Black is the bain of my existence

[suke]

I've done my fair share of black cars, but can't say i've seen one fight me as much as this one has. It's a 2009 Black Lexus is250. Swirls buff out with ease with SHR, but even after FMP I'm left with a ton of micro swirls. So many so using my flashlight they look almost as bad as the swirls did before.

 

Things I've tried so far using the flex:

SHR at speed 5 FMP at speed 3-4

Varying amounts of arm speed and pressure

 

I've never come across anything this fiddly. Black paint normally is a pain, but worst I've ever come across was some TINY little buffing swirls left behind.

 

I'm guessing this paint is crazy soft, most Japanese brands are. I have not tried using FMP on a black pad, OR SHR on a white pad.....hmmmmmm

 

I started out using a non adams compound that says is "ideal" on black cars starting on a white pad. That did the best, but still left some swirls behind. That's when I quickly realized this thing must be stupid soft.

 

Before

After

 

Yeah it's good.......but not great. It looks worse in person.

 

This is what's left behind.

 

Before

 

After same spot

 

Now granted the customer likely would be thrilled with how the car looks, but to me I know I can do better. At first I was like, meh he'll never know the difference. I'm too much of a perfectionist to let something like that go out the door without me trying everything I can. Don't worry about the specks those are little divits in the paint.

Edited March 9, 2013 by suke

[ihaveacamaro]

Yeah looks like tons of micromarring behind. I had an issue like that one time, and what I resorted to was my finest polish on a red crimson pad. So if you have a red pad with fine machine polish, I think you might get what you're looking for!

 

If that doesn't work, hopefully someone more experienced than I will chime in

[suke]

Yeah looks like tons of micromarring behind. I had an issue like that one time, and what I resorted to was my finest polish on a red crimson pad. So if you have a red pad with fine machine polish, I think you might get what you're looking for!

 

If that doesn't work, hopefully someone more experienced than I will chime in

 

Don't have any of the new pads yet. When they announced the new pads I went and bought a ton of the old pads on ebay. Still working through them. Actually just opened my last brand new orange pad. So I was thinking I may have to resort to black pad and FMP. After some google searching and visiting some other detail forums it seems lexus is in fact hella soft. May have to just use FMP on white and FMP on black. I'll try it in the morning.

[MichiganSRT8]

weird, ive worked over a few lexus is 09-10 and havent had that happen. I have had that problem once before though, had a bottle of swirl and haze level out and the abrasives all separated it seemed. Had the bottle replaced but it seemed that an unequal amount of abrasives were in each application. Was most likely my fault but in the end it got covered and ashley took care of it, very similar pictured to what happened to you. I would suggest going over again with fine machine/white pad a few passes and check you pad for anything in it. Otherwise what roshan said is a great idea, but that third picture from the bottom looks pretty rough so thats why Im thinking you need more perhaps.

[vobro]

I know this goes against the "same color pad with the same color polish" way Adams recommends but usually soft black paint corrects really easy but doesn't finish down as nice and requires a different approach , sounds like you know this. This is exactly why a test spot should be done all the time, I usually use the FMP with the red pad at slow speed ( as recommended by Roshan) with very light pressure as my last polishing step and usually this will do the trick. Soft paint can be a pain but I've learned to try different techniques and with experience to think outside the box. How does it look in the sun? Often times it will look different than shop lights.

[suke]

Haven't pulled it out in the sun. I'll try some other pads. The swirls buff out easy enough, just doesn't finish down like you said.

[suke]

Oh and I've only done parts of the hood and trunk lid. So essentially I am still working on my test spot.

[ECaulk]

It looks like some micromarring and some original swirls, how many passes did you try? Granted the paint is soft and corrects quickly, but it looks like a few of the swirls are to long to be from a flex. For the micromarring try the fine machine on the white pad again but increase the speed to 5 or 6 and dont compress the pad into the paint and let the correcting action the flex do the work not your sholders (not sure how experienced you are with the flex if you already knew that just ignore it)

[egott_91]

For some reason a mixture of FMP and Revive came to mind on a blue hex hand applicator... Not sure what it would do. All of the clears I've worked with are hard as diamonds. Lol.

[camaro2ssblack]

Go with fmp on a black pad at speed 4 and lighten up your pressure on the last few section passes....

[suke]

Got it! Black pad, speed 3, FMP, dot or 2 of revive, light pressure at first, then no pressure. All that's left is the etching in the paint. See this alot on cars around here. Only thing I can gather is acid rain etching. Could be anything I guess.

 

 

 

[suke]

It looks like some micromarring and some original swirls, how many passes did you try? Granted the paint is soft and corrects quickly, but it looks like a few of the swirls are to long to be from a flex. For the micromarring try the fine machine on the white pad again but increase the speed to 5 or 6 and dont compress the pad into the paint and let the correcting action the flex do the work not your sholders (not sure how experienced you are with the flex if you already knew that just ignore it)

 

There's some pigtails from a previous rotary detail, and some longer deeper scratches, but so far the flex is getting out the swirls with ease.

[suke]

Go with fmp on a black pad at speed 4 and lighten up your pressure on the last few section passes....

 

read my mind! That's essentially what I did. Just with speed 3.

[suke]

Now on to polish out the rest of the car. I'll post my final results in my detail thread.

[suke]

About halfway done at this point. Tried speed 4 and it left behind too many micro swirls. Speed 3 seems to be the sweet spot on this car. In some spots with the flashlight if I get REAL close I THINK I may see some very very faint. Can't tell if it's tiny swirls or those stupid spots in the paint. I hate those things. Make it next to impossible to get it perfect without major work. This guy didn't pay for major work, and timeline doesn't allow for it either.

[Team Adam's]

On super soft black paints I've had amazing luck with the Red pad, low speed, and FMP... looks like you've got the hang of things now.

[suke]

On super soft black paints I've had amazing luck with the Red pad, low speed, and FMP... looks like you've got the hang of things now.

 

Keep hearing about this red pad. Apparently I need to pick one up.

 

 

It's looking pretty good. Double checking every panel when I'm done and so far only had to go back over one. I swear I should charge a black car fee. They're twice as much work. On some panels it's hard to decipher between those specs and small artifacts left behind. Hit another panel that I saw some like that and it made no difference. So I'm going to assume it's not going to get much better.

[suke]

WOAH! Much better than predicted. I find it hard someone would complain.....little bit of dust from the polish I haven't wiped up.

[EPHIOS]

Black paint is like "Jekyl and Hyde".

 

OR

 

It will either make people say "WOW!", or "Oh, NO!"

[camaro2ssblack]

read my mind! That's essentially what I did. Just with speed 3.

 

Glad you got it sorted out!

[suke]

Glad you got it sorted out!

 

Me to. I'm interested to see how it looks in the sun. I used to want a black colored vehicle. Now I've swore to not even consider it. It'd drive me nuts, unless it was a black pearl.

[InDepthAutoDetailing]

That's some very good info you've shared with us. I was just on the opposite end of that spectrum with a BMW 335i. I don't think anyone makes a polish aggressive enough to do a black BMW with one pass. I had to go over the hood as much as 6 times with the most aggressive stuff I have and finally had to raise the white flag and say it was good enough.

[suke]

On super soft black paints I've had amazing luck with the Red pad, low speed, and FMP... looks like you've got the hang of things now.

 

Tried just this today. Worked AMAZINGLY well!! Ordered up some red pads last week knowing this car was coming in. Was in pretty good shape since it was in last year.

 

Most of the car corrected to near perfection with a red pad and FMP. Started with speed 3 for the most part. Some were between speed 3-4 for the first pass with medium pressure. Second pass light to no pressure, 3rd pass if the polish hadn't flashed at speed 2 and decreased the speed until I reach 1 and polish had flashed. Gave me this!

[camaro2ssblack]

Impressive!

[Schwag one]

Holy moly, lets see the whole car that seriously looks like you took a picture of in a mirror

[suke]

Holy moly, lets see the whole car that seriously looks like you took a picture of in a mirror

 

HAH! More pics here.

http://www.adamsforums.com/forums/374509-post142.htm