary or Flex, you must move the machine slowly and apply enough pressure.

[Zman12]

That is a ton of passes... How much pressure were you applying when working the polish? How much product were you using? And finally how slow were you moving the polisher? Also, could you post some pictures of the effected areas you were working on?

 

When I was doing my test area I was applying a good amount of pressure. I have watched all of the Adams and Junkmans vids and feel as I am trying to mimic the pressure and I think I am going very slow.

 

I sometimes am not sure if I can tell if the polish is flashing so I keep working until it just looks a little greasy. I may have been using a little to much product. When I would hit the pad with a squirt of DS I wasn't bringing much polish back. But then once I hit it with 2 squirts and a lot of product appeared. So I did that a lot on the rest of the car. The bumpers I feel is very hard to get pressure on them to correct.

 

I think if I really understood how many passes with each product a section could take to correct I would feel better. But I stopped trying to perfect the test area which was the hood and some of the fender, because I was afraid with so many passes I was gonna rub the clear off.

 

I think I may just have to enjoy it the rest of the summer and then this winter take my time and do a panel at a time until perfect, if there is such a thing.

 

I just am really considering trying to return the Pc and step up to the flex. I understand they do the same thing, I just can't see each panel taking 10 plus hours for perfection. So I keep reading how much faster the flex is. Not sure what to do.

[Zman12]

The reason your not getting perfection is because of your technique. You should have taped off a 2' x 2' area and perfected that before continuing on to the rest of the car. Remember, the PC is not a rotary or Flex, you must move the machine slowly and apply enough pressure.

 

I agree I need practice but I feel I have watched the videos a lot and am trying to do my best to follow instructions. I do think I gave up on my test patch a little quick. However once I saw how many hours it was going to take I wanted to get started and at least get the car back to where I could take it to a show and drive again.

 

I think the car looks a lot better just not perfect, my family would say I am crazy picky. But aren't we all. Like I say the hood and bumpers are the the main things that in my eyes are far from perfect. But I know since the hood has been painted on to add the stripes and reclear it may be a little different. Also since I think that paint maybe harder that was probably not a great place to start working on to figure out process for rest of car.

[Zman12]

After just reading this post from Adam himself. I think I would like to exchange the PC for the flex. I wish I had seen this post before I purchased the PC. I think this fits what I am dealing with correctly.

 

"Adrian, good memory, and YES, I would start with the Flex, especially if you have a dark vehicle, or plan to detail more than one vehicle twice/ year.

 

The Flex is not going to cause damage, and getting comfortable with the machine on a learner vehicle is advisable with either machine. (Rental car, mini-van, old cruddy vehicle, etc.)

 

The PC simply will not make dark paint perfect, and the Flex will, with less vibration. I suggest the PC on silver, white, or light colored vehicles, and ones that are rarely polished. The Flex brings the finish to perfect quickly, easily, and doesn't vibrate!

 

So, my advice: If you are a perfectionist, and want a perfect finish on a dark vehicle, skip the PC, and roll with the Flex"

[Ron Meadows]

Please let me know if you're able to do this....I know another PC that will be on a nice ride back to the Adams plant......I was one of the ones that PM'ed you to try something more aggressive since I had a similar experience with the PC and SSHR....the swirls/scratches on my wifes Burgandy Suburban just laughed at it!! I switched over to Mequiars 105/205 and with a single section pass of each I was able to achieve a near flawless finish and this is on a 2006 model that is a daily driver. So either Adams products require the Flex or a lot more patience and time than I have to achieve the results I was after.

[BRZN]

Pictures of the car look nice.

 

A couple/few things:

My DD Dodge Magnum had the passenger side front door skin replaced and the paint was blended into the front fender and rear door on that side then cleared over top. I can see sanding marks in the rear door that will not polish out they are under the clear. You may have the same issue on the hood.

 

I own both the PC and Flex as well as a high speed rotary. All have their place and time in detailing and I wouldn't give up any of them. Go ahead and get a Flex, but keep the PC. I usually keep the 4" backing plate on the pc to work tight areas and use the Flex for the larger places.

 

40 hours to bring a black car to perfection? That'd be nice. I've easily got over 150 hours into my Brazen Orange Metallic GTO to be at 99% perfect. I actually began with the high speed rotary and wool pads on the car with around 1,300 miles on it. At this point I'll probably not need any more than a pass or two with the PC/White Pad/FMP combo to keep her at this level.

[Zman12]

Pictures of the car look nice.

 

A couple/few things:

My DD Dodge Magnum had the passenger side front door skin replaced and the paint was blended into the front fender and rear door on that side then cleared over top. I can see sanding marks in the rear door that will not polish out they are under the clear. You may have the same issue on the hood.

 

I own both the PC and Flex as well as a high speed rotary. All have their place and time in detailing and I wouldn't give up any of them. Go ahead and get a Flex, but keep the PC. I usually keep the 4" backing plate on the pc to work tight areas and use the Flex for the larger places.

 

40 hours to bring a black car to perfection? That'd be nice. I've easily got over 150 hours into my Brazen Orange Metallic GTO to be at 99% perfect. I actually began with the high speed rotary and wool pads on the car with around 1,300 miles on it. At this point I'll probably not need any more than a pass or two with the PC/White Pad/FMP combo to keep her at this level.

 

I wish I had the money to have both the flex and pc right now, if this was my career than I would. But I can't see having two machines just to maintain a couple of cars. But I am determined to get my car as close to perfect as possible.

[mc2hill]

In Disney world for the next 10 days without camaro. I will try and get some pics when I get back.

 

Welcome to the heat!

 

If you get bored Mike, and Mike, and me could probably find something for you to polish!

[Court M3]

great turnout! Black is a very difficult color to correct.

[Fit08]

Just remember to take your time.

 

This can be a tough one for me at times especially if your day is less then stellar.

 

I suppose it also depends on how anal you want to be, in which case for most of us is quite abit.

[sizzflair]

I am having the same problem on my lotus. I purchased the vehicle from an owner who didn't have a damn garage.... *face palm* It needed so much correction that I went to Adam's Detail and purchased over $800 worth of product.

 

I found a porter cable laying around at home so I went over it 3 times with each polish (sshr, shr, and fmp). Mine still has a lot of scratches (not too deep since I couldn't feel it on my finger nails) and I watched the videos over and over to make sure my technique was correct. The car does look a lot shinier and looks great until I put the light on it and still see some of the scratches left.

 

I think the first half of the car I was applying too much stuff, so I cut it down to one or two pea sized drops. It seemed to work a little better, but scratches would not disappear. I used 3 to spread it and 6 for the polishing.

 

One thing that I have a question is that the white pad seemed to be "shedding" bits and pieces like dust. Maybe it's the polish dusting, but when I looked at it closely it kind of looked like bits and pieces of foam lol. Is this normal?

 

I might try to wash the pads off and go over it again very slowly with a ton of pressure... or might just pick up a flex.

 

 

Edit: Just bought a flex lol

[sizzflair]

I figured out the white pad problem.... upon inspection, the pad was torn around the velcro. It's weird since the other 2 pads are fine and I used the same techniques for all three pads. Maybe I got a defect?

[bhildebrandt]

I figured out the white pad problem.... upon inspection, the pad was torn around the velcro. It's weird since the other 2 pads are fine and I used the same techniques for all three pads. Maybe I got a defect?

 

The same thing happened to me with only one of my pads (the white one) and a very nice local dealer happened to replace it for free for me. Maybe someone can help you out.

[sizzflair]

The same thing happened to me with only one of my pads (the white one) and a very nice local dealer happened to replace it for free for me. Maybe someone can help you out.

 

Thanks for the heads up.

 

 

Adam??? haha I just happened to order 4" focus pad kit and extra sets of towels too

[Ron Meadows]

My green one disintegrated the first time that I used it. Contacted Lynn on the live chat and was informed that it was user error....the other pads didn't have a problem. I just considered it a lesson learned and moved on.

 

The same thing happened to me with only one of my pads (the white one) and a very nice local dealer happened to replace it for free for me. Maybe someone can help you out.

[Tim]

My green one disintegrated the first time that I used it. Contacted Lynn on the live chat and was informed that it was user error....the other pads didn't have a problem. I just considered it a lesson learned and moved on.

 

Did the exact same thing. Shredded a green one on my first attempt. Learned a lot though!

[mc2hill]

I have only worked on one black Camaro, a demo car at Camaro Fest. It was swirled up and we were able to correct it with a pass of SHR on the Flex, following up with FMP. We could have done it with 2 passes of SHR on the PC, but we had to finish it up before the end of the show.

 

Now when we're talking about passes does that mean with more product or do we just mean how many times we go over what we are correcting

 

Great question, I count passes each time I add product, or refresh with detail spray.

 

Oops, sorry for the confusion!

 

I meant a section pass (when the polish flashes) for the # of times

 

 

Our problem was it was very hot and we were working in direct sun, so it was flashing very quickly (only 2-3 passes before it flashed) so it was taking longer than usual.

 

For this part I talking about a polisher pass (side-to-side, up-and-down, side-to-side, etc.).

[mc2hill]

I would not expect a car that new to need so much correction. I would have guessed a pass or two of SHR, then a pass of FMP to finish it.

 

I have only worked on one black Camaro, a demo car at Camaro Fest. It was swirled up and we were able to correct it with a pass of SHR on the Flex, following up with FMP. We could have done it with 2 passes of SHR on the PC, but we had to finish it up before the end of the show. Our problem was it was very hot and we were working in direct sun, so it was flashing very quickly (only 2-3 passes before it flashed) so it was taking longer than usual.

 

Lots of Camaro folks on here, so hopefully one of them will chime in.

[Theis]

Now when we're talking about passes does that mean with more product or do we just mean how many times we go over what we are correcting

[Zman12]

Now when we're talking about passes does that mean with more product or do we just mean how many times we go over what we are correcting

 

Great question, I count passes each time I add product, or refresh with detail spray.

 

At this point I guess I am just gonna skip sshr and go 2 passes shr on the, it seems to get rid of swirls but not so much scratches. I am disappointed but it is with my technique or patience or both. I just can't imagine my car needing 10 or more passes total with everything. I guess it will look great from 5 ft away.

[Fit08]

it seems to get rid of swirls but not so much scratches. I am disappointed but it is with my technique or patience or both.

 

 

Now, swirls and scratches are two different issues. How deep are the sratches, may need wet sanding ( don't try this a home boys and girls, unless you have much experience)

 

If your picking up the scratches with your finger nail you may have to accept them as is. OR wet sand.

 

Swirls, sounds like your on your way on these be patience black is very tough to get perfect if ever!

[the1inblue]

Yea I have the same issue too but I think I found my problem. I think im using to much polish. Try using a little less polish. Trust me if anyone knows your pain it's me lol. Goodluck!

 

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[camaro2ssblack]

The bumpers will be nearly impossible to correct with a PC, they are very tough to get any pressure on. The rest should come out really nice with good technique.