Law of diminishing returns on polish/wax?

[Chicken Chaser]

I've recently taken ownership of a 4 year old Merc in Cavansite blue. It's quite dark and there's a few obvious swirl marks and light scratches in the paintwork.

Plan is to wash, tar remover, magma and then clay the car (all using Autoglym) before putting anything on. My go to is SRP and then the deep gloss stuff but is Autoglym still considered good enough? For a similar amount of effort should I be looking elsewhere? Is it worth getting a DA just to apply SRP?

[DoubleSix]

I did a DIY ceramic coat recently. It was a revelation…

I will never bother with wax again.

[Chicken Chaser]

I've not a garage to do it in, and I don't think I'd have the weather window to do ceramic coats.

[DoubleSix]

True enough…. The weather window was the hardest bit!

[Belle427]

A DA makes the job much easier but SRP just hides the swirls anyway so it depends how fussy you are.
I bought a DAS 6 polisher a while ago and it's great, I use scholl S20 black compound which is a one step product and does a very good job.
I find I prefer to use spray on products more often to maintain, garage therapy Sigma and their quick detailer as a drying aid are both very good and so easy to use.

Edited by Belle427 on Friday 3rd December 06:33

[trickywoo]

You can do a lot better than Autoglym without even spending any more money.

As someone else has said SRP fills swirl marks and the like. It’s a bit like an old trout slapping on the foundation. It kind of works for a while but it’s not proper detailing.

[Chicken Chaser]

Might have to explore the DA route. I don't want to be using multiple compounds so an all in one before applying a top finishing product should be sufficient?

[DoubleSix]

I got great results with Farecla G3 compound and a Makita Li Ion DA.

The DA saves huge amounts of time and really gives the results.