Big thanks to autogeek!

[Finick]

I've spent a lot of time doing what I reasonably can to restore the paint on my 2012 Altima, and it's been a really fun journey, and it's been real cool to find a forum like the one here at autogeek that's as active as it is.

I'd say I "wasted" a lot of money trying to figure out what works and doesn't for my car, and what I enjoy using, but once I found what d work, it was totally worth it (especially now that I know to keep on hand.)

After my thread about the micro marring I told myself I'd post a picture up once I felt like I'd thoroughly gone over all the surfaces to the best of my abilities, and since I recently got some 3" mf cutting pads, and 3" LC hydro tech polishing pads, I've finally gotten to the that point where I've done about as much as I reasonably can to my paint. The last project is a dr colorchip order to sort out rock chips on my hood, some random knicks along the body, and see what I can salvage of my rather trashed front bumper. But until that happens here's what it looks like!

59859

Nothing fancy, not a show car, there's still some RIDs around (not many!) but I'm pretty content with how it looks. It's not the best picture, had some clouds that day, but the sun was gonna disappear soon so I just took what I could get.

Products used: D300 and Ultimate Compound, Pinnacle Ultra Finishing Polish, Britemax Vantage paste wax

Thanks again everyone!

[Finick]

Also, since I made this post I may as well post these two (admittedly horrible) pictures of my rocker panel (think that's what it's called) before/after.

59861

59860

I used two different lights for these pictures. The first was taken with a headlamp I was using, the second with a small LED flashlight. I didn't really think much would come from working on these areas, but I just hoped I could improve it a little bit. Pretty impressed with UC, megs 3" mf discs, and pinnacles UFP.

[PaulMys]

Looks great to me. And, if you are satisfied with the results, the time was well spent. :props:

[Mike Phillips]

I've spent a lot of time doing what I reasonably can to restore the paint on my 2012 Altima, and it's been a really fun journey, and it's been real cool to find a forum like the one here at autogeek that's as active as it is.

I'd say I "wasted" a lot of money trying to figure out what works and doesn't for my car, and what I enjoy using, but once I found what d work, it was totally worth it (especially now that I know to keep on hand.)




And that's the goal, find out what works and then life (and car care) is good!

Here's your picture... looks AMAZING!


https://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/attachments/auto-detailing-101/59859d1504214787-big-thanks-autogeek-door.jpg



:dblthumb2:

[Finick]

And that's the goal, find out what works and then life (and car care) is good!

Ain't that the truth. I've always been a pretty huge fan of Meguiars, and I think that I'll probably stick to D300/MF cutting discs if I really need to try and compound, but I'm totally sold on Pinnacle polishes.

That advanced swirl remover finished down nearly as nice as the advanced finishing polish on my paint.

I'll probably keep a bottle of ASR on hand for the odd family or friend who inevitably wants me to give their car a solid once over, because it's just so nice to use.






Looks great to me. And, if you are satisfied with the results, the time was well spent.



Tell that to my gf and family

:laughing:

[Dr Oldz]

Looks great man!! It's rewarding to see the great results of your hard work! It is fun/addicting also!

[CarefulCleaner]

Great job! I'm a fellow apprentice of this forum too but not quite at your stage yet, so it's inspiring to see your results!

[Mike Phillips]

but I'm totally sold on Pinnacle polishes.

That advanced swirl remover finished down nearly as nice as the advanced finishing polish on my paint.

I'll probably keep a bottle of ASR on hand for the odd family or friend who inevitably wants me to give their car a solid once over, because it's just so nice to use.



The first time I worked with Wayne Carini I also ended up working/training with his team. Wayne introduced me to his head painter and detailer. My background of calling on body shops and teaching the Meguiar's "system" also taught me that when I enter a shop one of the things I do is look around and take inventory of,


The tools they are using.
The pads they are using and the condition the are in.
The products in the shop.
The products being used in the shop.



The only tool I saw in the shop was an old Black/Decker rotary buffer with a wool pad on it that had about every color of car paint stained into the fibers. Their was also a wear pattern or trough so to speak where a screwdriver had been used to clean the pad. (If you're using wool pads on rotary buffers you need a "spur" not a screwdriver).

I won't mention the name of the brand of compounds and polishes they were using as I've never used them before but I will say we don't sell them on the AG store.

As we walked around and looked at all the cars that had either been buffed or painted and buffed they all had one thing in common, they were all swirled out from the wool pad on the rotary buffer.

Nothing wrong with a wool pad on a rotary buffer. Heck that IS the fastest way to go after serious paint defects or to remove sanding marks. But... you don't finish with a wool pad on a rotary buffer or you end up with holograms.

The end of the story is I left them with Pinnacle Advanced Compound, Swirl Remover and Finishing Polish as well as Souveran Wax.

I also left them with a

FLEX PE14 rotary polisher
FLEX 3401 Gear-Driven Orbital Polisher
Porter Cable 7424XP
Griot's Garage 3" Mini Polisher aka the Peanut Polisher

and suffice to say, Marius the painter and detailer loves the tools and the products and anytime I've seen a car after my visit the paint looks great.


I've said it on this forum hundreds of times, I've said it in the Facebook world and I stress the importance in all my classes...

The number #1 most important factor when it comes to polishing paint or any other surface for that matter is the abrasive technology.

If the abrasive technology is crap then you're going to get crap for results.

In the poll I started about a year ago or so and let people vote what was the most important factor, overwhelmingly people voted technique as being the most important factor.

No only do I respectfully disagree I'll come right out and say it... they're wrong.


I can take anyone that has NEVER polished paint before and their very first time they can get as good as results as the best among us and they have ZERO experience, ZERO skill and the only technique they have is the technique I share with them for a few minutes before I turn them loose with the polisher.

The reason they can get pro results all comes down to the abrasive technology.


When someone says it's technique.... that's an ego-driven answer.


Back to your original story...


micro marring after polishing (https://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/auto-detailing-101/111786-micro-marring-after-polishing.html)


I see this micro-marring issue all the time with Meguiar's M205 as well as other brands talked about here and on the FB world. I love to see all the "gurus" chime-in - (in the FB world) and try to make it work with all their various techniques.

The simple solution is just switch to a different polish that uses different abrasive technology as SMAT doesn't always work on softer paints and for this reason in order to get it to work you need more skill, experience and technique. Instead of going to all this work just change abrasive technology.

Meguiar's makes GREAT products and M205 is one of them. Heck I was at Meguiar's when the head chemist personally walked over to Meguiar's Garage where myself and Nick Chapman were buffing out my buddies' Batmobile. He handed me a Lab Sample of M205 mixed right there at their laboratory. So I've been using M205 as long and in most cases longer than anyone.

My thoughts are, Meguiar's should bring out M206 based upon diminishing abrasive technology so when M205 doesn't work their loyal customers have another option while still staying inside the Meguiar's line.


Back to your story... I sent you a PM, offered to send you some Pinnacle as I knew it wouldn't care what type of paint it's used on and it solved the problem.

Changing abrasive technology solved the swirl problem for Wayne's shop (plus some orbital tools), and it can solve anyone's problem with swirls and/or micro-marring.

Quality abrasive technology tends to be more expensive than the rest of the stuff on the market, I guess we all get what we pay for.


:)

[Mike Phillips]

.


Car Detailing History


The below taken from this thread...

Batmobile Extreme Makeover - Pictures & Comments (http://tinyurl.com/yaq4av8m)



Note: You won't see the lab sample bottle of M205 in the pictures and I don't reference it. That's called proprietary information. The product had not been introduced yet.



From Post #6


The Batmobile sees a lot of wear and tear as it's a daily driver and the SoCal environment is a relatively harsh environment as it relates to finish care.

First we're going to do a couple of test spots, for perspective, here's a shot of the rear of the car and we'll be doing at least two test spots to dial in a process for the single stage paint on this car.


http://archive.meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/819/Batmobile013.jpg



This is the kind of swirling that is throughout the finish of the Batmobile

http://archive.meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/819/Batmobile011.jpg


http://archive.meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/819/Batmobile012.jpg



Here's Nick wrapping some tape around the rubber grommet of the radio antenna to make clean up easier and to prevent getting any product on the rubber gasket or in the cracks and grooves in this area.

http://archive.meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/819/Batmobile014.jpg



After claying these areas we did two test spots, one on each side of the Turbine. On one side we did,

M105/Rotary Buffer/W8207
M80/G110/W-8006


http://archive.meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/819/Batmobile015.jpg

http://archive.meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/819/Batmobile016.jpg



On the other side Nick did,

M105/Rotary Buffer/W8207
M82/G110/W9207

http://archive.meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/819/Batmobile017.jpg

http://archive.meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/819/Batmobile018.jpg

http://archive.meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/819/Batmobile019.jpg



Probably somewhere in the thread I share what we finally used after dialing-in our process via the Test Spot technique.

Long story short... car came out GREAT!


I did get in a little hot water the next week when someone at Human Resources saw this picture...

http://archive.meguiarsonline.com/forums/photopost/data/819/Batmobile108.jpg



:buffing:

[Finick]

Looks great man!! It's rewarding to see the great results of your hard work! It is fun/addicting also!


Thanks! It really is, at this point i'm looking for products to just help me keep it clean during the winter (live in maryland.) I have ONR, but I was looking into maybe a waterless wash for when it starts to get really cold around here.


Great job! I'm a fellow apprentice of this forum too but not quite at your stage yet, so it's inspiring to see your results!


I appreciate the kind words. Honestly, it's like Mike said, the polishes I was using were just really great stuff, and I can't stress that enough. Neither Ultimate Polish or M205 would finish down as nicely as advanced swirl remover or advanced finishing polish did. The only things I'd change if I could would be to have gotten the Griots 6" polisher instead of the MT300, and to just swap to Pinnacle stuff right out of the gate.


I see this micro-marring issue all the time with Meguiar's M205 as well as other brands talked about here and on the FB world. I love to see all the "gurus" chime-in - (in the FB world) and try to make it work with all their various techniques.

The simple solution is just switch to a different polish that uses different abrasive technology as SMAT doesn't always work on softer paints and for this reason in order to get it to work you need more skill, experience and technique. Instead of going to all this work just change abrasive technology.


I will admit that even though I'm a novice at this still, it was really discouraging to see the micro marring happening no matter what I was doing. Especially when there's so many examples of great results with m205.


Back to your story... I sent you a PM, offered to send you some Pinnacle as I knew it wouldn't care what type of paint it's used on and it solved the problem.

Changing abrasive technology solved the swirl problem for Wayne's shop (plus some orbital tools), and it can solve anyone's problem with swirls and/or micro-marring.

Quality abrasive technology tends to be more expensive than the rest of the stuff on the market, I guess we all get what we pay for.

Thank you again for the polish, I probably wouldn't have invested into their stuff had I not been able to try it first. I'm all for paying for quality, hell I grabbed a 32 oz bottle of advanced finishing polish during a 20% off sale I think for somewhere in the 50 dollar range. I've done my entire car with it and I honestly don't even feel like I've made much of a dent in it at all. Definitely worth the money if you ask me!

Is there any place I can get detailed information on the specifics of abrasive technology different brands use? Or is that proprietary information, and I just have to trust reputable brands?