1st Time DA Polish Project - Shadow Black Mustang

[PaulMys]

Absolutely start with white pads but don't fear orange pads if you need it.

Two words, over and over.

Test spot, test spot, test spot.................................

[Goonie75]

Yep. Test Spot for sure... orange wouldn't cut like I wanted in a BMW 745 Li we are doing. Test spot showed that..

Instead, MF pad followed by white pad was the sweet spot...

I'll post the project later but here's the b/a

Ryan



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[Jayfro]

Yep. Test Spot for sure... orange wouldn't cut like I wanted in a BMW 745 Li we are doing. Test spot showed that..

Instead, MF pad followed by white pad was the sweet spot...

I'll post the project later but here's the b/a

Ryan



Sent from my SM-G965U using Autogeekonline mobile app

I look forward to seeing that!


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[Coatingsarecrack]

So obviously, the part that terrifies me the most is actually using a machine DA polisher, with "cutting pads", and a "cutting agent" on my car. I do understand that technique is everything and I have been watching a lot of the swirl remover videos to fully understand Mike's concepts on section passes, overlap, and "R" motion (do I have that right?).

The basic premise is pick a small spot, use your product, buff it off, and inspect the results. Swirls still there? Go more aggressive with either a more aggressively cutting pad, or cutting agent. Swirls gone? Then you are on your way to getting your system down pat.

But how do I know that I'm not starting at a place that is ALREADY MORE AGGRESSIVE than where "I'm at"? Is it possible that using a Orange Lake Country CSS pads with 3D Speed and a DA, might actually leave scratches behind, that weren't there before??? Since Orange is where I'll be starting, I want to make sure I'm clear here.

Thanks!

I used an orange CCS with griots fast correcting cream and it was fine slow overlapping passes with 2x2 sections. If light swirls and using AIO lake country recommends great pads.


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[gatornek]

2ft by 2ft? The info I got from Mike's vids thus far is 16x16 (inches) for just a regular spot. Do I have that right? Or is 16x16 more in line with 'test spot' size?

Do I make a smaller spot for testing?

If smaller:
a) how small?
b) how much polish? (for 16x16, I was planning on using Mike's "crossed lines" on the 5.5 pad)
and C) Do I still focus on 6-8 passes?

I appreciate the handholding for the noob.

[Paul A.]

HD Speed doesn't "cut" in the way you might be afraid of. Nor will an orange pad, especially on Ford paint. After you've done a test spot with Speed and white, inspect the results. If you didn't get what you wanted, try Speed with orange. Are the results better? If not I don't go much further with Speed. It's a cleaner sealant product and isn't meant for medium to aggressive cut corrections.

If you've tested Speed and still want more correction, I would be changing up my product to a light compound type product. A fairly light compound or medium polish with an orange pad may just be enough to level down those scratches. Then try Speed on a white pad to then refine what the compound/orange combo left if any DA haze needs to be cleaned up.

I would do a 2 step test spot...GG Fast Correcting Cream with an orange pad. INSPECT. Then HD Speed with a white pad ON TOP of the section you just did with the FCC. Now, how does THAT look?

I do my test spots at 16-24" square. I do anywhere from 4-7 passes with Speed then wipe off. Fast Correcting Cream for about 4-5 passes then wipe off. 6-8 is fine with Speed and I would do no more than 6 with FCC. Don't worry if it's 16X16 or 24X24...basically just concentrate on a small area for a test spot. With 5.5" pads and 50 percent overlaps 16X16 is a good area.

I'm a big Collinite fan and use it sometimes over Speed. FL does not treat carnaubas well and I find them to be extremely perishable in our climate. The sun's heat, UV, and pounding rains don't allow them to last very long. Having said that, Collinite is a hybrid wax and I've seen as much as 11 months durability on a customer's daily driven vehicle. That was with monthly washes. The more often you wash it the less it remains. As Mike P. says, it depends how you "touch' the paint!

[gatornek]

HD Speed doesn't "cut" in the way you might be afraid of. Nor will an orange pad, especially on Ford paint. After you've done a test spot with Speed and white, inspect the results. If you didn't get what you wanted, try Speed with orange. Are the results better? If not I don't go much further with Speed. It's a cleaner sealant product and isn't meant for medium to aggressive cut corrections.

If you've tested Speed and still want more correction, I would be changing up my product to a light compound type product. A fairly light compound or medium polish with an orange pad may just be enough to level down those scratches. Then try Speed on a white pad to then refine what the compound/orange combo left if any DA haze needs to be cleaned up.

I would do a 2 step test spot...GG Fast Correcting Cream with an orange pad. INSPECT. Then HD Speed with a white pad ON TOP of the section you just did with the FCC. Now, how does THAT look?

I do my test spots at 16-24" square. I do anywhere from 4-7 passes with Speed then wipe off. Fast Correcting Cream for about 4-5 passes then wipe off. 6-8 is fine with Speed and I would do no more than 6 with FCC. Don't worry if it's 16X16 or 24X24...basically just concentrate on a small area for a test spot. With 5.5" pads and 50 percent overlaps 16X16 is a good area.

I'm a big Collinite fan and use it sometimes over Speed. FL does not treat carnaubas well and I find them to be extremely perishable in our climate. The sun's heat, UV, and pounding rains don't allow them to last very long. Having said that, Collinite is a hybrid wax and I've seen as much as 11 months durability on a customer's daily driven vehicle. That was with monthly washes. The more often you wash it the less it remains. As Mike P. says, it depends how you "touch' the paint!

Thank you. This helps alot.

For a 'test spot', I'm supposing it might make sense to 'tape it off' as Mike does in his videos. That way, I should be able to see a CLEAR line of demarcation of where 'swirls/deffects' should end and a 'buffier gloss' begins, right?

For a noob, it might make sense to use the white, and see for myself. I posted pics of the car in GLARING SUNLIGHT at the top of the thread. I think the consensus was 'orange pads'.

Carnauba doesn't last long at all down here, but you are talking to someone who was willfully slapping on a fresh coat (at least on the roof and hood, and other 'upward facing' sections) of wax, by hand, every 6 weeks or so. I'd like to get farther and farther away from that routine, but feel that I need to build up to it. Right now, its just about two things:

1) Getting the beads of water to run off my paint better. AZ Paul has been telling me its surface tension. Hence, I've been wanting to deco and clay it. But if I go that far, then I want to make sure I polish it out defects, before I slap my wax on again.

2) Removing the 'swirling/defects' on a more permanent basis. Before, I'd just use the warmth and gloss of the carnauba to 'cover them up' so you couldn't really see them. But yeah, on cloudless days at 12pm, you can see some weird stuff on my hood if its been a few weeks since waxing.

[gatornek]

It's an AIO and if using an AIO then you dont want to go around 63x with orange and white pads.

If using orange then white might as well use a dedicated compound and polish.

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Sorry. Can you elaborate what you mean by this? Are you basically saying I want to make my 6-8 passes and no more, when using orange/white?

[gatornek]

Yep. Test Spot for sure... orange wouldn't cut like I wanted in a BMW 745 Li we are doing. Test spot showed that..

Instead, MF pad followed by white pad was the sweet spot...

I'll post the project later but here's the b/a

Ryan



Sent from my SM-G965U using Autogeekonline mobile app

I'm understanding, that this is going to take some better understanding of my car's paint after a couple of test spots, and it might make sense to have multiple producgts on board. Its intresting that the 'sweet spot' sometimes isn't necessarily just a particular pad and/or particular product, but a combination of many...in serial steps.

I'm thinking I'm understanding better of what I need to do.

I wonder if it make sense to get some GG Fast Correcting Cream to have handy, in case Orange/3D doesn't do quite what I need it to do (I am going to start with 3D/White on initial 'test spot') Maybe GGFCC/Orange before I do 3D/White would end up being the 'sweet spot' for me?

[gatornek]

I used an orange CCS with griots fast correcting cream and it was fine slow overlapping passes with 2x2 sections. If light swirls and using AIO lake country recommends great pads.


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These are the ones I'm getting.

(5) Orange
(5) White

and a few others.

You say LC CCS Orange with Griots FCC worked well for swirls on your Shadow Black Mustang? Did you have to 'fine it out' with a lighter pad or finer polish on a subsequent step? FCC is slightly more 'abrasive' than 3D, so I imagine, I should have no trouble with Orange/3D on my car?