Sa//|XP
03-04-2007, 09:56 PM
My brother and I have been reading a lot on this and other websites and decided to give some of the products and techniques a try on the 2001 M3 I just picked up. Paint was in fair condition but had some pretty heavy switl marks mostly on the hood and the trunk areas.
Here is what we tried (keep in mind that this was our first attempt at doing this type of work)...
Products used:
Meguiars Clay Bar
Optimum Compound (Speedy Foam Yellow pad)
Poorboy's SSR1 (Speedy Foam Black pad)
Meguiars Carnuba Liquid Wax (By hand)
We started with a quick claybar on the hood section. We used retail store grade Meguiars clay bar system. It comes with a bottle of their quick detailer for a lubricant. The paint must have been fairly clean as the clay came up pretty clean. And here is what we came up with:
http://images21.fotki.com/v577/photos/7/730934/4681775/LeftSide1-vi.jpg
We started with the OC with the yellow cutting pad using my cheap (I love it! - $20 and works great!) Ryobi DA polisher. We made one pass on a 3'x3' area for about 5 minutes. Removed the OC with a microfiber and it looked better but not perfect. Frankly, I was a little suprised that the OC with the yellow pad wasn't agressive enough to cut out all the swirls in one pass. We hit the same area one more time with the same technique and the swirls we in my estimation 80% removed.
Is there something more agressive with a heavier abrassive then the OC with a yellow pad? Is this typical results?
We finished the hood off with Poorboy's SSR1 with a black finishing pad. Helped more but still yet the swirls were not 100% gone. Here's our finished results:
http://images21.fotki.com/v577/photos/7/730934/4681775/LeftSide2-vi.jpg
The sun was setting quick so we couldn't get as good shots after finishing the hood. I don't know if you can tell or not from the second picture, but there were still some very minor swirl marks.
We may just repeat the process one more time and just plan on having to do a second pass with the OC and a yellow pad. I just figured the OC was more agressive of an abrassive.
http://images21.fotki.com/v577/photos/7/730934/4681775/IMG_8875-vi.jpg
http://images21.fotki.com/v631/photos/7/730934/4681775/IMG_8867-vi.jpg
http://images21.fotki.com/v631/photos/7/730934/4681775/IMG_8888-vi.jpg
This is what the yellow pad looked like after we finished the hood. Looks like the definitely was removing something off of the surface!
http://images22.fotki.com/v520/photos/7/730934/4681775/IMG_8866-vi.jpg
I welcome your comments/suggestions.
Here is what we tried (keep in mind that this was our first attempt at doing this type of work)...
Products used:
Meguiars Clay Bar
Optimum Compound (Speedy Foam Yellow pad)
Poorboy's SSR1 (Speedy Foam Black pad)
Meguiars Carnuba Liquid Wax (By hand)
We started with a quick claybar on the hood section. We used retail store grade Meguiars clay bar system. It comes with a bottle of their quick detailer for a lubricant. The paint must have been fairly clean as the clay came up pretty clean. And here is what we came up with:
http://images21.fotki.com/v577/photos/7/730934/4681775/LeftSide1-vi.jpg
We started with the OC with the yellow cutting pad using my cheap (I love it! - $20 and works great!) Ryobi DA polisher. We made one pass on a 3'x3' area for about 5 minutes. Removed the OC with a microfiber and it looked better but not perfect. Frankly, I was a little suprised that the OC with the yellow pad wasn't agressive enough to cut out all the swirls in one pass. We hit the same area one more time with the same technique and the swirls we in my estimation 80% removed.
Is there something more agressive with a heavier abrassive then the OC with a yellow pad? Is this typical results?
We finished the hood off with Poorboy's SSR1 with a black finishing pad. Helped more but still yet the swirls were not 100% gone. Here's our finished results:
http://images21.fotki.com/v577/photos/7/730934/4681775/LeftSide2-vi.jpg
The sun was setting quick so we couldn't get as good shots after finishing the hood. I don't know if you can tell or not from the second picture, but there were still some very minor swirl marks.
We may just repeat the process one more time and just plan on having to do a second pass with the OC and a yellow pad. I just figured the OC was more agressive of an abrassive.
http://images21.fotki.com/v577/photos/7/730934/4681775/IMG_8875-vi.jpg
http://images21.fotki.com/v631/photos/7/730934/4681775/IMG_8867-vi.jpg
http://images21.fotki.com/v631/photos/7/730934/4681775/IMG_8888-vi.jpg
This is what the yellow pad looked like after we finished the hood. Looks like the definitely was removing something off of the surface!
http://images22.fotki.com/v520/photos/7/730934/4681775/IMG_8866-vi.jpg
I welcome your comments/suggestions.