Odd issue while buffing/polishing…

[Mak]

I'll preface this with saying it’s my first time trying my hand at any paint correction on an old paint job. My first time ever handling a rotary and RO buffer was last month when I began the cut & buff of the paint I had sprayed on my old F100.

I had a lot of what I would consider serious scratches, scuffs, and RO swirls from what looks like the previous owner had lost control of the buffer while working on polishing the aluminum panels…

I just used the Flex compact 3” rotary for a couple small sections to see how it worked. I bought some of the 3D “One” compound last year with the intent to try on my old Z06 but hadn’t worked up the courage yet. I used the 3D One with the LC white pad but it’s didn’t seem to be making much progress on the scratches.

Moved to a LC orange pad and that seemed to do the trick using the 4 speed setting.

I then progressed back to the white pad and finished with the black. All looked pretty good. (I know it doesn’t look great in the pics, but I should have taken a before pic to show the diff…)

Anyway, it is 100% better, and while some light scratches remain(and plentiful orange-peel), I don’t think I have the experience to know how far I can go without burning through the clear.

Before I started I actually thought I was dealing with single stage but found out it is cleared.

So here’s the thing. I had three of these odd looking spots that actually looked like smudges. They were not. Approx 1” x 2” for the largest. I was afraid at first I had learned what a clear burn through looks like…

I tried carefully going over again with an orange and then black pad but the “smudges” did not enlarge or go away. I just knew I had ruined the finish somehow.

I tried a microfiber cloth and hand rubbing the spots with some of the compound with no success.

Then I saw a 20 year old bottle of Meguiar’s #9 swirl remover sitting on the shelf. To my amazement and relief, the spots disappeared. I can’t see any difference or evidence of those spots anymore.


Any idea what happened or what I was/am dealing with?

 

[Mike Phillips]

I'm not saying, this is what you're seeing, but if Meguiar's #9 removed it then my guess is these spots were smudges of product that got to warm. This tends to make them stick like glue.


Glad you removed them.


Mike

 

[Mak]

I'm not saying, this is what you're seeing, but if Meguiar's #9 removed it then my guess is these spots were smudges of product that got to warm. This tends to make them stick like glue.


Glad you removed them.


Mike

That makes sense... about the only thing that does. Guess it took a different product to get it off.
thank you.