I was porter cabling my whole car (PPW) and ended up over working a small scratch with my final sealer and must have burned it or something because there is a 3" circle where the metal flake is gone.. From what I can see, I never went through the clear so the only thing I can think of is that I created enough heat to effect the metalflake paint under the clear.. When you look at it from the side, it looks like a 3" white circle with no pearl at all.. Grrrrrr.. From the promotional videos of the porter cable, it showed that they don't create enough heat to burn your paint and even showed them buffing a bald guys head.. WTH?

 

You might post a picture of the damage. If you didn't go through the clear, there is no way you could have affected the paint under the clear coat. Used aggressively enough, any buffer can burn the paint. If you left it sitting in one spot for a long enough time, you may have removed a circle of clear coat.

 

I tried taking a picture but it just isnt showing up on the picture, at least not enough to really see it.. However, with the naked eye it clearly looks bad.. How can I tell if I went through the clear? The area is just as shiny and deep looking as the paint 6" away where I know for sure there is clear left.

 

I just noticed you said you have a 3" circle. Were you using a 3" pad on the Porter Cable? You can easily burn paint with a small pad. The 6" pad is the normal pad and I doubt you could burn paint with the larger pad. You might go to a body shop and have them take a look at it. I suspect you are going to have to respray the panel to remove the defect.

 

I did use a 6" pad but there was a "up" radious just below the spot I was working on so thats probably where the pad was doing most of the work and thats where the issue is.. I already have an appointment with a friends body shop tomorrow to look at it..

 

Does sound like you went through the clear coat, but without pics, it's anyone's guess. Want kind of compound were you using? I saw you said you were using a sealer, but that's almost impossible, unless you let the buffer sit in one place for a loooong time!

 

I used a mild swirl remover first and then went over it pretty heavy with the sealer but didnt notice it until I used the sealer..

 

Just a tip don't ever buy a rotary if you pulled this off with a porter cable. Repaint is in your future.

 

Yeah without pictures there's not much we can deduce from this. However I am curious as to how someone would take pictures of the PPW Z to begin with, to show the defects. I'm going to polish my Z pretty soon and I can't seem to get good shots of the swirls and other defects. It just doesn't stand out enough on the camera. In sunlight it's easily noticeable but once a picture is taken, it's not good enough. I need to polish this thing in the garage too, and it's even more difficult to see the swirls - I used a particular flashlight on my old KH3 which worked like a charm to check swirls, but on my PPW Z the swirls don't even show up.

 

dark garage, camera flash.