Jeweling and leveling the clear coat

[ericr]

I started detailing my PB 2015 today and had a revelation about getting an ultimate shine. I did a good wash, clay bar'd, and then started on a polish.

I used my DeWalt rotary with 3M Perfect-it Ultrafine Machine polish on a 8" 3M ultra-fine foam pad. This is the second time I've done it since I've owned the car. This time, I had some fine scratches that I tried to remove by adding pressure and building heat. I should have just gone to a courser compound and polished it out. Instead, what I found happening was that this good, hard, clear coat became plastic and started moving. The ultra-fine polish wasn't course enough to wear the hard clear coat away, it just heated it up and moved it to where there was a little wrinkle of moved clear coat on that spot I was trying to work out.

So, I took my experiment further. Full speed, about 10 pounds of pressure for 3 passes. Then followed by just machine pressure at lower speed for 3 passes.

The orange peel goes away! Not fully, but after about 3 treatments, I think it will be mirror smooth. And, it does it without grinding it away.

I'll finish tomorrow with Poor Boy's EXP sealant and Natty wax and post some photos.

 

[Manta Ray]

You're telling me you can remove orange peel without wet sanding.... this is... strange. I love to see the results.

 

[ericr]

Orange peel is almost gone...

 

[Manta Ray]

Maybe a half panel shot? its quite hard to judge at an angle with no controlled light source to make orange peel appear. It looks great but i would be careful about heating up clear, one wrong move and you got a yellow-brown spot if you know what I mean.

 

[OffTheWall503]

You're not that far from me in Washington, how much would you charge to do a pass on my FiST?

 

[ericr]

You're not that far from me in Washington, how much would you charge to do a pass on my FiST?

I'm not a pro and wouldn't want to risk damaging your car. I'm sure you could find someone locally to jewel your car. Good luck!

 

[Manta Ray]

Just a PSA:

my 16 kona blue fiesta paint thickness measured the following:

Door Jam: 55 micron
Hood, Roof, Hatch: average 84 microns
Doors, Fender, Quarter panel: Average 105 microns

This is very very thin, and I would suggest not doing too much paint correction on it at the risk of removing UV protection, and/or Clear coat. A rough estimate of clear coat thickness is panel - jam = approx. clear coat thickness.

of course there is a chance that my paint thickness gauge is off, but the difference still calculates correctly, we have 29-50 microns of clear to mess with, which sounds like a lot but... it really isnt. Ford is a medium hardness paint.

 

[jdubs]

Just a PSA:

my 16 kona blue fiesta paint thickness measured the following:

Door Jam: 55 micron
Hood, Roof, Hatch: average 84 microns
Doors, Fender, Quarter panel: Average 105 microns

This is very very thin, and I would suggest not doing too much paint correction on it at the risk of removing UV protection, and/or Clear coat. A rough estimate of clear coat thickness is panel - jam = approx. clear coat thickness.

of course there is a chance that my paint thickness gauge is off, but the difference still calculates correctly, we have 29-50 microns of clear to mess with, which sounds like a lot but... it really isnt. Ford is a medium hardness paint.

This is great information. I'm curious though how it compares to other cars. Do you have any examples to compare to? That would give me a better reference of where our cars sit. Also while I understand the variables what do you figure is taken off when doing some light paint correction? Compound, polisher, and pressure all affecting this greatly.

 

[SeanBonham]

[MENTION=5055]Manta Ray[/MENTION] I am planning on doing some LIGHT paint correction in the near future. Using a DA with Ultimate compound / Ultimate polish. Any danger going in this direction you think? Just removing some swirls etc.

 

[Manta Ray]

comparable cars would be mazdas of all sorts. my friends civic yield similar results, but his car has been detailed before, so i dont know what was done to it.

i would start with the least abrasive step, and see if i can get what i want before going to anything more aggressive.

so.. fine polish and finishing pad is what i would use on this car... but since i do have a paint thickness gauge, i can measure as i go, but even then at 80um i wouldnt touch those panels. i generally dont use any abrasives on paint under 90um....

 

[Muldoon]

Door Jam: 55 micron
Hood, Roof, Hatch: average 84 microns
Doors, Fender, Quarter panel: Average 105 microns

Thank you for posting this! I'd LOVE to get this data for the rest of the colors our cars were painted in.

For those of you who aren't familiar with microns, newsprint is about 70 microns thick.

 

[Manta Ray]

Thank you for posting this! I'd LOVE to get this data for the rest of the colors our cars were painted in.

For those of you who aren't familiar with microns, newsprint is about 70 microns thick.

If I ever meet with other members, I'll take a reading and report back.

So far, Kona blue is like... crap. lol

 

[StuttersC]

Just a PSA:

my 16 kona blue fiesta paint thickness measured the following:

Door Jam: 55 micron
Hood, Roof, Hatch: average 84 microns
Doors, Fender, Quarter panel: Average 105 microns

This is very very thin, and I would suggest not doing too much paint correction on it at the risk of removing UV protection, and/or Clear coat. A rough estimate of clear coat thickness is panel - jam = approx. clear coat thickness.

of course there is a chance that my paint thickness gauge is off, but the difference still calculates correctly, we have 29-50 microns of clear to mess with, which sounds like a lot but... it really isnt. Ford is a medium hardness paint.

Nice! I was just thinking about getting a paint thickness reader to look into this very idea.

Thanks for the info!

 

[Manta Ray]

I scored a used Defelsko DFT, being used I tested it on random metals I have lying around and on machined aluminum and brass I can get 0, but I don't have a piece of machined steel to check.. requires flat surface. But I was able to get 0 on my seat belt buckle, so I assume its working fine. Either way, the Kona Blue paint is about as thin as it can get on a new car... lol.. basically a nightmare for me. I ordered some coatings to apply on my car but I am also recovering from an injury so I'm just staring at my dirty car now.

And I'd recommend picking one up (even the Highline II, but from the elcometer webiste for 150 bucks, way better than detailing sites asking for 250...) if you plan to do any detailing or paint work correction on your own car, there is really no room for error. I was going to get the Highline II until I scored the used Defelsko, so much more professional since I am working towards starting up a detailing business.