Questions about polishes and compounds

[Paco.McGraw]

Good afternoon everyone! I spent the majority of this weekend cleaning up my mom’s 98 Altima and it came out pretty nice. Given the car is a respray, has been backed into, and scraped something with the mirrors, it’s looking good. We got the car for $1,400 so I'm pretty happy. The engine is good and so is the transmission except for the clutch which needs to be bled.

The paint was very oxidized and scratched up, so I used SIP with a 5.5" LC orange pad breaking the polish down correctly but I wasn't getting very good results. So I switched to the 4" LC orange pads I had and the results were better but still not as good as I thought they could be, so I went with the 6.5 PFW pad and that did the trick.

I noticed that with the PFW you have to use much more product than with the regular LC pads to do the same 18x18 area, is that normal? On the foam pads I was able to use 2 or 3 pea sized drops but with the foam I had to use 2 or 3 dime sized drops otherwise the SIP would flash after one side to side pass. I also got quite a bit more dusting than with the LC pads (not to mention lint...) which I didn't expect either.

With all of this I was using the PC 7424 on 5 and 6 for the most part.

One question for the future when I place another order once I use up most of the stuff I have now, what are some products (other than M105 and M205) that are non-diminishing? I am going to continue to use the 106FF as I love that stuff, but I’m not really sold on the SIP as it took 5 passes over most of the car, 6 passes on certain areas to get the most of the damage out. I probably needed something more aggressive, but SIP is what I had. It worked pretty good on my truck, but the truck wasn't in too bad of shape. I'd like to try the "Kevin Brown method" but I also want to know if there are any other options for product.

Also, what does everyone think about the foamed pads from Edge? There hasn't been much talk about anything from Edge in the last couple of months like there was a year or two ago.

AG and AGO rocks! Being in mañana land, I cannot get any good products here that I know of.

Thanks,

Sam

[Joshs2013MSAltimaSL]

Since it was a respray, that is your first problem. It's not the product. SIP is made for ceramic clear coats and is one of the leading compounds/polishes out there. If you had a PTG, I would be willing to bet that the readings are off the chart. Trying using your same technique on a car that has factory paint and you'll see a difference. Also, don't use the PFW pad with the PC. The PC isn't powerful enough and the wool is going to cause more harm than good.

[Paco.McGraw]

I would love to have a car with factory paint but right now money doesn't permit that. I have two cars myself (03 Nissan Frontier crashed before I got it, 92 Subaru Legacy hand-me-down from my brother who crashed it twice) and my mom has the Altima. I am working and going to school right now but the job market here is swaying a lot (as it is everywhere) so I don't know where I will be in 6 months as far as a job is concerned.

I know it is the cars I'm working with but is it also possible that the product is not strong enough for what cars I have? Like I said, the SIP worked pretty good on the truck and I have almost no scratches or defects other than the ones that were due to improper paint prep. The Altima was in horrible condition and I was able to get most of it corrected after 5 passes overall of SIP. IF I do the Subaru, its gonna need something much stronger than SIP and an orange pad which is why I'm feeling out for what is more aggressive. At this point, I am not sure if I will even keep the Subaru as there is a guy who wants the engine and transmission from it and is willing to give me $400 and I can partout the rest for another $250 or $300, which is much more than I would get from selling the thing as is.

I am not going to do this as a side job as people here wont pay that much to keep their cars cleaned up to warrent the cost of the products and time. I am just doing this for my own enjoyment. I don't have illusions of getting my cars looking like some of the cars I see on here, but I know they can be much better than they were before the detailing. I just want to know what are some other products that are a bit stronger than SIP/orange LC pad, mostly for oxidation.

You say the PC isn't strong enough for the PFW but I got some pretty good results especially after cleaning up with the 106ff. I did have to spur the pad after every section which I didnt have to do with the LC pads and I had to use a bit more product but that could also be due to the size of the pad isn't it? It also seemed to take longer for everything to break down once I got the hang of using the PFW.

[Joshs2013MSAltimaSL]

I would love to have a car with factory paint but right now money doesn't permit that. I have two cars myself (03 Nissan Frontier crashed before I got it, 92 Subaru Legacy hand-me-down from my brother who crashed it twice) and my mom has the Altima. I am working and going to school right now but the job market here is swaying a lot (as it is everywhere) so I don't know where I will be in 6 months as far as a job is concerned.

I know it is the cars I'm working with but is it also possible that the product is not strong enough for what cars I have? Like I said, the SIP worked pretty good on the truck and I have almost no scratches or defects other than the ones that were due to improper paint prep. The Altima was in horrible condition and I was able to get most of it corrected after 5 passes overall of SIP. IF I do the Subaru, its gonna need something much stronger than SIP and an orange pad which is why I'm feeling out for what is more aggressive. At this point, I am not sure if I will even keep the Subaru as there is a guy who wants the engine and transmission from it and is willing to give me $400 and I can partout the rest for another $250 or $300, which is much more than I would get from selling the thing as is.

I am not going to do this as a side job as people here wont pay that much to keep their cars cleaned up to warrent the cost of the products and time. I am just doing this for my own enjoyment. I don't have illusions of getting my cars looking like some of the cars I see on here, but I know they can be much better than they were before the detailing. I just want to know what are some other products that are a bit stronger than SIP/orange LC pad, mostly for oxidation.

You say the PC isn't strong enough for the PFW but I got some pretty good results especially after cleaning up with the 106ff. I did have to spur the pad after every section which I didnt have to do with the LC pads and I had to use a bit more product but that could also be due to the size of the pad isn't it? It also seemed to take longer for everything to break down once I got the hang of using the PFW.

That's fine...I know the job market sucks. I'm fixing to graduate and just interviewing now. M105 is a great product. It's more aggressive than SIP as well. Powergloss is also another more aggressive compound. My guess is that even with this stuff, you're going to have to make multiple passes. You could maybe step up to a rotary. That would definitely give you more cutting power.

[Paco.McGraw]

Im fine with making multiple passes, but 5 seemed excessive to me. Most of what I've read said two or three passes and they are done. I wish I could have taken pictures of what I have to work with but my camera isnt working right now and buying a new one isnt really in the budget right now. Summer is coming up and I know I will take atleast one class, possibly two. Gotta start saving for that.

I know working time with 105 is pretty short, what about the powergloss? I dont recall reading much about that one. Optimum products seem to work well with rotorys, but what about PC?

[Joshs2013MSAltimaSL]

Optimum are good, but you'll have to make even more passes using it. Powergloss is good, it dusts a lot though. I've heard of people making more than 3 passes to get full correction...it just all depends on the condition of the paint and the hardness of it.