DA Group Buy Results, Questions and Advice

Ded_Zebra

Thought It might be nice to have a thread where all of us rookies who were part of the group buy can show off what they achieved, post questions they might have and also advice to others.

If you weren't part of the group buy please do feel free to post pictures of your work and ask questions too




Well today I used my DA for the first time:D I was a bit nervous about using it as I had no idea of what I was doing other than what I read in here and what I learned from watching youtube videos. I was lucky to have a car at home that has been sitting up since 2004 so I could practice on that rather than on my own car that I care about! The car in question has been owned by my dad since new and has only ever been treated to infrequent brush washes over its life and was frequently in a state where the back number plate couldn't be read at all.
So today I washed off the passengers side wing and the bonnet, De-tared them and then clayed them. Here is a picture of how it looked after that:



So to polishing! Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures during (well very few) but what I did was mask up the wing like this:



I then started with the finishing pad and V38. This didn't produce the results I wanted so I kept moving up in aggressiveness until I got what I wanted. On this paint it was the green pad and the v34/v36 and then finished with v38 and the white pad.
Initially I was using way too much compound/polish (I started with using 3 dot about the size of a 1c coin) but I eventually worked out that about 3 dots a little bit smaller than peas worked best (for me anyway). I did the wing in 2 sections and the bonnet in 5. The correction level I got wasn't 100% because some of the scratches were too deep. I feel like I could have got more out but I didn't want to go too far!
Here is the end results with a quick 2 coats of wax. The sun went in so I couldn't show what the scratches are like now but this will give you an idea.





I really appreciate now why a professional charges what they do for paint corrections, the sheer hours spent is incredible!
That's what I did anyway, if you have any tips/comments let me know:)

Questions:

I do have one question, How do you wash out the pads when you're finished for the day?

MetzgerMeister

Why in the name of jeebus would you try to do a correction with a finishing pad?? The clue is in the name

To wash them, fill a sink with hot water, put each pad in at a time (with fresh water each time). Push down on the pad to release the polish in it. Keep doing this until the water is clear. You can ring the pads without damaging them which is good.

To dry them, put them inside a towel, put it on a table and press down to soak the excess water into the towel. Then leave them on a radiator over night.

I wouldn't recommend leaving them overnight without washing them. This will just makes things tough and messy the next time you use them.

Ded_Zebra

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

Why in the name of jeebus would you try to do a correction with a finishing pad?? The clue is in the name

To wash them, fill a sink with hot water, put each pad in at a time (with fresh water each time). Push down on the pad to release the polish in it. Keep doing this until the water is clear. You can ring the pads without damaging them which is good.

To dry them, put them inside a towel, put it on a table and press down to soak the excess water into the towel. Then leave them on a radiator over night.

I wouldn't recommend leaving them overnight without washing them. This will just makes things tough and messy the next time you use them.

I was worried about what might happen:P:o Better to start gentle and see what the story is I thought!

Thanks for that, Pads washed out now

vectra

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

Why in the name of jeebus would you try to do a correction with a finishing pad?? The clue is in the name

To wash them, fill a sink with hot water, put each pad in at a time (with fresh water each time). Push down on the pad to release the polish in it. Keep doing this until the water is clear. You can ring the pads without damaging them which is good.

To dry them, put them inside a towel, put it on a table and press down to soak the excess water into the towel. Then leave them on a radiator over night.

I wouldn't recommend leaving them overnight without washing them. This will just makes things tough and messy the next time you use them.

Or if you are feeling lazy like I do. Throw them in the washing machine @ 40deg.
Let them dry over night on an old oven tray.

Perfect.

MetzgerMeister

vectra wrote: »

Or if you are feeling lazy like I do. Throw them in the washing machine @ 40deg.
Let them dry over night on an old oven tray.

Perfect.

Lazy is damn right :P

I don't know if I'd put them in the washing machine, something to do with the polish and good clothes. Rightly or wrongly, I still wouldn't do it.

vectra

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

Lazy is damn right :P

I don't know if I'd put them in the washing machine, something to do with the polish and good clothes. Rightly or wrongly, I still wouldn't do it.

It will be grand she said LOL

Ded_Zebra

Got a chance today to have another go with my DA. This time my question is about speed settings. For what conditions should you use different speeds?

Curran

The slowest speed is for spreading the polish.
3 pea sized blobs of polish on the pad, and dab it around the section you are doing, and then on the slowest speed, spread the polish by doing a quick pass or two.

Up the speed a bit to warm the polish, again doing 2/3 passes

Up the speed again to break down / work the polish; doing 4/5 or more passes, depending on the polish. Compounds generally are quick to dry out and finishing polishes can be worked for more longer.

Back down to the speed you used to warm the polish and give a pass or two...not really necessary on compounding stages but worth doing on the cutting / finishing stages.

peejay01

Dug up this thread because after months of threatening, I finally got around to using the DA!

I know this should be only DA related but as this was my first detail of the car I hope you don't mind a few pics of that process.

So first I started with the engine but of course I forgot to take a feckin before picture but here is the after:



I covered the alternator and the cone intake with plastic bags and cable ties, sprayed the engine with water and used a 1:20 dilution of Chemical guys all clean + spraying the whole engine down. I let that sit for a while and the got to scrubbing. Once everything was scrubbed I power hosed the engine bay down and blew it dry with an air compressor. Turned the engine on and let dry. Sprayed plastic trim with Orchard perfection quick detailer(lovely smelling stuff!) and buffed off.

peejay01

Next I got on to the wheels. As they were quite dirty I gave them a quick scrub with APC and then used a 1:3 dilution of Orchard Iron Cleanse.





There were still a few marks on the alloys that were annoying me so I used Orchard Tar cleanse ( sounding like on Orchard Sales rep here ) and that got rid of some of them. I might try claying them next time around.

peejay01

Carpets and door shuts/sils were next on the list.

APC used to scub the sils and shuts and hoovered the carpets. Perfection used on the sils and then sprayed the carpets with my Chemical Guys Chuy Bubblegum air freshner. I had read people raving about the stripper scent but don't know how the GF would feel about my car smelling like a cheap whore so went the bubble gum route! It's a really nice scent have to say but people have been slagging me off saying I;m trying to lure children in with that smell:rolleyes: Just can't win!!

peejay01

2BM wash

Really had let the car get filthy which I'm ashamed to say



The previous owner had put on a stick on spoiler thing that I didn't like so I pulled that off and had a lot of glue left on it



I washed the car with fairy liquid as it had no protection on it but need to invest in some ph neutral shampoo from now on.

I detarred:



And also set up a gazebo for the polishing while I was at it because I kept get p*ssed on!



After 2BM wash, detar, deiron and another 2BM



Already looking a lot better!

peejay01

Finally on to the claying and polishing!

I used the autobrite fine detailing clay and perfection for the clay lube.

Pic of some scratches on the bonnet after clay.


It's only looking back through these pictures I realised I missed a load of imortant photos and have been taking them from different angles so its hard to compare. Ah well, live and learn.

I used the chemcal guys V34 hybrid polish and the orange hexlogic pad to polish as I had read the VAG paint is very tough (which turned out to be very true!)

Here are the scratches (from a different angle :mad:) after a repeated passes with that combo



I found even with that aggressive combination of pad and polish that I wasn't getting great correction. Even some minor scratches were less visible but not removed like I thought they would.

I did find that I needed to spray the pad a lot as it seemed like the polish was getting dry after a couple of passes.

Do you think I need to go more aggressive with the polish? I have a sample of the next most aggressive chemical guys polish so could give that a got next time I'm at it. I'm pretty sure I was applying the right pressure and was polishing at speed 5 on the DA after first spreading the polish at low speed.

I ended up spending the best part of two days claying and polishing under the gazebo due to the rain but I think it was worth it as I got rid of a lot of minor defects.

After the polishing I gave it a coat of chemical guys blacklight and the topped that with Petes 53 wax.





No sign of the spolier glue any more



And the obligatory beading shot. Nowhere near as good as some I've seen on here but hopefully get better with practice!



Any suggestions welcome!

peejay01

Oh yeah forgot to thank curran for all of his help with the products and scortho for organising the DA group buy and for the encouragement. Thanks lads. Hopefully I'll be a regular poster in here now!

Curran

Nice bit of work there!

On the machine polishing; so with a DA, you are going to struggle to get good correction quickly - you offset the safety of not ruining your paintwork against it being a bit slow and painful!
Another thing to remember, is that you are looking for these defects...who else is going to be inspecting your paint like that? No one really....so from a few feet away, even a light enhancement is going to look amazing. Definitely try the more aggressive polish, but I wouldnt be in a hurry to do it....get a bit of life out of the Blacklight and Pete's that you applied, and maybe in the Spring, give her another going over so she is looking tip top for the good weather next year.
And on the pad/polish drying out...were you cleaning the pad out after every few passes...the pads get caked in dry polish and these needs to be removed every so often.

Beading does look a little flat for Pete's53....did you wash the car down after polishing to remove the polishing oils? Machine polish is a bit different to hand polish - hand polish has fillers so you want that to stay on the paintwork. The oils in machine polish hinder bonding of products so its advisable to wash the car down fully with APC after you've completed all your polishing.

Bit of tyre dressing and its looking very well - though in the last photo the tyres do look a bit darker?
Good work!

peejay01

Apologies if the quotes haven't come out right, doing this on the phone and not used to it..

...get a bit of life out of the Blacklight and Pete's that you applied, and maybe in the Spring, give her another going over so she is looking tip top for the good weather next year.

Yeh I won't be in a hurry to try that again any time soon!

And on the pad/polish drying out...were you cleaning the pad out after every few passes...the pads get caked in dry polish and these needs to be removed every so often.

Sh*te! No, wasn't cleaning the pad in between which explains a lot. It was fairly caked alright. Is it a case of dunking it in a bucket of water, then squeezing it out and then back to polishing?

Beading does look a little flat for Pete's53....did you wash the car down after polishing to remove the polishing oils? Machine polish is a bit different to hand polish - hand polish has fillers so you want that to stay on the paintwork. The oils in machine polish hinder bonding of products so its advisable to wash the car down fully with APC after you've completed all your polishing.

Once again.... Sh*t! Didn't wash the car after polishing as I was following a detailing world guide and it didn't say it in it.... Would it be worth stripping of the protection with APC and then reapplying the glaze/wax combo?

Bit of tyre dressing and its looking very well - though in the last photo the tyres do look a bit darker?
Good work!

Thanks! Still a lot to learn! Tyres do let it down all right so will address that along with a snowfoam Lance next payday!

MetzgerMeister

To clean the pad, just fill a sink or bucket with preferably hot water, leave the pad soak in it for 2 minutes and push the polish out. By this I mean have the pad face up at the bottom of the sink, push on it and all the polish will come out. Do this a few times and then ring the pad (won't damage it). Then put it between a towel and push down on it to get all the water to come into the towel.

SOunds more complicated and long winded than it actually is!

Great work on that S3

Curran

As Metz has said, thats how you'd wash them out. Quite easy really. The only slight problem is, that no matter how well you dry it, it will still be soaking when you spin the machine up, so you are going to get splashes from it. But the pad will dry out pretty quickly. Its not necessary to wash out the pads after every pass, and you can use a tooth brush to scrub away some of the caked on polish which will save having to wash it as frequently.
I'll sometimes spin the wet pad against a window on the car to spin off a bit of excess water. Car gets a bit destroyed in splashes but it needs to be re-washed anyways.

Worth stripping back the glaze/wax - depends really - the car is reasonably well protected...sure your beading mightnt be as epic as it could be....to be honest...Id get a few weeks out of it...maybe consider doing it again before the winter, so the car is protected over the winter months.

MetzgerMeister

Something I'm doing now (did it on my own car at the weekend) is after I gave it a 2 stage polish, a wash and a dry I spray isopropyl alcohol (IPA) on every panel and wiped it. Gtechniq recommend this before applying any of their coatings. It removes any wax/polish/silicone-based substances and gives whatever you are going to apply a much better surface to bond to. In my case I applied a coat of Jetseal followed by 2 coats of Collinite 845. It looked absolutely superb! This weekend I'll be giving it a light wash and applying OAC's Speed wax for the first time. It smells lovely so I hope it works as good!

peejay01

Cheers lads! Will have a much better idea of how to go about this next time.
Seems obvious when someone else tells you but I was looking at the pad during polishing thinking it didn't look right and washing it never crossed my mind!

The only reason I ask about stripping back that protection is that the car is already annoyingly getting a coating of dust/dirt especially on the roof and I am wondering if that is down to poorly bonded glaze and sealant. I have been wiping it away with a microfibre and QD when I see it. I know its probably not noticeable to anyone else and its because I am constantly inspecting every inch of the car after that epic detailing session on it.

Stupid question but does the wax help to repel dirt or does it just make it much easier to wash away and stop iron and tar getting at the paint work?

If it's the case that all sealed cars get this dirt and you need to snowfoam and wash every week then I mightn't bother doing it although it would be nice to have that great beading!

Got a bit of sun on the car today so snapped this pic.



Not too bad but think you can still see some swirl marks there.

Unfortunately didn't have a before with the sun on it from the same spot. Do people generally use LED's for these before and afters?

peejay01

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

Something I'm doing now (did it on my own car at the weekend) is after I gave it a 2 stage polish, a wash and a dry I spray isopropyl alcohol (IPA) on every panel and wiped it. Gtechniq recommend this before applying any of their coatings. It removes any wax/polish/silicone-based substances and gives whatever you are going to apply a much better surface to bond to. In my case I applied a coat of Jetseal followed by 2 coats of Collinite 845. It looked absolutely superb! This weekend I'll be giving it a light wash and applying OAC's Speed wax for the first time. It smells lovely so I hope it works as good!

I have access to IPA here in work so if I go ahead and strip the protection off with APC I'll wipe it down with that before glaze and wax combo.

Looking forward to seeing some pics of your handy work!

MetzgerMeister

FYI, a glaze won't be of much benefit to you since you have used a D/A to shine up the paint. a glaze is nearly the same thing as something like AutoGlym super resin polish whereby it temporarily fills scratches. You'd be better off applying a coat of Chemical Guys Jetseal directly to the paint followed by wax.

peejay01

Might have been misleading calling it a glaze...It's chemical guys blacklight which says it's a hybrid radiant finish although it is listed under the glaze section.....I get confused with all of these products to be honest!

Curran recommended that combo to me for the black paintwork but he did say that I would have to top up the wax more frequently as it wouldn't bond as well to the blacklight.

MetzgerMeister

Blacklight IMO is a paint depth enhancer and is more so suited to cars that have dull, unpolished paintwork.

Curran

Blacklight is one of those funny products that bridges some categories....some call it a glaze, others consider ot protrction in its own right. So its used for various reasons.

Tell you what...the paintwork looks pretty good to me!! This could be helped a bit by the Blacklight though....but I wouldnt be too disappointed with that.

Even on fully corrected paint work, Blacklight will give the appearance a little bit of extra wet look...but is that worth the offset of loosing a bit of durability. ..perhaps if you were going to a show.
A bit likes waxes; soft, hard, paste, liquid, etc, there are various glazes....some have fillers, others have none and its about getting that ultra wet look. Manufacturers play on the marketing a bit like the do when talking about polish.

MetzgerMeister

The debate about what Blacklight is has been going on here since 2011

peejay01

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

The debate about what Blacklight is has been going on here since 2011

:eek: Didn't realise what I was getting myself into here!!

I'll leave it to the experts to battle it out

Curran

The debate will rage on....but there's no doubt its a great product!

vectra

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

FYI, a glaze won't be of much benefit to you since you have used a D/A to shine up the paint. a glaze is nearly the same thing as something like AutoGlym super resin polish whereby it temporarily fills scratches. You'd be better off applying a coat of Chemical Guys Jetseal directly to the paint followed by wax.

That is unless you use Wolfs Chemicals Shine and Glaze, :cool: