hey guys,

so im anxious to get the PC 7424 i ordered. A few quick questions though. When I do a recommended 2 x 2 area, say half the door, is it going to hurt if I move on to the second half and overlap a tiny bit of the previous worked area?

Would it be ok to just do a whole body panel at once?

thanks for the tips

 

you should overlap... its not magic, you just overlap a "bit"-

if you try a whole body panel, the polish will probably break down prematurely, or will dry out, and you wont get as good of results.

just go with the "work the box" (2x2) and dont worry about being exact- go with the overlap and dont second guess yourself!

 

I always overlap each pass by about 50% or so... it's not a problem at all

 

I mean overlapping finished 2 x2 when working on the next 2 x 2 beside it ?

 

after you work the first box, you then work the next area closest to it... you will overlap- and i agree that it does not really matter how much you overlap. heck you can overlap the entire box!! the reasons that you wouldnt do the entire box are that you have already done it and its finished, and also your polish wont be as efficient in an area a lot larger than the suggested 2x2.
i usually work side to side, then diagonally and finish up as the air flows over (front to back)- inside the "box", and, depending on the paint, i may do this several times.

i have never measured, so my 2x2s are just estimates. i know some real wackos who measure and tape the 2x2 (they take into account overlap in the taping). imo, this is a waste of time and tape-

my advice- get out there with the machine and go for it!! i learned on a beater car, but with the pc its hard to damage paint on a clear coated car.

 

Sorry, I misunderstood your original question. Yes, a little bit of overlap is ok and expected

 

I did this when I first started, and soon found it to be a waste of time and has it own drawbacks...

When I first started, I found it necessary to mark off the "squares" or else I just wouldnt be able to get it right for some reason, as I continued to do car after car(by about my 4th one) I eventually learned to do it by eye and only taping off whats necessary(lights, plastic, etc.)..BUT

When you do tape off these squares, I noticed I was making "levels" in the paint, you could clearly see the tape line where the clear was lower or high than the adjacent "square". One I realized I was doing this, Ive never done it again and I dont even really like doing 50/50 shots because of this..I guess what Im trying to say is, if your new to polishing it may help you concentrate on the task at hand, but in the long run you might want to avoid taping sections as much as possible. Hope this helps!

 

That is EXCELLENT information and should be much more widely known. I have never really taped off to do 50/50 shots due to fear of this. I did however tape off an area of a mean chip repair that i had wet sanded. It was actually taped off as an octagon shape and after buffing it out, I still to this day have an octagon outline in the clear coat.

Excellent post btw, as I have always finished half a hood or a door at one time and I believe it resulted in minor holograms because of this. Even when finishing with extremely fine polishes and black pads on my rotary.

 

 

Excuse me for being a newbie again, (I appreciate all the advice and comments claiming my post to be a good thread), but what exactly is a halogram? How does it occur?