Detailing Question: 3M Compound - Help!

IMO that's way too strong of a compound for your use. According to 3M, that compound is to remove color sanding scratches from up to 1200 grit paper! And is for "neglected" cars with "coarse" swirl marks. I doubt your car is any of those things, and you should use a much milder polish.

Also, always use the recommended pad with a polish. The cutting action of the pad is matched to the cutting action of the polish.

I'm not familiar with that buffer you are using, but hopefully it is a random orbital and not a high speed direct drive. Random oribitals are safe, high speed direct drives can cause a lot of damage, very quickly.

 

The bad news is you used the wrong machine to apply the wrong product with the wrong pad and the wrong technique L

The good news is that the damage can be repaired with little to no permanent effect if done properly (by yourself or a professional).

I would be surprised if the directions for Perfect It II didn’t state ‘for rotary polisher use’ or something to that effect. It is an older polish which used a large (rock’s in a bottle) abrasive. As the polish is worked against the surface of the paint the abrasives ‘break down’ and become finer and finer. As the abrasives ‘diminish’ or dissolve the leave behind finer and finer scratches on the paint. If the abrasives are not broken down completely the resulting finish on the paint is going to look pretty bad.

The Ryobi orbital polisher is really nothing more then a wax applying machine and doesn’t not have enough power to break down abrasives nor really polish paint. The terry cloth is not idea for polishing paint, and while it contributed to the problem, it likely didn’t cause it.

What happened is that you used a very aggressive polish (the abrasives are very large to begin with) and scrubbed it against the paint causing the scratches. Because the machine doesn’t have enough power, and you didn’t apply pressure, the abrasives (attached to the terry cloth) simply moved about the paint creating microscopic scratches (visible as holograms). The abrasives never broke down (which allows the polish to ‘polish itself out).

Despite the rough looking appearance of your car it is likely that you removed much paint (removed very very little, just very unevenly) .

To fix it you can opt to purchase the correct products and do it yourself or have a high quality detailer fix it (I can make recommendations in your area if need be).

If you choose to do it yourself you will need much better products, including a variable speed (dual action0 orbital polisher, correct polishing pads, and polishes designed to be used with orbital polishers. You will also need patience and time.

There are plenty of great polishing kits on the market and I work for as a consultant for one of the online detailing supply stores and can again make a recommendation if you like. Most of these kits will run between 250-500 dollars.

If the cost is bummer you could always charge some friends and family money to detail their cars (and practice on them as well) to amortize the cost. Best case scenario is you will learn something new and your cars will always look better then 99% of the cars on the road, worst case scenario is that you end up like me: A once promising Pre Med student with a Bachelor’s Degree in business who now spends long days toiling over some of the coolest automotive creations ever on this Earth, and loves every minute of it.

 

Other than that, you did great!......

Seriously, at least it seems it's "recoverable" - Albeit with a lot of work/$.....

Good luck!

Cheers,
Ian

 

"Finesse it" is the 3M final glaze, IIRC.........but I hand apply it carefully.

 

There is a Perfect It ULTRA fine polish, for machine use........but as posted the one labeled Compound is much rougher...

 

But there was a car involved, so let's hand out some extra credit.