best suggestion in this thread!!

post up in your local forum for someone to come to your house to help you with the swirl removal...
this has been one of the most popular suggestions here for learning how to polish. offer to supply refreshments if they supply the know how.
you will get the job done, meet a new friend and will know how to do it for the future (and to help out the next guy who posts up this request!)

we will help you through this... its not over until your swirls are gone!!

 

lol, there are like... only 5 S2K's in town, I'm friends with one owner (was going to buy his, then he told me he didn't want to see it, and I found the one I own now), One guy is a "larger" guy... and he didn't seem like he does any work on it himself, and the other two, I have only seen the cars.

I'm thinking about going to a local auto detailer and watching, but Idk, I'm considering it more now. I think I'll try once again tomorrow when I get my yellow and orange CSS pads (I only had white, blue and grey when I tried to remove the scratches) and see if I can get better results this time.

I went and bought some Halogen lights (Like recommended in the Pinnacle video, I think they are the exact some ones to be honest), but I still have trouble seeing the Swirls under that lighting, but when I'm outside, I can see the swirls. The lights have 500 watt Light bulbs, so its not like it's not because they are bright enough... Idk what the deal is, maybe I'll do part of it, and then roll it out into the sun to see if they are still there.

Is there anything I can use between polishes to clean the surface, to make sure the polishes didn't just fill in the scratches? I have Sonus Paintwork cleanser, Would that work?

 

I went back and watched the Pinnacle videos again, and I've pretty much come to the conclusion that my problem is my pads. I worked the polish longer than that in the video, applied varying pressure on passes, (Started with more pressure, and did one pass verticle, less pressure, side to side, less pressure verticle, and then one last pass side to side only using the weight of the machine) and I worked the polish for probably around.... 5-7 minutes per 2x2 to 2x3 area (Was just testing the products/UDM/Pads on my hood, and thats where the swirls are re-appearing).

I feel bad about asking all the questions here, but none of the other S2K owners in my town seem to do their own work, and one of the guys even works at the Honda Dealership, and he sent his out to be done. Thanks for everything, I am truely in your debt.

 

I don't think the SFX1-3 polishes have fillers, but I've never used them.

I can't find the mike vid online, but you can buy it here for like $24
Scroll down to the bottom.

http://www.dftowel.com/video.html

What he does is recommend doing a "test spot" before doing your whole car. Do all your stuff... roll it out into the sun and compare with spot you didn't do. If the pads/chemicals does what you want... then do your whole car. The other good thing is that he does the entire car... several passes, so you learn all the little tricks.

 

After you give it a second round with the polishes in a test area, grab a plush MF towel and do a quick wipe down of the area with a 50/50 mix of water and isopropyl alcohol. This will remove any fillers that could possibly be in the polishes and will let you see exactly what the paint surface looks like.

Another fun thing to do is detail the car in a dark garage using halogen work lights (about $30 bucks at Home Depot / Lowes). This highlights just about all the paint defects, and given the right selection of products, you can remove about 90% of them.

Don't get frustrated with detailing... (wait... detailing is like OCD plus anal-retentiveness), so nevermind . Just have fun with it. Like many things, skill comes with experience.

 

Yea, this time I'm gunna do it inside the garage, instead of in the shade. I have halogen lights up in my garage, and bought a halogen standing light. Get my pads in like.... now-two hours, so I hope I can atleast do my hood before I go to work, and see if it comes out better.

Wish me luck

 

Well, off course I had to say something and Jinx myself. Nearly 4 hours after that post, and they still aren't here, and I have to be at work in an hour and 1/2... there goes getting it done before work

 

well, I washed my car tonight, using the two bucket method, and I'm getting ready to try my new pads on my drivers side door only (All I have time for really, Have tomorrow afternoon + Saturday off, but they are already spent ) So wish me luck, I'll post pictures.

 

I $#@&$#@( quit....

I use my Orange CSS pad, right out of the plastic, start with sonus SFX-1, polish for a good 5 minutes, try to wipe it off, and hardly any of it comes off, it leaves haze, so I polish more, and try removing, same result.

I start to hand buff the polish off, and I notice there are small scratches forming in the strokes of my towel, I grab one of my brand new Microfiber buffing towels (Meguiars or Cobra, don't remember) and the same thing, small scratches in my paint.


This is really frustrating.... My towels shouldn't be scratching, and they are... My polish should be coming off, and its not. The humidity is pretty high (like... 76%)

I'm running out of ideas here.... I'm starting to think I should just give up on polishing... Am I doing something wrong? I open the pad, mist with the XMT pad conditioner/lube/whatever, apply a quarter size for the upper 3/4ths of the door (Using Sonus SFX-1), start the UDM on 1 to spread the polish after spreading it out a little by hand, turn the udm up to 5, work the polish about 5 minutes, and try to buff off.... I really don't know anymore guys

 

I went back out and tried again, and I really have no idea wtf to do.... I'm not sure what it is anymore. I washed the car, backed it up like 20 feet in a rock driveway, and then moved it about 40 feet into my garage, so idk if maybe it got dusty during that time, or what. But I'm pretty sure my towels are the culprit, which is really frustrating, considering It's near $100 in towels, and every single one is doing it. I washed them with Pinnacle Microfiber wash, and tumble dried them on low with no fabric softener (Except maybe a little residue from past loads, but that should be miniscule. I really am extremely upset by this.... The cobwebs are gone, but now I just have effing scratches all down my paint. Should I ZAIO and Wax over the top? and wish for the best at them getting rid of the scratches? I'm running out of ideas..