New to machine polishing - have some questions!

[derekb]

Hey all!

 

I have the flex, new to machine polishing and few questions!

 

1) How would I go about doing sections of a vehicle that are raised, for example a fender or a piece of the hood. I know to tape off edges and keep the pad as flat as possible but how much play would I have going over a raised surface?

 

2) For deep scratches that can be caught with a finger nail, and that feel really rough to the touch, is it possible to cause damage to the pad by going over these areas? I don't think I would be able to remove these completely but how much improvement would I expect generally?

 

3) After using the focus pads on a drill in harder to reach spaces, from watching the instructional videos I know that it will leave small swirl marks. To remove those would I just have to use a combination of fine machine or even revive polish by hand? How effective would this be or should I be looking into getting a PC to use with the focus pads for full removal?

 

Thanks in advance for reading this guys and looking forward to some advice!

[Mlaforge]

Good questions Derek, as you, I'll wait for the experienced guys to help out!!

[ihaveacamaro]

1. Not sure I understand the question. Anything raised like body lines should be taped off.

 

2. No you won't damage anything by going over them. You won't be able to remove them but what you will be able to do is level the clear coat to a point where the scratch is less visible. Sometimes the scratch is too deep and it's visible no matter what you do.

 

3. The focus pads make the drill a rotary. Use itas you would your da ie more aggressive followed by less aggressive, and you shouldn't have any swirls left. The tricky part is doing that without making holograms.

 

Hope that helps

[DenaliDan]

1.) You'll have no problem with most raised surfaces using the flex. Just keep as much of the pad's surface area in contact with the contour of the surface as possible. The pad will flex a bit. Now, if you had a large air box on your hood with 90-degree angles, it might be difficult to get into the corners. Otherwise, the flex will go smoothly over the contours.

One note on these areas though: The paint is always thinner on the edges of these surfaces simply because less paint sticks to these edges during the drying process. Not to the point that the flex will wear through the paint or clearcoat but you don't want to let the flex dig in with a high abrasive pad/polish combo for too long on any edge. There's typically no need to do this anyway. Just hit the edges in passing and move on.

 

2.) A scratch would have to be extremely rough to tear up a pad. However, you usually are not going to get much benefit out of polishing a scratch like that with Adam's products. Again, I'd just hit it in passing and move on. Polish more thoroughly around the edges of the scratch using the flex if necessary.

 

3.) You can use the less abrasive polishes (as you mentioned) on less abrasive focus pads to remove the fine swirls left from the correction. Paint correction like you mentioned is a process of lessening the damage. The most abrasive pad/polish combo will leave behind some swirls which are removed from the less abrasive pad/polish combo. By the time you get to the Fine Machine Polish and then wax, all the traces of previous correction should be gone.

 

I hope all that makes sense. I'm sure others will add on & clarify.

[Ralfy]

Lots of good info!

[derekb]

Thanks guys!