Good thing I bought the HLM II PTG...

before polishing my car this weekend! I haz teh thinnest paint evar. Not one of the readings I took were above 110 microns. The lowest I saw was 72 with most readings in the 80s.

Only the top half of the car (greenhouse) has seen one pass with 106FA on a white LC pad via 3401 and that was last year. It maybe did 50% correction at best; was just testing it after all. I picked up samples of M105 and M205 this year to add to the Menzerna polishes I have. No way am I going to test out M105 now that I know how thin my paint is.

I'm not even sure where to start now. A year has seen a minimal increase in swirls, but there are definitely some deeper swirls that I've noticed.

Any suggestions? I'm thinking I'll start with PO203S on a black LC pad. And follow up with 85RD on gold.

 

I am even scared to test the panels on my car. it just had been polished so many times
to the point now 85rd and a white pad does more than 80% of correction, thats how thin it got.
looking forward to ur findings

 

Yikes. Did you recalibrate it?

The thinnest area I found on my F250 was 70 microns even. This on one of the parts of the truck that turned my pads black. I decided it was best to proceed with extreme caution, and not go for 100% correction in these areas.

 

No, I tested all the strips against the metal plate and the readings were all within 3 microns. I thought they came from Elcometer already calibrated?

I just can't believe that paint would be so thin from the factory...it's upsetting to say the least.

 

It sounds like you might be investing in some glazes!

 

This is where you gotta ask yourself how much longer you want to keep it. You have knowledge that nobody else is going to have. Do you try to clean it up a bit with a mild cleaning like DG 501 and a white pad or green and flip it or do you keep it and give it a paint job. Decision time...:shead:

 

It's funny you mention that Rich. My best friend bought a brand new A4 this weekend. When the Audi dealership was evaluating how much to give for his trade-in, they were out there with a PTG. Guy came back and said "whoever repainted your front left fender did a damn fine job!"

:applause2:

 

The car's not even two and a half years old yet. Man, this sucks. Maybe I'll just do another 106FA pass on the whole car, this time on a black pad, slap on some BH Auto Balm and go to the touchless from now on.

This makes me want to just quit and sell all my detailing stuff...:cry:

 

Weird... That's a bummer man! I know my Highline wasn't calibrated from the factory like they say it would be, but you said you checked it :shrug:

Sorry to hear!

 

Let's not start with the crazy talk, okay? :yikes:

I've been thinking about this issue a bit. Why not try some 106, like you suggested, or something else really, really mild. Then, re-check the thickness of the paint. If you're satisfied with the results, stop. If you aren't, re-check the thickness. Has it moved much? Has it moved at all? If it hasn't, step up a level of aggression.

I just checked the thin spots on my F250. Thin as it was, the paint readings only changed by a couple microns, it appears. The areas that were in the 70s and 80s are still in the 70s and 80s. Of course, I don't have perfectly accurate ways of knowing where I measured the before I worked on it and where I measured a couple minutes ago, but this morning's measurements are certainly pretty close.

 

Aye, no more crazy talk. There's one section that had a couple of 100+ readings that I'll test with 106 again then check the readings. I let my despair get the better of me and panicked...should've known better than to expect consistent 160 micron readings.

I'll be sure to post the numbers and do my best to take the readings from the same spot. :thumb:

 

Something else occurs to me. With a car this new, do you even need something as aggressive as 105? I mean, anything's possible, but if you've owned it from new, I have to imagine that it hardly needs 105 at all.

 

I never really thought that it did, but without a 2nd car anymore, I don't have anything that serves as the test car for new products. The Mustang was the test car for polishes and the MS3 was the test car for LSPs.

I was going to touch up some rock chips on the MS3, wetsand, and then use M105 to level them down, but I don't see how I can anymore with how thin my paint is. I guess I'll have to make due with the Lanka kit I have. I could really blob it up in the chips and tape the hell out of the surrounding area I guess. :shrug:

 

damn iPhone...:waiting:

 

FWIW, after I abandoned the KBPCM while working on the F250, I used 3M Perfec-It II rubbing compound. Pretty aggressive stuff, and very little thickness change resulted. Still though...I probably wouldn't use anything like M105 (or the 3M stuff) just as a test unless I really had to.

If you tackle the touch up project , post a thread about it if you can. Every time I try touch up paint, Im disappointed with the results.

Posting from an iPhone is hard! I'm doing it now from the Ford dealer waiting room.

 

If 106fa doesn't work, I think I'll break out the old bottle of PO85U and see how that does. I'm not sure where M205 falls on the cut scale compared to 106fa, but that's another option as well. I'd prolly use a really short work time.

I just thought of something that would really suck...really hard, really thin clearcoat...

Will do my best to post a write-up on my chip repair. I just hope my camera can get that close and not be too blurry.

iPhone + Edge network = old 4800 baud modem