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.

[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!

 

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

[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.

[Zman12]

Thanks for the encouragement! Everyday I curse o why did I have to find a black car with a whipple dirt cheap. I would have taken green, yellow, red, silver! After my 98 black cobra I swore never black again, I can't believe I forgot how bad it truly is.

 

It will look good when I am done but it won't be perfect:(

[lawson4450]

Do yourself a favor if you can video what your doing and post it up then we can see exactly how your technique and also maybe some pics of what your going over that would be very helpful for us to help you.

[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.).

[Zman12]

Well I finally finshed last week. It is not perfect and I am really second guessing my purchase of the PC, thinking I should have went flex. I have also received a few messages telling me I will need something more aggressive than SSHR to deal with some of this.

 

Maybe I can send PC back and purchase a flex since I am not satisfied. I just dont know what to do. But It looks alot better, most everything turned out pretty good except hood, and bumpers.

 

Now one thing about the hood is that when they previous owner added the green accents they were painted and the hood was recleared so I am thinking maybe the hood has a much harder clear coat and that is some of the problem. Also do I need to worry that the clear could be thinner or most generally it is thicker.

[Chewy]

Well I finally finshed last week. It is not perfect and I am really second guessing my purchase of the PC, thinking I should have went flex. I have also received a few messages telling me I will need something more aggressive than SSHR to deal with some of this.

 

Maybe I can send PC back and purchase a flex since I am not satisfied. I just dont know what to do. But It looks alot better, most everything turned out pretty good except hood, and bumpers.

 

Now one thing about the hood is that when they previous owner added the green accents they were painted and the hood was recleared so I am thinking maybe the hood has a much harder clear coat and that is some of the problem. Also do I need to worry that the clear could be thinner or most generally it is thicker.

 

Looks good man! Black is the DEVIL!!! lol

 

The Flex most definitely makes the job faster, but the outcomes are the same.

 

Chris

[Odds and Ends]

Looks good ZMan! Even if you move up to a Flex, I'd hang on to the PC. Now that you've got the car baselined so to speak, you shouldn't have to go to this length again so long as you keep it maintained properly. With black, always do two bucket washes and use good, high quality towels such as the Single Soft and Double Soft.

 

To answer your other question about the hood being re-cleared after the paint accents, it's entirely possible that a harder clear may have been used, there's really no way to tell unless you know what they did.

 

Also, with regard to your original post, that's an insane amount of polishing to still not get rid of scratches and swirls. My guess would be that some of the defects you are trying to remove are in the original paint which is now UNDER the new coat of clear and if that's the case, you're pretty mush hosed unless you wet sand to level everything out and then clear again. I see this a lot with clear bra applications - people put 3M clear bra on a new car to protect the paint but never bother to do a paint correction process prior so they put clear bra over scratches and swirls and then wonder why their clear bra is scratched.

 

- Darryl

[Mels SS]

Awesome looking car great job. Maybe you will need to wet sand the hood to get it perfect.

[Zman12]

Looks good ZMan! Even if you move up to a Flex, I'd hang on to the PC. Now that you've got the car baselined so to speak, you shouldn't have to go to this length again so long as you keep it maintained properly. With black, always do two bucket washes and use good, high quality towels such as the Single Soft and Double Soft.

 

To answer your other question about the hood being re-cleared after the paint accents, it's entirely possible that a harder clear may have been used, there's really no way to tell unless you know what they did.

 

Also, with regard to your original post, that's an insane amount of polishing to still not get rid of scratches and swirls. My guess would be that some of the defects you are trying to remove are in the original paint which is now UNDER the new coat of clear and if that's the case, you're pretty mush hosed unless you wet sand to level everything out and then clear again. I see this a lot with clear bra applications - people put 3M clear bra on a new car to protect the paint but never bother to do a paint correction process prior so they put clear bra over scratches and swirls and then wonder why their clear bra is scratched.

 

- Darryl

Wow had not even thought that these could be under the clear. I have seen pics of what was done. Here is a link to the pics of what was done to my car. I may try and call them and see if they can tell me anymore.

 

Flickriver: Photoset 'Black 2010 Camaro Gets Some Synergy Green Color ' by CCCSTL

[Guest Eric@Adams]

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?

[HPR]

lt's still a nice looking ride. And under the hood...that's a bad boy!!

[Zman12]

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

[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!

[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.