This past weekend I also had my first opportunity to perform a complete detail on my 4 month old car. Well…it is 4 months old to me anyway. To make a perfect plan depressing, it started to rain about 4 hours into the process. I got the car washed, dried and clayed without incident even though I used a lot more clay lube than I anticipated. I didn’t rewash and dry the car after the clay, I just wiped the lube off with a micro fiber towel in an attempt to beat the impending rain. So I start with 3M Finesse It II on the hood with an orange cutting pad and experiment as I go. It wasn’t long before I realize that you don’t leave the PC on speed 2 for long. Just long enough to get the polish worked in a bit. I would continue on speed 4.5 for about 5 minutes on a 2x2 area but the polish was not drying, nor was it removing the surface imperfections. However, the texture of the surface was certainly getting smoother. I didn’t want to risk damaging the car so I didn’t push too far with the 3M. Once I finished the entire hood with the 3M I began applying the Klasse AIO to the hood. What a shine! However, still no luck removing the surface imperfections. The hood is so smooth and so brilliant (especially after applying the Klasse sealant) that it looks like I can reach right into the paint. :alright

Then the rain started and my work came to a halt. :shifty Only got the hood done. It will be a few weeks before I can try this again, after which I hope to be able to post some pictures.

My questions: How long do I continue with the 3M to get the swirls out? Until there is no residue? Or, three times until there is no residue? Do I need to turn up the speed of the PC? I tried keeping the pad flat and I tried holding it at an angle to the plane of the hood surface so that just the edge of the pad was being used. Which is appropriate? (When I held the PC flat it jumped around a bit.) Do I apply any pressure or do I try to just let the weight of the PC do the work? Should the surface I’m polishing get warm from the friction? Mine did not. Does that mean I didn’t work the polish in long enough?

I appreciate any advice,
Eric

I have not used FI2 in particular, but typically you will work a polish until it is *almost* dry. It will clear up somewhat.

I try to keep the pad flat and put a decent amount of pressure while trying to remove defects. I also use speed 5-6 when trying to "cut," but again, I'm not familiar with FI2 specifically.

Since the PC doesn't generate any appreciable heat, it makes defect removal slow at times. It's hard to say without seeing your car in person, but it could take several passes to remove the problems. Patience :)

It sounds as though you will need to polish each section several times before seeing a reduction in swirls.

You will NOT damage the paint with FI2 and a cutting pad even at speed 6. There is a vido on Autopia (I wish I could find it) of someone leaning down on their PC on their car on speed 6 for one minute. As you have noticed, minor imperfections do not come out easily....this is becuase FI2 with a cutting pad takes off SO LITTLE clear coat. I did each panel at least twice.

You can push down as hard as you want. This will make the process go a little faster and break down the polsih faster, but its more work in the end. The FI2 is more abrasive when you first apply it. It will then become finer and less capible of removing imperfections.

From my experience (I spent four days straight with my PC) I would say FI2 is for leveling off SWIRLS and not much more. If you have a light scratch, (or worse) I would switch over to a 4-inch "spot" pad and a more abrasive polish/compound. (This is the next thing I'm going to try). I also expected FI2 to remove more but its really pretty gentle.

The FI2 is weird when it comes to removal - I haven't got this part down. I just used a QD before AIO but my AIO-SG part didn't go well so I have to redo it. I'm not sure that the AIO didn't interact with the QD because it smeared, bad.

I started on speed 4 with the FI2 and stepped up to 6 as soon as it the product was evenly spread across the paint. I spent most of my time on 6. Again....I did some dangerous things with the PC and came nowhere near harming the paint. They are amazingly paint-friendly.

You can push down as hard as you want.

I don't know if I'd go that far. There is a point when you bog the motor down and it doesn't 'orbit' as intended.