# Am I doing something wrong?



## Gazjs (Nov 26, 2009)

Hi all, and thanks for any help in advance. 
This morning I set out to polish the bonnet with my das6. I used Sonus pads Sfx-1,Sfx-2,SFX-3 with the same polish. I stuck to keeping the Sfx-1 pad with Sfx-1 polish etc. With car in garage I used an LED torch to light the bonnet and the moderate swirls and some random scratches. (Sorry no pictures as camera phone = crap) I set out doing a small sections of the bonnet using Sfx-2 combination. It took about 3 hits to lift these swirls and i am still not sure they have all been lifted. I also gave a few hits of Sfx-3. I have been at the bonnet for a good 5 hours and have gave up so that i can take it to a petrol station tonight to inspect the difference. I feel i am going to be slightly disappointed though. I don't no what i could have been doing wrong that there are still swirls there and that it took all this time for a bonnet. I was spreading the polish at speed 2/3 and giving a few passes at this before stepping up to speed 6 for further passes. The polish seemed to clear up real quick. When removing the polish with MF however is seemed to smear about the place. Not sure if this will be enough info for someone to offer any help or not. 
Thanks


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## Ton (Mar 4, 2010)

What kind of polish did you use?


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## Gazjs (Nov 26, 2009)

Sonus SFX-1, Sfx-2, Sfx-3


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## stangalang (Nov 27, 2009)

Ok at this point age, colour, make and pictures would help greatly. When you steppes up to top speed how much pressure did you apply? Did you draw a line on your backing pad as an indicator? When at top speedroughly how many passes did you complete? And roughly how fast were you moving the machine when doing them? A lot of questions I know but all important to get great results with a da


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## Gazjs (Nov 26, 2009)

stangalang said:


> Ok at this point age, colour, make and pictures would help greatly. When you steppes up to top speed how much pressure did you apply? Did you draw a line on your backing pad as an indicator? When at top speedroughly how many passes did you complete? And roughly how fast were you moving the machine when doing them? A lot of questions I know but all important to get great results with a da


Car is an 06 plate Ford Fiesta in Tango Red. The swirls are really light that my camera phone struggles to pick them up, this is the best I could do. (It onyl looks slightly better now)
















I drew a line with blue tape and was completing around 20 passes at top speed with 5-10 at lower speed to spread polish. I was moving at what i would call a relatively moderate pace taking it slowly so maybe each section was getting a few rotations as the pad was moved across. The pressure i was applying was just short of making the pad struggle.


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## stangalang (Nov 27, 2009)

You really shouldn't struggle too much with moderate swirls on ford paint. I have no knowledge of your polish or pads, but in general starting with the least aggressive I would imagine you would settle on the middle choice of cut. Pressure is key with a da and your pad should be rotating no more than twice when on your correction passes. Also I try to be moving about 1 inch per second. Being that you did have some success over a long period I would assume that you have one or both of these factors slightly out. Much better you use slower passes with correct pressure than more aggressive pad or polish to make sure you finish the polish down properly. Hth


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## Gazjs (Nov 26, 2009)

stangalang said:


> You really shouldn't struggle too much with moderate swirls on ford paint. I have no knowledge of your polish or pads, but in general starting with the least aggressive I would imagine you would settle on the middle choice of cut. Pressure is key with a da and your pad should be rotating no more than twice when on your correction passes. Also I try to be moving about 1 inch per second. Being that you did have some success over a long period I would assume that you have one or both of these factors slightly out. Much better you use slower passes with correct pressure than more aggressive pad or polish to make sure you finish the polish down properly. Hth


Thank you for all the help. I will take a picture tonight under the petrol station lights to compare what difference I did make. I plan on giving another go tomorrow and will take into account the speed i pass at along with pressure applied. 
Thanks


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## Gazjs (Nov 26, 2009)

Finished a second attempt, done the bonnet in about 3 hours (good timing?) Very pleased with the results under the petrol station, only a few light scratches remain, all swirls gone. Will give it another few hits to get it 100%.
All in all, very pleased with results, not so sure on the sonus polishes though.


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## 4937Liam (Feb 4, 2010)

Im having problems very similar to yours too - I read all the guides on here throughly and followed the methods but for the life of me i can not get the swirls to lift of the bonnet of my Seat Leon. Ive been using the Sonus SFX-1 pad combined with the SFX-1 polish. What methods did you use?
I spread the polish using speed 3 for a couple of passes before cranking it up to speed 5 to really work the polish in (moving at about 1 inch per second). I may well be not applying enough pressure - My teqnique maybe all wrong but i was thinking of trying out the SFX-2 pad with the same polish (SFX-2) to see if that lifts the swirls. Post some pics up of your finished bonnet. :thumb:


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## bigperm (May 8, 2010)

hey gaz and liam when starting out with detailing i had the same problem as yourselves tbh. the sonus range is ok but even the cutting power of sonus sfx1 with the sfx cutting pad wil still struggle with anything other than light swirls. if i were you guys i would invest in some new pads cg hexlogic pads are very good. and maybe try the 3m range or menzerna range with these you will find you can do alot more correction with these. hope this was of some help to you


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## 4937Liam (Feb 4, 2010)

Thanks matey.


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## Stevoraith (Mar 15, 2008)

I managed to remove swirls on VAG (Skoda) paint using the Sonus pads and polishes (see the thread here).
I used SFX-2 polish on the SFX-1 pad. (thats the middle polish on the most aggressive pad).
To be honest it wasn't perfect but it certainly took out most of the swirls.

I guess maybe your technique isn't correct? Push down with enough pressure so that the pad spins approx. 1 or 2 revolutions per second. And move it across the paint at approx. 1-2 inches per second.
Thats what I learned at the Dave KG polishing course (if you can get booked into one of those then it's well worth it).

Having said that, I've just ordered some Menzera polish to give a bit more bite since all of the cars I'm likely to do are either VAG or BMW (hard paint).


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## Gazjs (Nov 26, 2009)

4937Liam said:


> Im having problems very similar to yours too - I read all the guides on here throughly and followed the methods but for the life of me i can not get the swirls to lift of the bonnet of my Seat Leon. Ive been using the Sonus SFX-1 pad combined with the SFX-1 polish. What methods did you use?
> I spread the polish using speed 3 for a couple of passes before cranking it up to speed 5 to really work the polish in (moving at about 1 inch per second). I may well be not applying enough pressure - My teqnique maybe all wrong but i was thinking of trying out the SFX-2 pad with the same polish (SFX-2) to see if that lifts the swirls. Post some pics up of your finished bonnet. :thumb:


Pictures under sunlight. Finished off with some Autosmart Wax

























I actually used a mixture of all pads in the end, working evenly at speed 2/3 and stepping up to 5/6 working the area for a good 4-5 minutes putting enough force for only a few turns of the pad even at this speed.


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## Gazjs (Nov 26, 2009)

bigperm said:


> hey gaz and liam when starting out with detailing i had the same problem as yourselves tbh. the sonus range is ok but even the cutting power of sonus sfx1 with the sfx cutting pad wil still struggle with anything other than light swirls. if i were you guys i would invest in some new pads cg hexlogic pads are very good. and maybe try the 3m range or menzerna range with these you will find you can do alot more correction with these. hope this was of some help to you


Will need to look into this. I have always read good things about the Sonus pads so may just change polish.


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## 4937Liam (Feb 4, 2010)

I would be very pleased if i could get a result even close to those pictures mate - Ok my next move is SFX-2 polish on the SFX-1 pad - and of course more pressure at the speed 5-6 setting...


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## Gazjs (Nov 26, 2009)

Good luck, let me know how you get on. try giving each section a few hits also.


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## DrDax (Apr 16, 2009)

I think its just a learning curve to get the best from the pads/polish combo.

I have the sonus pads (1-4) and Merz polish (4 compounds) and Gtechniq P1 P2 C2
I now start with P1 appears to cut much better and finish with merz final finish or super finish if needed. gets most swirls out first time

When my sonus pads wear out I'll try hex-logic


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## stangalang (Nov 27, 2009)

DrDax said:


> I think its just a learning curve to get the best from the pads/polish combo.
> 
> I have the sonus pads (1-4) and Merz polish (4 compounds) and Gtechniq P1 P2 C2
> I now start with P1 appears to cut much better and finish with merz final finish or super finish if needed. gets most swirls out first time
> ...


What do you use the gtechniq stuff with? Been thinking about trying the polishes, are they da suitable? Does the "compound" need wool pads?


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## civic jord (Mar 22, 2010)

i also had the same problem with sonus pads on my car but i was useing menzerna polishes,i used the white swirl remover pad which did nothing and eventually exploded for reasons known to god! i then moved on to the yellow polishing pad which did make abit of differance,but after trying it on a few other cars ive decided sonus pads are sh*te!! so im now going to buy some hexlogic pads for my da and go over my car again when i get the time and hopefully all my swirls will be gone ! also about applying pressure to make it spin 1 or 2 times a second i thourght that was too much pressure and i always eased off when it did that lol! i was paranoid about going thru my clear coat and not haveing a PDG didnt help either but now i no thats the correct amount of pressure to use i will give it ago! thanks


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## Keefe (Jun 30, 2008)

It's possibly mirco-marring. You said the swirls are gone under LED. But under petrol kiosk light it came back. You need to see the size of the swirls. I suspect the swirls are much smaller in diameter. This usually happens on soft paints. They pick up the lightest swirls simply when pads are not cleaned or pads are too firm. E.g. LC white is too harsh for my black Mit. Lancer. I only use LC black with finishing compound to achieve a flawless look. Of course any deeper scratch needs harsher combination but that's only spot correction. I will be asking for trouble to do that for entire panel.


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## DrDax (Apr 16, 2009)

My results on p1 p2 c2 megs 16 then poorboys xxxx wax
P1 with rotary gtechniq pad Med.
P2 with da sonus pad white

Pics straight from cam. No post edit...
































P1000 GB Overcome 2.0.x


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