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To me, some of those spots (especially on the fairing) look like an aggressive compound that was worked maybe a little too long (or not long enough) on a soft paint and the follow up polishing step wasn't aggressive enough (or again, maybe too aggressive) to remove it. If that paint is anything like my Billiard Burgundy, it's soft as hell.
I think you may be on to something when you say it doesn't look like he worked it enough.....here is why....he's using abrasives that are diminishing....here's a great graphic kind of explaining it...the little dots represent little tiny chunks of solids that are in these potions....WG abrasives are like the green in the pic
WG's Uber is a hard hitter for example, when I mentioned that I used it on my bike, Eagle here questioned me on it....I know why....on a scale of of about 1-10....10 being about as hard as you can cut....Uber is about a 7....it comes out of the gates pretty hard...I used it for spot correction only, i dont know that I've ever done an entire pan or part of anything with Uber....but as I work over the clear coat properly with good technique, you can see it change visually and turn clear....regardless of the pattern i'm using, as a rule of thumb, I'm moving about 1/2" a second when polishing....the entire time it's imperative that you are keeping that pad flat, spinning at max speed, and uniformly working the abrasives on the surface,,..you'll know you've used their Uber and TSR when after you've removed the polishing oils after polishing it looks like you could be done....the next steps really do make a difference though
You guys were right about not working the compound long enough, and the tips about marking the edge of the pad helped too, it made me start paying more attention to what the pad was doing. Anyway, I had a couple hours to play around with it today and am happy to report that I got it looking much better, I went back over the whole fairing with a thicker Griots orange pad and my WG Uber, and I broke it up into small sections-I found it much easier this way, rather than continually going in and out of a bunch of curves and having to readjust how much pressure I was putting on the machine. I was definitely NOT polishing the compound out all the way, though, and it looks a lot better today, I still plan on going back over it with finishing glaze and black pad, Im not sure if I should do a pass with Total Swirl remover first (all WG products). I am ordering some 2 pads though, after my conversation with CaffeineBuzz, I do believe itll be much easier to polish the fairing with a smaller pad because of all the curves.
I do have some major, deep gouges in the fairing that I didnt realize were there (well I knew one of them was) because its usually so covered in dead bugs that its hard to tell guts from damage. Im not surprised, I think most of them are from interstate riding, so it is what it is, the only way to fix these would be to repaint I think. Anyway, thanks again to everyone for all the help and tips CaffeineBuzz, thanks for taking the time to talk me through some of this, youre the man buddy! One of the deep gouges
This is the worst one, its pretty noticeable Looking much better
I've used WG's Uber for spot correcting, I'll use just a little bit of product in a part of the panel and I'll work it in that section until it clears up. I have never done an entire panel or part with Uber, but it finishes really nice and I could see going right to WG's Finishing Glaze.
If you did the whole panel with Uber, you can probably go right to the FG, but remember that WG's Finishing Glaze is that in name only, it's actually an abrasive, that you need to work out just like Uber. A little bit goes a long with with WG's FG, but resist the temptation to cut corners in your method. Slow and steady patterns....keep the wheel spinning, and work it through it's cycle until it starts to clear up.
The last time I used WG's FG, I did two steps. I went over it once with a yellow boss pad, and then a second time with a black finishing pad. Both times, slow and steady. You'll love how it jewels the surface when your done.
You obviously did some work there brother, they look polished now. Great job.
As for the nicks and scratches....I can take you on a tour of my bike and show you every flaw. Overall, the clearcoat is in great shape for a bike that has nearly 80k miles on it.
Last edited by CaffeineBuzz; Dec 21, 2022 at 12:01 PM.
The only thing about going for 100% correction is when the paint gets defected again. Chasing it might be unrealistic especially if you don't know how thick the clear coat is.
With only a finite amount of clear coat the advise I was given for a daily driver is just take care of the swirls minimally and perhaps only go for gold when you sell the vehicle.
Im by no means trying to get my bike perfect, I dont have the time or skills to do it. But swirls and marring really stand out in this color and it looks horrible to me. The digs, gouges etc. Im not concerned with as much, because they are unavoidable, I did buy this bike to ride and enjoy, not to park and look at, so theyre inevitable. I just want it to shine like its supposed to, but I can live with the road scars.
Im hoping to at least get the fairing polished and sealed (coated) this weekend, but its supposed to get down in the single digits with highs only in the teens (which is pretty rare for East TN), and Im not sure if the Polish Angel products are even useable in those temps. I brought some of the more expensive chemicals in the house because Im worried about freezing and ruining them, this **** costs too much to waste !
Hey Buzz- where did you get your 2 pads, Im not finding a lot on Autogeek except for a Griots kit that includes a backing plate which I already have, and this one : https://www.autogeek.net/carpro-nano-pad-kit.html
Or anyone else that might know
Personally I've never been one to pay somebody to do something I can do myself. But when it comes to heavy engine and transmission work, structural welding or paint correction I leave it to those who know what they're doing. I mean, have you ever seen the array of stuff that polishing people have at their disposal to fix phuct up paint finishes??? And they know just what to use and how to use it.
Do you have a Flex outlet anywhere? They do small pads.
Probably no physical store but I will check their website. I havent seen really any pads in any stores in my area, maybe the occasional auto parts store, and Harbor Freight and Wally World carry some, but I dont know if I trust them with something that can ruin my paint. I see off-brand stuff in 2 all over Amazon but again, I dont wanna use some cheap crap that can make matters worse, it kind of defeats the whole purpose of this
hey bud, I ran into the same issue, I have a fairly limited arsenal of 2" pads, and only one hard cutting white one.....but when I was on the site at autogeek, i could not find them other than as included with some of their packages....im super tech savage, so I assumed i was the issue
my plan was to get on the phone with them
i've been encouraged to try Lake Country HDO, but can't find 2" version of those
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