Burned through clear with PC - need pro advice

[Lmandrake]

I just gave my VW Passat her annual work over with my Porter Cable Random Orbital. I started with Poor Boys 2.25 swirl remover. I use edge 2000 pads and went with the yellow medium cut pad as I had not been happy with the results in fall of 2007 when I used the less agressive light green light cut pad. Everything came out great except that I have a very tiny - like half a fingernail clipping - burn through of my clearcoat right under one of the door handle openings. Judging from the rest of the car, where you can still find some sap etchings and some scratches if you know where to look, I think my pad and compound choice - even though agressive - was not the cause of the burn through.

I did not work this area over and I never use pressure - I just let the machine work the product. I was completely shocked when saw the burn.

My guess is that I either hit a real high spot or I encountered a prior scratch repair where somebody really went to town with an agressive compound or did some sanding. There is a spot right next to the burn that looks funky, so I think I hit a prior repair.

Question 1 - What should/can be done to repair? The base coat is metallic, so any repair other than reshooting the base coat will be obvious. However, It is intact. Should it be sealed with more clear or something else, or is it OK to leave it alone? You would be hard pressed to find it unless I pointed you to it. I can avoid it, or tape it over in the future when I use anything other than a dedicated polish or sealant/wax.

Question 2 - Should I throw out the medium cut pad or vow to never use it again on this car?

I assume that hitting a prior repair and having a small burn through - or finding such burn throughs on a clients car before starting - would have happened to a pro.

Any advice or thoughts will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[OCDetails]

You are more likely to burn through paint on edges of panels and small rounded pieces like door handles. If the burn is on a 'corner' then you can probably bet that it was just a thin spot and any amount of polishing probably would have burned it. I would blame your backing plate hitting it, but since you were using the Edge system then there isn't much chance of that. You just hit a thin spot in the paint and there wasn't much you could do about it. I guess in hindsight you could have measured every square inch of your car and identified the potential for this damage after three or four hours of investigating, but that isn't practical. The reasonable man wouldn't have done that so there isn't much you could have done to prevent it.

Door handles get replaced fairly often. I had to replace one on my Accord after only 80,000 miles. It was a rear door that doesn't get used very often too. There are two choices when getting door replacements. Well, three really I guess. You can either order one from the factory already painted, you can get one from the factory that is ready for paint, or you can buy one from a junk yard or off the internet and paint it yourself. If it was anything other than the first choice then there is a chance that the painting just wasn't done to OEM standards. Take a really close look at the rest of the assembly and see if there are any other signs of it being an aftermarket paint job.

Definitely don't throw out the yellow pad. That is an incredibly useful pad that can get rid of all sorts of damage. It may have been a little agressive with SSR 2.5 on aftermarket or thin paint, but how were you supposed to know that? The pad is fine. It was the paint that was the problem.

On burns there isn't a whole lot that can be done to repair them other than airbrushing it over again. Touchup paint doesn't work well because there isn't really a scratch or chip to fill in. Airbrushing can be blended with the rest of the piece and look like new again. Any paint shop should be able to take care of that for you if it really bothers you. If you want to sand it down and touch it up and sand that down to blend then you could do that, but airbrushing would be much less noticible.

Good luck! Pictures of this damage would also be nice just in case I am waaaaaay off base with what I've said. ;)