For many shops, black and dark colours are simply a nightmare if there are unhappy customers and lost man-hours spent on re-work. Following these simple steps will allow you to present dark-coloured cars perfectly every time. They will not only save you several hours of re-work but save you from unhappy customers damaging your reputation. Best of all these steps will save you time and money on every job.
1. Work on small areas
When de-nibbing or removing runs, only work on the immediate area. After de-nibbing, use a 3” or 4” diameter pad to restore the dulled paint to its full gloss. Many shops will attack de-nib sanding marks with an 8”, but this creates more work than necessary by introducing marring to larger areas which then must be polished out.
2. Polish flat and slow
Remember to keep your pad almost flat on the paint. Using just the pad edge creates excessive heat and will usually leave holograms and marring. Follow the polish instructions: if a polish says to use 1200rpm, use it. Good quality polishes are developed over many hours of testing and their recommendations should be followed.
3. Clean your pads
Clean your pads after each panel using a proper pad cleaning brush or compressed air. Pads that are dirty and clogged with polish produce poor results, slow the job down and ultimately cost your business more. Clean as you go, making sure you wash out your pads completely at the end of every day. And don’t be tempted to use the corner of a bench or a steel tool to clean your pads, as this will drastically reduce pad lifetime.
4. Use a less aggressive polish
‘We use a heavy compound and aggressive pad to ensure we get everything out’ – wrong! If you use a light or medium polish with an effective pad on areas that don’t need to be heavily worked you can reduce three polishing steps to two, or even one, depending on your paint type. The harder you cut initially, the more you have to polish out afterwards. Sometimes it can take longer to remove polishing marks than sanding marks, wasting your time and effort.
5. Use quality cloths
Use quality microfibre cloths/towels to wipe off polish residue and clean panels. Dirty, old or cheap rags cause marring that wastes all your efforts to achieve a quality finish. Buy good quality microfibre cloths and have them cleaned regularly.
6. Finish with a random orbital machine
A random orbital polisher offers a different polishing motion to that of a rotary machine and should remove holograms and buffer trails. A final pass with a random orbital machine, a soft finishing pad and a finishing polish is easy, doesn’t take long and should guarantee, if the other rules have been followed, a flawless finish.
