Heavy oxidation, optimum cure

[Heijneker]

Hey all,

I've been working at a used car dealership for the past couple of weeks now. Of course as a detailer and I'm enjoying the work. It's great! Largerly thanks to Optimum (and Yvan), I can make very decent money doing these jobs, since I'm twice/three times as fast as competing detailers, with superior results. Right now, I can complete 3 cars inside and out per day, to a good/very good (for dealerships) result. Soon this will hopefully become 4!

 

So thanks for that!!

 

Yesterday however, I met my match! An older white van, with heavy oxidation. Here's how bad it was:

Yikes! After I tried my Rotary (FLEX PE 14-1 Speed 3), a 6.5' Lake Country wool pad and Hyper Compound, I was left with this:

WARNING: Non-Optimum polishing action ahead.

Yup, I'm thinking that that needs sanding! Sadly I did not have the equipment to sand the whole car, so I decided to try what I see everybody else doing:

164.537 step polishing and a full day's work. Eventually, after getting the panel so hot I could fry an egg on it, I got it looking good!:

But what would be the Optimum way to fix this paint?

Obviously sanding would be the way, but what would be the process? Would I start with 3000 grit or lower? Would I finish with 3000 grit or higher? How would I know if the sanding would be sufficient? What device would be recommended to sand with?

What I'm thinking would be the Optimum way:

Sanding with 3000 grit (or first lower if required), then follow up with 6000 grit and polish to a shine with a DA and Hyper Polish. Hyper Polish should be able to handle that, right? I'm hoping a high quality electric sander would suffice.

Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for the reply. I'd understand if this was too much too ask.

[Setec Astronomy]

Why would you skip to sanding?  I haven't used the latest versions of Compound or Intensive Polish, but I would think one of them would do the trick, it didn't look that bad to me.  What machine are you using?  If you have a DA you can sand with that, no need for a "high quality electric sander".  If you were going to sand, 3000 is way too much, I would do 5000 or 6000, but again, if you have a decent machine with today's polishes, I would think Compound followed by Intensive Polish would be fine for a white truck.  I understand the current Compound is quite gritty, so I'm not sure if you could skip to Hyper Polish from that.

What did you actually use?  Polish/pad/machine?

[Heijneker]

@Setec Astronomy I would skip to sanding to keep panel temperature down and save time. Compounding 6 times the panel got wat too hot.

My Flex XFE 7-15 has too high a offset for sanding.

I used my FLEX pe 14-1 on speed 2-3, an 8' wool pad and Optimum Hyper compound. Hyper compound is indeed very gritty, has amazing cut and works very well.

This was the worst case of oxidation I have seen on clear coat.

[Setec Astronomy]

Oh, I see.  When you said "DA" I presumed you were talking about something with a smaller orbit, rather than a long-stroke.  I still think 3000 grit is too much, 5000 I think is what I would do, but I don't think I've ever machine sanded paint, only headlights.