Machine polishing

[CAPP0]

Could someone point me at a simple guide on which pads and which compounds to use for a straightforward machine polish on a black car? I have a dual-action polisher which was given to me (can't remember make) and a big bag of different pads, plus a random bottle of Farecla (again, I'd have to check which it is).

I'm not looking for a show-stopping detail, or to go for full paint correction (I really haven't the patience!) but just to bring the car back up to a decent appearance. I guess I'll clay bar it first then polish it, but some guidance would be really helpful.

TIA

[Tommo13]

I have no affiliation with them, but this guy has some good info on his site about paint types, polish, pads etc, you can have a read.

http://www.polishedbliss.co.uk/acatalog/what-polis...

[Jack_R]

If you haven't already, have a look at larry's videos (ammo nyc on youtube), loads of great walkthroughs on there, or have a look at this page by Kevin Brown:

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.p...

or

http://www.buffdaddy.com/kevinbrownmethod

It completely depends on the state of the paint really as each car will need a different amount of cutting power to remove a different type of defect, be it scratches, light marring etc. As a rule, always start with the lowest amount of 'abrasion'. Quite subjective but I tend to use these combinations the most (most aggressive to least):

- Microfibre cutting pad / Orange Foam Pad + Meguiars M105 compound
- White Foam pad (or Black for really fine finishing) + Meguiars M205

Then add a layer of wax/sealant to lock in your hard work

Combinations of the above bits can give you the intermediate steps, even using varying amounts of compound/polish will vary the cut/finish you get, think kevin explains this in his tutorials

[CAPP0]

Excellent, thank you, that info and the videos are just what I was looking for. I'll have a look at all of those properly.

PS thanks for the move, I didn't even know this area existed!

[steve-5snwi]

The meguires Micro Fibre range is pretty easy to use, get the Cutting and Polishing pads and the correction fluid.

[Let off some steam Bennett]

steve-5snwi said:

The meguires Micro Fibre range is pretty easy to use, get the Cutting and Polishing pads and the correction fluid.

Good for most paints from my experience

[justinio]

Watching the videos on Youtube from Junkman200 really helped when I first started using a DA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP-eAddv2sk&t=...

He's a bit of a character, but goes into great detail. And his style does make it easy to watch.