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Going to be attacking my car with a DA for the first time this weekend hopefully.
The steps I'm going to take:
Rinse
2BM wash
Rinse
De-tar
Clay
Rinse
Dry
Polish
Seal
Am I thinking correctly here? For the polishing stage how should I do it? I'll be working on a silver car this time and black car maybe next weekend. Should I start with the polishing pad and move onto a harder pad if I don't notice much improvement in the paintwork or should I begin with a finishing pad first and work my way to harder pads?
For de-tar I got Tar X. Do I need Iron X or is it alright to skip it? If it's going to be noticeably better I could pick it up![:\](https://www.boards.ie/resources/emoji/confused.png ":\")
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MetzgerMeister wrote: »You should be washing it again after polishing and possibly even an IPA wipedown in order to ensure that the wax/sealant you use bonds to the paintwork correctly. A layer of polish in between the paint and wax will give the topcoat a very short life-span compared to what you would be expecting.
Hmm, seems a bit counterproductive washing the car after polishing it? I'm a bit afraid of ruining the polishing work I did.
Would an IPA wipedown in a spray bottle and a microfiber to take it off do the job as well?
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shietpilot wrote: »Hmm, seems a bit counterproductive washing the car after polishing it? I'm a bit afraid of ruining the polishing work I did.
Would an IPA wipedown in a spray bottle and a microfiber to take it off do the job as well?
You should by right to remove any oils and dust from polishing stage.
Otherwise your wax/sealant will not bond properly.0 -
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Generally you should work your way up from the lightest cut, as you want to remove the least amount of lacquer as possible, thus leavning you more should you want / have to do more polishing in the future. So its best to do a test spot in an area that is most heavily effected by the swirls / scratches that you want to correct, remembering that
- 100% correction isnt always achieveable
- nor might you want to chase 100% correction and leave little or no room for future polishing.
Most people on here are polishing a daily driver, and as such, will suffer more swirling over time, so often doing a reasonably good compound and finishing is enough; giving up to 80-90% correction.
After a bit if time using the machine you'll learn using some combos will be pointless and a waste of time. If the paint is heavily swirled, there no point starting with a finishing pad and polish. Best start with a medium pad and medium polish....on a DA, it's fine to start there! Chances are, you'll have to do two passes with that combo on a DA to get the results you want.
So, starting with a medium pad & medium polish and one pass gives you decent correction but not quite what you want....say youve gotten 70% correction. Assuming the remaining defects arent too serious, a 2nd pass will probably give you the finish required....but will need refining with a finishing pad & finishing polish.
You can do the whole car with a medium pad & polish, with two passes per section. Or you could decide to move to another section and see what a heavy cut pad and polish will do. Remembering that you might not be able to refine the finish left after heavy compounding with a finishing pad and finishing polish - so you may have to do a medium pass before the light pass....so that involves changing pads 3 times...might have been better to stick with 2 medium combo passes.
As said, different paints have differing hardness - German paints are typically very hard, and Jap very soft. Therefore German paints take quite a bit of effort to correct, but will refine / finish nicely, whereas Jap paints you'll see correction quickly, but finishing might be a pain....as sometimes the paint is so soft, it will leave machine polishing related defects, such as holograms.
Practice makes perfect!
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Generally you should work your way up from the lightest cut, as you want to remove the least amount of lacquer as possible, thus leavning you more should you want / have to do more polishing in the future. So its best to do a test spot in an area that is most heavily effected by the swirls / scratches that you want to correct, remembering that
- 100% correction isnt always achieveable
- nor might you want to chase 100% correction and leave little or no room for future polishing.
Most people on here are polishing a daily driver, and as such, will suffer more swirling over time, so often doing a reasonably good compound and finishing is enough; giving up to 80-90% correction.
After a bit if time using the machine you'll learn using some combos will be pointless and a waste of time. If the paint is heavily swirled, there no point starting with a finishing pad and polish. Best start with a medium pad and medium polish....on a DA, it's fine to start there! Chances are, you'll have to do two passes with that combo on a DA to get the results you want.
So, starting with a medium pad & medium polish and one pass gives you decent correction but not quite what you want....say youve gotten 70% correction. Assuming the remaining defects arent too serious, a 2nd pass will probably give you the finish required....but will need refining with a finishing pad & finishing polish.
You can do the whole car with a medium pad & polish, with two passes per section. Or you could decide to move to another section and see what a heavy cut pad and polish will do. Remembering that you might not be able to refine the finish left after heavy compounding with a finishing pad and finishing polish - so you may have to do a medium pass before the light pass....so that involves changing pads 3 times...might have been better to stick with 2 medium combo passes.
As said, different paints have differing hardness - German paints are typically very hard, and Jap very soft. Therefore German paints take quite a bit of effort to correct, but will refine / finish nicely, whereas Jap paints you'll see correction quickly, but finishing might be a pain....as sometimes the paint is so soft, it will leave machine polishing related defects, such as holograms.
Practice makes perfect!
Thanks for the tips. I'll be working on a silver Ford and black Volvo. Googling about I read that both have medium hardness. The Ford isn't too bad but the Volvo will need some work so I plan to learn a bit with the Ford and then do the Volvo which has a lot of swirls and just signs of bad previous detailing with some holograms.0 -
Yes, as you have found out - both of them are middle of the road in terms of hardness, and will be ideal for you to gain experience on. Hard paints can be a bit disheartening as correction is slow. Soft paints see amazing results quickly, but can be a nightmare too when you think youve done nice job, only to strip back the polishing oils to find that they have been hiding some machine inflicted defects.
You'll do a good job on the Ford, but when you do the Volvo and step back, you'll think, damn that looks guuuuddd!
Silver -v- Black....silver improves nicely, black shows the work put in!0 -
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