Silverline polisher and pads -now what?

[350matt]

Gents

I'm trying to get rid of lots of little sratches on my cerbera and have lashed out on a 'silverline polisher which came with 3 foam pads and a wool bonnet, now what order of pad do you use first as there was no instrucitons with this tool.

The silverline website says:

White: soft polishing & buffing sponge. Use for compounding 2-pack paint systems. Excellent results with G3 paste

Blue: soft open sponge for compounding/polishing cellulose & acrylics.

Red: very soft sponge for final finishing and polishing

So I'm guessing I should start with the white pad and the Meguirs 83 polish I bought and switch to the softer pads as I go finishing with the red?

Any help / suggestions more than welcome

Matt

[Mr OCD]

Whoah...

BEFORE you even consider taking it to your TVR you really need to practice on a scrap panel... using a rotary with any amount of success requires a great deal of practice!

#83 by Rotary will be pretty heavy duty as well especially on TVR's that have thin paint as standard...

Also the brand of rotary you mention is very cheap and cheerful and I am doubtful that it would have soft start, loaded speed control and so on...

In all honesty I would seriously advise you get some serious practice on scrap panels and find a professional to show you how its done.

[350matt]

Well the thing is I've got to start somewhere and I've had a bit of a go with it already and no problems so far having read up a fair bit on 'detailing world' before I started.

Now could you confirm in which order the pad should I be using?

I've got a scrap panel up which I have been practising so don't worry I won't hold anyone responsible apart from myself

Ta
Matt

[extreme-detail]

what you should do is ignore the pads that came with it and get the Meguiar’s pad as these are far better

also as mrOCD says try it out on a scrap pannel 1st

[Mr OCD]

Start with the softest pad first and then work your way up until you get effective defect removal... thats the general rule - but I am warning you so take note - TVR paint is VERY thin so be GENTLE!!

Also try something less harsh than Megs #83 first... Megs #80 would be a good start.

[Graeme H]

The silverline pads are a lot softer than most but still i'd be apprehensive about taking it near a TVR without a lot of experience. You probably noticed that the blue is actually softer than the red, not sure what's going on there A good thing to do is to really go at your test panel (i have hoods and doors hanging all over my garage, looks like a car exploded) and deliberately burn through the paint with the tool, just to see how much/how little it takes. Do this in a few areas with different pads and products to get a good feel for how harsh each combination can be.

Other than the pad, start with the most mild cutting product you can and only go to something harsher if it's having no effect. You're better/safer having to make a few passes with something more gentle than one or two with something stronger. Be mindful of the heat the pad will be building up and stop to check your progress often. Very often.

Good luck.