Why does it take so long?

[addysdaddy]

Detailed the kids car today (which rarely gets used these days). Used BF Crystal Seal now for a second time and looks as good as anything else I've tried. Frankly it doesn't get easier then BFCS when it comes to applying a product, but at this point still don't know about durability. I've included some pix so you can get the idea of the final look with this new sealant. The TSX is a 2005 and has a couple of nice "bullet" sized dings and dents but overall has weathered both of my kids fairly well and like most Honda products I've found, an extremely reliable vehicle. Except Mr. Honda really likes to apply his paint super thin...disappointing imo. Anyway...

With that in mind, for some reason it took an exceptionally long time to apply Wolfgang Paint Enhancer as my cleanser step. Since reading about and adopting the KBM Of Pad Cleaning, doing a polishing pass over the entire car is taking around 3 hours, with one of those hours being consumed by pad cleaning. (after every panel) Wondering if I'm doing something wrong so please, fire away if you have any ideas or suggestions. I could simply ignore the cleaning on the fly and save the time, but it does seem to improve the performance of the product I'm using with the pad cleaning. But even for me 3 hours for one complete pass seems excessive. HELP!

It was also very hot & humid and the WPE didn't want to wipe off easily - needed a little help so I used Optimum Power Clean diluted 1-2.5 with distilled water which worked great. Left the surface squeaky clean. So if I subtract the pad cleaning from the equation, it took me two hours to complete a full pass of the car which still seems a bit long. Guess I would've expected between 1-1.5hrs to make a complete "polishing" pass on a vehicle. Seems like I'm off by quite a bit. Suggestions or is that time in the ball park considering I work in small areas and make around 3-4 section passes?

http://addysdaddy.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v49/p463547225-4.jpg

http://addysdaddy.zenfolio.com/img/s2/v50/p287814797-4.jpg

http://addysdaddy.zenfolio.com/img/s2/v53/p274827645-4.jpg
http://addysdaddy.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v48/p183935198-4.jpg
http://addysdaddy.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v46/p431405773-4.jpg

[swanicyouth]

It's a dilemma... Is it worth it to apply a paint cleaner by machine? Doing it by hand would not have taken as long. How many section passes with the paint cleaner? You probably did a better job by machine.

[Setec Astronomy]

Car looks great. I don't think your polishing time is excessive, but your pad cleaning time is. Maybe you are using too much product? Or you need to buy more pads, use a pad cleaning brush, or invest in a pad washer, or some combination.

[vet]

Looks good!

[glen e]

I am getting at least 3 months with BFCS.....on a honda...

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/auto-detailing-101/52541-does-blackfire-last.html

[tuscarora dave]

Car looks great. I don't think your polishing time is excessive, but your pad cleaning time is. Maybe you are using too much product? Or you need to buy more pads, use a pad cleaning brush, or invest in a pad washer, or some combination.
:iagree:

[bmwgalore]

Three hours on 1 round is actually normal, it really depends how hard or soft the paint is...

Switch over to Micro Fiber pads, the cut and finish a lot faster...


One hour total to clean up pads? Now, that's a lot!
Rub the polisher against a terry cloth towel, then brush with one of those pad brushes and rub again with a terry cloth towel (clean side)... Total cleaning time: 15 seconds...


But the car looks great, whatever is you're doing, keep doing it!

[addysdaddy]

It's a dilemma... Is it worth it to apply a paint cleaner by machine? Doing it by hand would not have taken as long. How many section passes with the paint cleaner? You probably did a better job by machine.

I tend to agree with u swani and I'm willing to spend the extra time using the machine. Here's how I did the math and came up with 1 hr of pad cleaning. Each side is broken down into 4 panels, hood, roof & rear deck all two for a total of 14 panels. At an avg of 5 minutes per pad...60 minutes. (I'm rounding down) I use compressed air and lightly brush the surface with a pad brush, so maybe it's really like 3 minutes per pad. Best case would be 30 minutes and I guess the worse would be 60 minutes. I've read Mike Phillips article on pad cleaning and know lots of people bury the pad into a terry towel and clean it that way with is probably fine, but I'm amazed to what actually gets dislodged using the compressed air. Interesting you guys don't really think my overall time is excessive. Hmmm, so assuming I needed a fine polishing step prior to the cleansing, that's an additional 2.5-3 hrs. It is what it is and it's my hobby so I'm really not complaining (ok maybe a little bit) but I would really love to find a way to get a complete pass down to 2 hrs, including everything - not sure that's going to happen based on what I observed this weekend.

Thanks for the props on how the car looks, I'm really pleased with the end result which makes it worthwhile as you all know :xyxthumbs:. Probably need to rethink doing a major detail during the dog days here in south Florida.

[Old Tiger]

3 hours isnt at all excessive> In fact it is pretty fast. If you use a polish, you can skip the paint cleanser. Buy more pads and replace them regularly. I highly recommend Optimum Polish II when you want more than a cleanser.

[swanicyouth]

3 hours isnt at all excessive> In fact it is pretty fast. If you use a polish, you can skip the paint cleanser. Buy more pads and replace them regularly. I highly recommend Optimum Polish II when you want more than a cleanser.

I used this polish last night for the first time to get out some marring on hood that was isolated to one area. It was my first time using a SMAT and it finished on black perfect. This is good stuff! I bought the finishing polish but didn't need it.

[Old Tiger]

I used this polish last night for the first time to get out some marring on hood that was isolated to one area. It was my first time using a SMAT and it finished on black perfect. This is good stuff! I bought the finishing polish but didn't need it.
I sometimes will jewel with the Finish, but never need to. Glad you like it.

[addysdaddy]

Hmmm, I've tried several different polishes honestly, M105, UC & M#205 seem to cover bases for me. Not saying the Optimum isn't better, but IME polishing in and of itself won't allow me to pass the plastic bag test. Again in my experience, need that cleansing step. The only thing that might make a difference is the wipe down chemical. Before I was using 10% IPA and that didn't work. As I mentioned earlier, switched to Optimum Power Wash 2.5-1 and that seemed to clean things up much better. So maybe the issue is in the cleanup/wipedown and not in the polishing. Boy would that be fantastic if I would be LSP ready after finishing with M205 (or similar)!

[tuscarora dave]

Hmmm, I've tried several different polishes honestly, M105, UC & M#205 seem to cover bases for me. Not saying the Optimum isn't better, but IME polishing in and of itself won't allow me to pass the plastic bag test. Again in my experience, need that cleansing step. The only thing that might make a difference is the wipe down chemical. Before I was using 10% IPA and that didn't work. As I mentioned earlier, switched to Optimum Power Wash 2.5-1 and that seemed to clean things up much better. So maybe the issue is in the cleanup/wipedown and not in the polishing. Boy would that be fantastic if I would be LSP ready after finishing with M205 (or similar)!
The way that's written sounds like you're trying to replace claying with a paint cleaner. You did clay the car first, right?

[addysdaddy]

The way that's written sounds like you're trying to replace claying with a paint cleaner. You did clay the car first, right?

Wash, clayed (Clay Magic - Blue) and WG Cleanser. The car had already been corrected and is not driven much with both kids away so it unsuccessfully tries to be a garage queen. Just had to replace the battery because of the lack of activity. But to answer your question, yes I clayed the car and no I don't believe either step replaces the other. I'm just trying to find an easier way with either a very fine machine polish or one of these cleanser products to get paint to pass the plastic bag test. FYI, even sitting in the garage for the majority of the time, the paint still needed to be clayed - I was actually surprised at that.

[tuscarora dave]

Have you ever done an application of iron-x? I didn't mean to be insulting in any way by asking that question. Sounds like there is contaminates in the paint that the claying process and all the other processes aren't removing. Perhaps it's stubbornly imbedded iron particles that are only being sheared off instead of being removed completely.