Well, it finally happened, I finally caused some damage while machine polishing. Last weekend I painted my tailgate handle and bucket with Duplicolor rattle can base coat and clear coat after sanding it mostly smooth with 320 and 400 grit sandpaper then using filler primer. It turned out surprisingly good. It was a good match to the rest of the paint color wise but it didn't really shine like it should due to some orange peel. I decided to wetsand it with 3000 unigrit Meguiars sandpaper then polish the sanding marks out with my PC and some Meguiars Speed Glaze on a 4" Cyclo polishing pad. Well I sanded it down using some Duragloss car wash mixed with water in a spray bottle as lube. Then I started polishing the handle with my PC set to speed 6. After I broke the polish down I tried to wipe the residue away and immediately noticed the white blotch that wouldn't budge. When I touched it and found out how hot that spot was I realized I burned the paint! I polished the bucket out using basically no pressure and speed 3.5-4 on my PC and it came out great. I just didn't think before I started on the handle. The Duplicolor rattle can paint is decent stuff but it's lacquer, which is much softer than modern paint. It was also only a week old and wasn't cured with high temperatures like factory paint jobs. Not to mention you have to be extra careful when working with painted plastic, it just retains heat a lot better than metal and is easier to burn. Had I used a little common sense this wouldn't have happened and I wouldn't be pulling the handle off again to re-paint it tomorrow! I'll get pics tomorrow when there is enough light.

 

Hmmmm thats good to know. I have been using my Porter Cable with 4 inch Cyclo pads for a little bit with no problems. Just never on anything that small. Just goes to show you how aggresive the little PC can be on a small area.

 

Yep, just shows that you have to be careful. With 4" pads at speed 6 you can do some damage. The biggest reason for the damage is that this was lacquer paint on a plastic piece of trim. On factory paint it would be nearly impossible to burn your paint with something as mild as Speed Glaze and a polishing pad.

 

Crap... Always worried about this. Maybe I'll just do my plastics by hand.

 

Just be more careful than I was and you would be fine working by machine.