Where did I go wrong?

[BostonStang]

One of the guys I work with asked me to detail his black BMW today. The car was in pretty rough shape -years of gas station car washes and has almost never been waxed.

I got the PC and planned to start with an orange pad and PB 2.5 and go from there. After tearing my house apart I could not find my orange pads. So, I decided to start with a yellow and XMT 2. That didn't do the trick and after working my way up I used a yellow pad with PB 3.0 for the first polish. This did a great job getting rid of some serious water spots and scratches but left alot of swirls. I went to a white pad with XMT 1 and could not get rid of the swirls.

This is the first time I ever used a yellow pad and PB 3.0 on a car. Did I miss a step? After the yellow and PB 3.0 should I have used an orange pad and medium polish, and then white and fine polish? This is the only thing I can think of. I drive a black car, too. And have no problems getting the swirls out of mine.

[ScottB]

the yellow Lake Country pads are the most aggressive made. If they did not make a dent in the swirls with XMT 3 then you gotta two choices. Move to a rotary or your gonna need to go back and work it hard for a lot of time and patience. This is a very abrasive combo and should put a dent in those swirls.

Yellow --- 3.0 (speed 5.5)
White --- 2 XMT (speed 5.5)
grey ---- 1.0 (speed 5.5)

do not move steps until each is complete ... the first step should remove swirls. The second should remove micromarring, and the finish should gem the surface.

[BostonStang]

Thanks Killer, I was worried that you couldn't go straight from yellow to white pads with out an intermediate step.

Today, was just a volunteer job. I figured it he wants to let me practice on his black BMW -great. Even with the swirls, just a good wash and some ex-p made it look about 100 times better than it did. The owner is very happy.

[Surfer]

If XMT line is similar to the SSR Line, the #3 is very agressive like a compound and needs to be followed up with a medium polish and then final polish as Killr pointed out. I don't think the 1 in either line is good enough to take care of marring left over from #3.

If you want a compound that works well and finishes down like a polish, get some Optimum Compound. Love it. Even on a yellow Edge pad it finished down like a polish with basically no marring.

[FloridaNative]

If XMT line is similar to the SSR Line, the #3 is very agressive like a compound and needs to be followed up with a medium polish and then final polish as Killr pointed out. I don't think the 1 in either line is good enough to take care of marring left over from #3.

If you want a compound that works well and finishes down like a polish, get some Optimum Compound. Love it. Even on a yellow Edge pad it finished down like a polish with basically no marring.

XMT #3 is more of an equivalent to Poorboy's 2.5.

[ScottB]

Thanks Killer, I was worried that you couldn't go straight from yellow to white pads with out an intermediate step.

Today, was just a volunteer job. I figured it he wants to let me practice on his black BMW -great. Even with the swirls, just a good wash and some ex-p made it look about 100 times better than it did. The owner is very happy.


you want to go down by pad as possible, but with a little more work, can usually skip a pad. I would personally start using orange pads and get rid of the yellows however. They just seem to be almost "too abrasive" for most jobs.

[jim/larry]

I'd use this if its that bad if useing xmt.

Yellow pad=#3
Orange pad=#2
Green pad=#1 and
white/blue pad for the glaze/wax/sealant