Scirocco Central

The last few days I've spent upwards of 15 hours attempting to detail my scirocco. It was my first time using a DA polisher and but I feel like I got the knack of it after a while.

The only thing is... It doesn't look much better!

I did a two step correction using, menzerna fg400 with an hexlogic orange cutting pad and menzerna sf3800 with a hexlogic green polishing pad.

I was really surprised with how well the fg400 finished down but was disappointed with the cutting ability. It removed light swirl marks but not much else! I've still got loads of RDS in my paint.

Was I doing something wrong?

I was using speed 5 on a das6pro moving very slowly doing around 6 passes.

Something else I found was when doing an IPA wipe down after the sf3800 it just seemed to smudge the residue almost reactivating it I gave up with that after a while and just used it to get rid of the tape marks then buffed with a dry towel before LSP.

Any thoughts are welcome!

Scirocco paint is quite hard.
I used Scholl S3 on a green pad as a good single stage when I last used a DA on a Scirocco.
I tried FG400 but it didn't seem to have the right results.

Use a good fixed lighting setup which will help you see your progress and it may also be your technique

Alternatively move up to a Microfiber cutting pad using the Meguairs MF pad and finish with a green or white pad with SF3800/4000.

I haven't used SF3800(?) but I have used SF4000 and it comes off OK, maybe try adjusting your IPA dilution.
If that fails CarPro eraser is a very good panel wipe down product.

do you know detailing kingdom (DK)?

it works brilliantly at my shop.

I may try a microfiber cutting pad next time.

I know my paint in in much better condition as FG400 removed all the swirl marks, but it just doesn't look amazing. I see other peoples photos on here after a detail and their cars look incredible haha

Buy some Lake Country thin foamed wool pads and some Scholl S3 Gold XXL along with Scholl S40 and a Scholl orange pad to refine and you will thank me later.

As mentioned the paint on Sciroccos is pretty hard ... so although possible with a DA will be very time consuming and require patience.

I corrected mine with rotary for that reason and even then it needed heavy cutting pads and FG400. It was then finished with P0203S (2400) before being waxed.

With a DA you are going to need MF pads or wool to make a decent impact.

Can't help much on the best approach to correction/polishing as I'm a newb to it and found similar when I tried on our black Scirocco. I would suggest however that for wipe down you use a mixture of IPA and distilled water rather than neat IPA. I had the same issue as you with IPA just smearing and not removing the residues, but the mixture works much better.

yes, my post wasnt clear but i was using a 50:50 solution

I know this is an old thread but for anyone looking for a good way to remove swirls from the hard scirocco paint is getting great results with a rupes microfibres pad and rupes quartz medium gel polish, removes all swirls in a single pass and finishes well

I tried orange hex pad and some megs cutting compound did nothing to the clearcoat.

The mcirofibre system is so much better all round and works. Not perfect but gets you 70-80% of the way there:)