machine polishing / finishing off , old dog new tricks

[JeffC]

I recently bought by accident a brilliant black (non metallic ) Audi, I thought it was phantom which from experience is much easier to keep looking anything like tidy ! prior to me getting it and it going through auction it must have been polished as an attempt (badly ) to remove light scratches and the car looked pretty bad was all milky and swirly could see every place that had been buffed with horrendous buffer trails .

anyway by trade many moons ago I was a paint sprayer of 20 odd years so I am no stranger to machine polishing cars etc.

I still have my trusty old polisher so I set away and flatted out the scratches properly and machined back up with Fast cut plus using a compound head, finished off lightly with a medium pad, I then wiped down, changed for a softer head and spent a good while going back over slow speed machining with a swirl remover which supposedly contained no fillers . The car looked great when finished, no sign of any scratches and no swirls , the only polish I had in the garage was Auto glym so I gave it a quick coat of that, and car looked great.

Fast forward a few days parked in the sun and a wash the car is starting to look scarmy again, looks fine in low light but not so good in the sun although nothing like as bad as it did prior .

So....

I have speed read a few threads and people are recommending using Da type polishers, I must admit I used one once and threw it away as it took an age to get any results when polishing up areas that had been sanded, but Is this is what is required to finish off and get a swirl free job or should I be able to get the same results with my rotary polisher using different products , or is my issue likely to be I need to use a better wax/polish to finish off ? or am I flogging a dead horse with a black car expecting it to last.

Also worth mentioning im not after a show polish finish just want it to look tidy and low maintenance to keep clean!

would appreciate any guidance .

[Gav147]

Apologies if this isn't allowed mods but OP check out this thread on detailing world, covers about everything you can imagine to do with DA polishers including a full guide of polishes and pads. http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.p...

[Summit_Detailing]

You will be just fine with the rotary.

Fast Cut + is a decent enough compound but there are more advanced polishes on the market, leaving behind little or no oils/fillers.

Being solid black in theory you'd need to 3-step it to leave it hologram free.

Compound
Medium polish
Finishing/jewelling polish

If you feel the need to try another compound, Scholl S3 Gold is very good.
Medium grade polish something like Menzerna Fg400, Koch Chemie F5 or 3M Extra fine
Finishing polish - Carpro Reflect, 3M Ultrafina, Koch Chemie P2.

It may be worth investigating Carpro Essence too for finishing duties.

cheers

Chris

[JeffC]

thanks for the replies, interesting read on that link and tha confirmed pretty much what I thought when I used the Da polisher , I actually went on that forum last week but my head was in bits time I read a few threads, dodo oil this poor boys soap , black hole love juice blah blah my old brain was fried , thought I was on a porn site

this is what I used after Fast cut plus , not sure if it would be any good , was just a product I got from my local motor factors , many years ago before fast cut plus was on the scene we would use G3 Farecla then G10 and to finish we used a 3m product called imperial hand glaze or machine glaze and it was great on blacks , but back then I would polish my car twice a week where as now I have little interest especially with my daily drive and its lucky to get a wash once a month !

Summit_Detailing said:

You will be just fine with the rotary.

Fast Cut + is a decent enough compound but there are more advanced polishes on the market, leaving behind little or no oils/fillers.

Being solid black in theory you'd need to 3-step it to leave it hologram free.

Compound
Medium polish
Finishing/jewelling polish

If you feel the need to try another compound, Scholl S3 Gold is very good.
Medium grade polish something like Menzerna Fg400, Koch Chemie F5 or 3M Extra fine
Finishing polish - Carpro Reflect, 3M Ultrafina, Koch Chemie P2.

It may be worth investigating Carpro Essence too for finishing duties.

cheers

Chris

as I have done the car once already would I get away with nipping over the panels with the Carpro essence you mentioned and is that the final stage or would i need to redo the car with a fine machine polish ?

[Summit_Detailing]

In theory Essence would remove whatever defects are on the car, presuming they are relatively light, and would fill any remaining....still in testing stage for me but have been impressed so far, team it with the carpro white finishing pad and you can go straight to a sealant or wax.

cheers

Chris

[xjay1337]

Don't touch 3m fast cut.

Keep machine speed down when spreading. Use zenith point technique :-)

[JeffC]

xjay1337 said:

Don't touch 3m fast cut.

Keep machine speed down when spreading. Use zenith point technique :-)

fast cut is a revelation compared to G3

[xjay1337]

Haha true. But these days compounds and polishes have moved so far along

Decent pads and keep them fresh.. wash and spin / dry them out ... leaving them to go crusty and old will give you holograms and crazing all over.