Lexus Scratch Removed With Cyclo

A

Anthony O.

New member
I am posting this here because there are some new pads I am working with to be used on the Cyclo.



These are not pads in the traditional sense but rather sanding discs attached to firm foam pads. I called around to some companies and then spoke with the people at Cyclo and asked if they could do something like this and they said, "Sounds interesting, lets see what we can do".



Well I have now been working with and testing these discs for some time now. Some things need to be worked on more but so far they appear to be very promising.



Here is one car I used them on. This is a regular bi-weekly car wash and today I noticed a long scratch on the passenger side the whole length of the car. Turns out he bought some land and drove out into and scraped against a downed tree. Some portions of the scratch could be felt with the nail and some parts were not that deep. A few scratches on the lower skirts were very deep, beyond conventional repair.



Here is a picture of the damage:

lxsscrtch9pp.jpg




I attached a set of 8000 grit discs to my Cyclo. Sprayed the area down with soap and water solution and began the process. after a few passes I dried the area and concluded that the 8k grit were too fine. I then skipped down to the 4000 grit discs. This did the trick as it leveled the scratch down just enough.



I then placed the ultra fine 12000 grit pads on and went over the area once more. The 12k grit pads are soooooo slick....these pads can do wonders on paint with some slight hazing.



Orange Cyclo pads with some Menzerna PG was all it took after the discs. Here are two AFTER shots, both are after orange pads and PG, no extra polishing was done.



lxsaftr13hk.jpg




lxsaftr26xy.jpg




I am posting this here mainly to pros because these pads along with the Cyclo are not for newbies. They can damage paint if used in unskilled hands. Also, the car owner was greatly pleased, $200 worth of pleased as I saved him more than that if he had taken it to a body shop I am sure.



I will post up another car I did some paint correction on using just these discs and the Cyclo only, in a few days.



Thanks,

Anthony
 
Anthony,



In terms of removing this defect if you were using Meguiar's sanding blocks would using 2000 grit be too strong? I haven't seen any grit blocks or paper in anything finer than 2000? Where do you get 8000 and 4000 grit?
 
AutoNova said:
Anthony,



In terms of removing this defect if you were using Meguiar's sanding blocks would using 2000 grit be too strong? I haven't seen any grit blocks or paper in anything finer than 2000? Where do you get 8000 and 4000 grit?
Click to expand...



For this particular scratch 2k would work but personally I feel it would be overkill. When I ran the 8k grit pads I was shocked that it did not do all that much as far as hazing or leveling went. The scratch was still visible, not so much looking straight on, but from an angle it could still be seen. This is why I went with the 4k grit. It leveled the paint just enough to where the scratch was barely visible. The Cyclo, with orange pads and PG, removed the last of it along with all the hazing.



These pads with the Cyclo really doesn't leave sanding marks behind but more like hazing....sanding hazing, maybe:nixweiss With these pads though you can't run the Cyclo just anywhere. A pattern needs to be followed, or one should be followed, as this makes it easier to come back and polish out the hazing.



Cyclo is working with a company that designs ultra fine sanding papers for work on delicate items such as aircraft canopies and such. The 12k grit is almost like working with Auto Magic's "red clay", it may even be that the red clay is more abrasive.



BillD



Much appreciated my friend:xyxthumbs



Anthony
 
Nice work (as always).



How did you get a 'feel' for doing this work? Assume that you had to practice a while on junk panels?



I saw a thread on DC this week that 4* has a new product made exclusively for wet sanding. It's called AEG. Have you tried it?
 
Thank you 'Anthony Orosco' for the useful information and your insightsâ€Â¦look forward to further testing results/



JonM
 
Heh heh, I hope Cyclo gets some of this stuff into regular production! Thanks again, Anthony.



Bill D.- Yeah, MicroMark has all sorts of goodies ;)



AutoNova- While I'd certainly look into the MicroMark catalog (heh heh, you'll find *something* you can't live without!) you can also get 2.5-3K grit sanding media from Meguiar's and 3M. I used a 2.5K block and 3K paper on the S8 afer its "deer incident" repairs. I like the Meg's stuff better than the 3M in this case. But MicroMark has much finer grits than that.
 
mgm121499 said:
Nice work (as always).



How did you get a 'feel' for doing this work? Assume that you had to practice a while on junk panels?



I saw a thread on DC this week that 4* has a new product made exclusively for wet sanding. It's called AEG. Have you tried it?
Click to expand...



I have yet to try the 4* product you mention and actualy my work truck has been my "tester" for these pads:eek: Not sure if I have any clear coat left on my hood...lol



TOGWT said:
Thank you 'Anthony Orosco' for the useful information and your insightsâ€Â¦look forward to further testing results/



JonM
Click to expand...



My pleasure, and thank you:)



scottabir said:
Are these pads similiar to the mirka abralon system that is out there, only in 4 inch pads?
Click to expand...



Pretty similiar except that these 4in. pads will have thicker foam backing pads (working on this area right now) and the grits being made for the Cyclo company will START at 4000 and go all the way up to ultra fine 12,000 grit, which feels like a piece of leather...uber-cool:up I have used the 12k grit so much that now I think it is more like 15k grit!



I am trying to brainstorm some other "goodie" that one can use on windshields. I am pretty excited about these things and really hope they continue to work well and then get them into production:D , which will be as soon as Cyclo and myself are satisfied with the proper backing system.



Thanks all,

Anthony
 
Anthony , wow I'm impressed. So where and when are these products going to be available?



Anthony You've also got a pm from me.
 
Wow. It's so neat to see advancements like this! Last year we were camping and my dad backed the van into a tree (ouch). Somehow, he popped the dent out, and without telling me filled in the scratch with some Honda touch-up paint. It looks better than before, but obviously there's blobs of paint (quite noticeable). I would love to be able to fix this for him...is this a wet-sanding job? If it is (or isn't, since I'd still like to learn how), where are some places/sites that I can go to to learn how to wet-sand? Any articles? In the way future I'd love to do this for clients.



Thanks
 
Just started using the cyclo. My results thus far have been much less impressive. I find myself resorting back to the rotary...



After viewing your results I will not give up hope. I am very interested in the abrasives that you used on this vehicle.



Great job.......as expected !!!
 
6']['9 said:
Great work looks awesome. Id be careful about how you worded that LOL.;)
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LOL! :LOLOL :doh



Yeah that's what got me in trouble last time eh?



detailbarn said:
Anthony , wow I'm impressed. So where and when are these products going to be available?



Anthony You've also got a pm from me.
Click to expand...



I'll check my PM's in just a minute, thanks. The discs will be available as son as I am satisfied with the backing system. They can't be too stiff as they need to conform to curves and edges yet they can't be too soft as a softer backing pad tends to decrease the effectiveness of the discs. So as soon as I get that worked out they should be ready to go:xyxthumbs



pigeonbus said:
Wow. It's so neat to see advancements like this! Last year we were camping and my dad backed the van into a tree (ouch). Somehow, he popped the dent out, and without telling me filled in the scratch with some Honda touch-up paint. It looks better than before, but obviously there's blobs of paint (quite noticeable). I would love to be able to fix this for him...is this a wet-sanding job? If it is (or isn't, since I'd still like to learn how), where are some places/sites that I can go to to learn how to wet-sand? Any articles? In the way future I'd love to do this for clients.



Thanks
Click to expand...



These are basically used wet but can be used dry if needed. There is no need to continuously flush the area with water as with regular wetsanding but instead you can use a spray bottle with water/soap mixture.



Spray the area to be sanded, begin using the Cyclo, I follow a up and down pattern whenever possible and after a few passes stop the Cyclo, dry the area and check my work.



To learn more about wet sanding you can do a search on this site, myself and others have a few threads on it.



Thanks,

Anthony
 
Clean Dean said:
Just started using the cyclo. My results thus far have been much less impressive. I find myself resorting back to the rotary...



After viewing your results I will not give up hope. I am very interested in the abrasives that you used on this vehicle.



Great job.......as expected !!!
Click to expand...



Hey Dean....thanks for posting buddy! Got your email and will get that Optimum off to you this Monday.....I hope:D



I am sure you will get the hang of the Cyclo real quick, keep practicing.



Scottwax said:
:cool: Very interesting! Seems like you can correct some 'rotary only' paint defects now using these discs and a Cyclo.
Click to expand...



Yeah Scott, these pads should be able to do work usually reserved for the rotary. There is though a learning curve.....plus geting over the initial jitters:scared



Anthony
 
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