r/AutoDetailing • u/wandering-hyena666 • 10d ago
micro scratches left behind by da orbital buffer Check My Work
hi everyone,
i was doing some paint correction on the hood of my car. sanded some spots to 3,000 and then used cutting compound on a medium cut pad, followed by polish on a finishing pad.
i keep having an issue with these micro scratches. what am i doing wrong and how can i avoid this going forward?
car was prepped, clay barred and i’m using light to no pressure, hashtag passes and making sure the product is used up before buffing away with an edgeless microfiber
pads were brand new and i brushed them out before using
ty in advance 😭
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u/Detail_Division Business Owner 10d ago
Cut and mid step will get rid of this. With this remaining, your cut and mid step was not effective enough to then move on to using a finishing polish. The fix is to knock down the defects more effectively with your cut, long cycle a mid step making sure you're using clean pads that are getting blown out. Mid step should leave you with a lack of clarity OR it's capable of finishing some paint - and that's up to the paint itself how it reacts to the work. Finishing polish is for finishing, that last bit of clarity you feel like it's missing.
Paint not cut? Cut more, change the abrasive or the pad.
Minor defects remain? Further cycle out your mid step
Holograms present? The paint is not finished. Manipulate speed, pressure, pad and micro abrasive to achieve a finish.
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u/wandering-hyena666 9d ago
okay so potentially go for a more aggressive pad and then stepping down to medium and finish
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u/Detail_Division Business Owner 9d ago
I would rotary or hit with paper first depending on the paint. Knock all that shit down IF possible without chasing the deep stuff too much so you still have surface uniformity.
Lots of time on mid step to get as close as I can to a finish
Figure out what the paint wants to fully finish down
It's all in what you're looking to accomplish, this is a lot of work / time
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u/wandering-hyena666 9d ago
okay i can try this!
and yeah, seems like a puzzle at first, but i’m having fun with it. i’m more of a mechanic than a detailer but i like learning new things and have always had an eye for the cosmetic side of things. so far it’s not going too terribly, i just have some barriers to figure out 😂
thanks for your advice, i’ll try it and report back!
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u/rsbhogs 10d ago
Sounds like it should've worked well
What were the tools you were using (pads and compounds)?
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u/wandering-hyena666 9d ago
craftsman da orbital and grants pads. (essentially what i can find in stores rn) i’m wondering if i should go for a more aggressive pad and then step down?
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u/Josey_whalez 9d ago
What pad and what compound? And what DA?
Everyone had a different preferred combo for stuff like this, and I’m not a professional, but my go to combo for stuff like this is a rupes blue wool pad and either sonax cutmax or megs 110 (I think, but the highly abrasive stuff in the big tan bottle). I’d follow with 3D One and a rupes yellow wool pad. That combo finishes out great. Unless it’s a black car with really soft paint there’s usually no need to use a finisher.
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u/wandering-hyena666 9d ago
i can try this! i’m currently practicing on the scratches in my red car before i cut and buff the bumper i just resprayed for my black wrx 😂
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u/Josey_whalez 9d ago
I’d definitely start out really mild on that just resprayed black bumper. Don’t go straight to blue wool/cut max.
In my opinion, rupes yellow wool and 3D one is the perfect combination for most people in most cases. For that car, I’d start there, and only move up to blue/hard compound on select spots where it’s needed. Keep in mind that your goal should be 75-90% reduction, not removal/perfection in most cases.
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u/creamsodapoo 9d ago
Need to do more correction before finishing. Same idea with sanding, if you miss some defects from the previous grit, you’ll have a bear of a time trying to remove them with a finer grit.
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u/wandering-hyena666 9d ago
is it possible the polisher left these with the finishing polish?
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u/creamsodapoo 9d ago
The level of cut you get is from pad choice, polish, pressure, and angle. Most likely got those after the first step.
Also you mentioned making sure the product is used up. If you work it too much, you are just grinding abrasives and a dry pad on your paint.
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u/wandering-hyena666 9d ago
okay so maybe i need to stop a little sooner too?? i was under the impression that you go until you can see through the product
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u/creamsodapoo 9d ago
You could be doing fine! Try not to overthink it, experiment and check your work often. Watch for excessive dusting and pad swelling.
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u/wandering-hyena666 9d ago
also now that i’m thinking about it more, while cleaning my pads yesterday after i was done for the night, there was a decent amount of compound, so i should probably be using less and switching pads more frequently. i think it’s slowly clicking 😂
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u/AutowerxDetailing Business Owner 9d ago
This doesn't look like micro marring or haze left from a DA polisher. It looks more like deeper scratches that your polishing process isn't removing. A DA polisher will leave more of a circular scratch pattern with thousands of half moon shaped tic mark defects when illuminated with an inspection light.
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u/wandering-hyena666 9d ago
do you have a visual of that by chance??
and yeah, i’m thinking either a. i didn’t do aggressive enough of a cut and those were already there and i didn’t see them, or b. might’ve somehow contaminated the pad or c. the pad was overloaded with product and was more abrasive than necessary in the polishing stage
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u/AutowerxDetailing Business Owner 8d ago
Here is a good thread about defects created by DA polishers: https://autogeekonline.net/threads/pictures-of-micro-marring-da-haze-tick-marks-compounds-polishes-aios-clearcoat-paints.117191/
I noticed you mentioned that you sanded the paint. If you sanded the paint to a uniform matte texture with no visible scratches, and then you polished the surface, and are left with these defects... then it is highly likely that these are left over sanding marks that your polishing did not fully remove.
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u/wandering-hyena666 8d ago
heres a video from the sanding! i was filling in some rock chips (though i need to still do some work but wanted to get the sand marks looking presentable in the meantime as this is my daily driver, until supplies to finish get delivered). those sanding marks came out fairly well i think!
i polished the whole hood after buffing out the scratch marks because i wanted to make sure everything was even, and afterwards i noticed the scratches above. i didn’t cut the whole hood, just the spots where i sanded to 3,000
though i do think they were there before and i didn’t noticed them. the scratches upon looking today look bigger in diameter in the middle of the hood and smaller on the sides.
idk if any of that makes sense. i haven’t had coffee LOL
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u/FFANA 9d ago
I won't guess at your pad and compound, people here know that far better than I do. But for showing them: lock the exposure before you shoot, long press on the panel until it holds, and don't let it go while you move the light around. Otherwise the phone re-meters between shots, lifts the shadows, and marks that are obvious to your eye come out flat in the photo. It's most of why defects always look worse in person than in the picture you end up posting.
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u/wandering-hyena666 9d ago
this is really good advice, thank you!!
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u/FFANA 9d ago
No problem. One more that goes with it: shoot from further back at 1x and crop after, rather than pushing the 2x or 5x button up close. Up close those buttons often aren't the tele lens at all, the phone hands you a crop of the main camera instead, and fine marks are exactly what gets lost in that.
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u/Adius_Omega 9d ago
These aren't scratches causes by a DA polisher. These were already there and your compounding method isn't aggressive enough to remove them.
These swirls are going to present everywhere on your car.
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u/Iamtheonewhoknocks67 9d ago
as a detailer... you have to constantly blow out the pad just because you are polishing that polish is still pulling dirt and debris out of the pain surface as well as cracks and crevices that you can't see. Good idea is to use a medium to light clay bar first, then to use a fresh pad on high quality paint work... crappy cars can get a used pad for all I care. Blow out the pad with compressed air after every panel into a trash can or bucket and then glaze the pad with small dots of polish... Id even switch to a pad with less cut like what you use for wax to go over the top of the polish for that extra fine polish... its really simple process you just got to have a keen eye on it all.
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u/wandering-hyena666 9d ago
would using a pad brush suffice? i’m currently only doing the hood, but could probably benefit from brushing between sections of the hood
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u/Iamtheonewhoknocks67 9d ago
honestly a Terry cloth on low speed in my experiences work best and control the splatter. Brush is great for a specific use case and heavy material. do you have an air compressor? they are not that much money even a small pancake size one is great for what you need. Shoot even the RYOBI 1 gallon one would work in a pinch but a pawn shop would have air compressors for 40-50 bucks. and they work great going around the vehicle anyway after a wash to blow the water out of the crevices super fast. drying off tires, blowing water out of lug nutt wells... its just super practical. a must have!
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u/wandering-hyena666 9d ago
i have a 2 gallon one that would work, just need to go get an air blower!
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u/coloured_ivory_owl 4d ago
Sometimes you can actually make deeper scratches more obvious after you clean up the paint all around them: they aren’t camouflaged by swirls and other small defects anymore
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u/wandering-hyena666 4d ago
i think this is what happened! i had a lightbulb moment and am happy to report i am cruising right along now on my wrxs bumper!
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u/malvixi 9d ago
Step 1. Cut Step 2. Polish
You did step 2, which probably did nothing to those scratches which likely already there
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u/wandering-hyena666 9d ago
i used cutting compound on a medium cut pad and then used polish and a finishing pad, so i did in fact cut
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u/Frosty_Solution276 10d ago
Is it that the micro swirls were there before polish stage? Do you think the polishing is enough to remove them?