Which Meguiar's Product best to remove swirls by hand

[Jertronic]

My weekend project is to attach my wife's black jetta. Correct then protect the swirl ridden finish. A local shop carries all the mirror glaze and other megs products.

Which would be best to work with by hand? Most of all the megs product descriptions only reference machine polishing.

I'm all set for sealant and wax. Just need to correct the swirls after Claying and iron-xing the finish.

[cleanmycorolla]

By hand? 1) Good luck, your arms are going to hurt 2) you probably wot get the results you want 3) I'd use Ultimate Compund 4) If I were you I'd wait, not use my hands and get a DA.

Good luck

[kevin_1981]

By hand? 1) Good luck, your arms are going to hurt 2) you probably wot get the results you want 3) I'd use Ultimate Compund 4) If I were you I'd wait, not use my hands and get a DA.

Good luck

:iagree:

[Quiksilver5882]

I would look into a Griots Garage polisher or Porter Cable. It's worth the investment! Then once you get hooked, you'll want a Flex 3401 and a Rupes. Welcome to AGO!

[FUNX650]

A local shop carries all the mirror glaze and other megs products.

Which would be best to work with by hand? Most of all the megs product descriptions only reference machine polishing.

Many of Meguiar's polishes/swirl-removers state:
"by either hand and/or machine application".

That local shop's personnel should lead you to the
product(s) best suited for your task "at hand".


Bob

[Jaretr1]

By hand? 1) Good luck, your arms are going to hurt 2) you probably wot get the results you want 3) I'd use Ultimate Compund 4) If I were you I'd wait, not use my hands and get a DA.

Good luck


:iagree:as well.

I tried once using the products by hand, ultimate compound even, and got practically no correction. It seems like the abrasives just dont get to work with the slow movements of our arms.

If you really want correction, get a DA (I recommend the PC7424XP with 5.5" pads). My first full correction on a car was with the PC and Ultimate Compound and I got almost all of the defects out (car wasnt all that bad). I followed with Ultimate Polish and then a wax. I have since moved on from those two products, but they do work, are easy to use and will give decent results.

A lot of people say well I dont want to spend the money on a tool that I am only going to use once or twice. My answer to that would be, you probably wont get the results you are looking for without the tool, and once you have it, you will use it more often than you think. Make the investment.

[Jertronic]

After taking a closet look at the condition of the black paint and after reading the advice on the topic of hand polishing project is on hold for now. Going to purchase a DA and get set up for pads.

I would rather use a different line or brand than Meg's anyway. Menerza or Wolfgang are brands that I'm keen on. Thanks for the input.

[Setec Astronomy]

After taking a closet look at the condition of the black paint and after reading the advice on the topic of hand polishing project is on hold for now. Going to purchase a DA and get set up for pads.

I would rather use a different line or brand than Meg's anyway. Menerza or Wolfgang are brands that I'm keen on. Thanks for the input.

Good call, VW paint is usually very hard. Don't discount the Meg's polishes, but you can't go wrong with Menzerna or Wolfgang, either.

[runrun411]

Megs. has a line that's sold at Auto Zone, Walmart and other places that is made to be used by hand. It's in the red bottle. However I do agree with everyone else. You should get a DA polisher. It'll save you lots of energy.

[Jaretr1]

WG Uber compound has gotten very good reviews and people have had good luck with it finishing off perfectly, virtually eliminating the need for polishing.

[Desertnate]

After taking a closet look at the condition of the black paint and after reading the advice on the topic of hand polishing project is on hold for now. Going to purchase a DA and get set up for pads.

I would rather use a different line or brand than Meg's anyway. Menerza or Wolfgang are brands that I'm keen on. Thanks for the input.

If you are looking at Menzerna or Wolfgang, I'd also suggest you consider the Blackfire SRC duo. They are similar to the other two. I was facing a black VW GTI this spring and was looking at all three. A sale on the Blackfire products pushed me that direction, but I'm sure I'd have been happy with any of them. The results were amazing, but I would never have accomplished much of anything without a machine.

[Mike Phillips]

and after reading the advice on the topic of hand polishing project is on hold for now.




In the last few weeks I've replied to a lot of threads on the topic of working by hand...

I share with the person how to actually work by hand and then highly recommend getting a DA Polisher.

I can't think of an easy way to locate all these recent threads which is a shame because they include a lot of information.


The short story is this....

Modern clearcoat paints are hard, at least harder than traditional single stage paints that came on cars since the time of the Ford Model T to the 1980's when the industry switched over to the basecoat/clearcoat paint systems. (I cover this in my how-to book).

Clearcoats are scratch-sensitive. This means they scratch easily. Because they are hard, it's hard or difficult to remove scratches by hand or machine but a lot harder and a lot more time consuming when working by hand.

I taught all the Saturday classes at Meguiar's from 2002 to 2009 and I started each class showing people how to work by hand and followed this by showing them how to work using the Meguiar's G110v2 Dual Action Polisher. The BEST sales tool for the polisher was all the people in the class watching me work by hand.

Removing swirls and scratches out of any automotive paint system means removing some paint. What you're doing is abrading the surface to level the upper most surface with the lowest depths of the defects you're trying to remove.


Here's what's involved when trying to work by hand...


1. A compound that's clearcoat safe. Meguiar's Ultimate Compound and Wolfgang Uber Compound both fit this description. This is IMPORTANT because the goal is to remove scratches without leaving new scratches and MOST compounds cannot do this when used by HAND.


2. You need to press hard, move your hand fast and ONLY work a small section at at time, we're talking a section about 12" square MAX.


3. Most people don't have the physically strength to move their hand fast, press down firm while they are moving their hand fast to effectively rub out an entire hood let alone an entire car.


4. Most people don't have the skill to work by hand and in most case will put more scratches into the paint "trying" than remove. Here's the deal about this... with the simple, entry level dual action polisher like the Porter Cable, Griot's and Meguiar's units... it doesn't require much skill. Basically stand next to the car, turn the polisher on and move it back and forth in a crosshatch pattern. No sweating and trying to move a 4-5 hand applicator back and forth at light speed for a small section of paint.

It's nostalgic to think about going out to your garage on a Saturday morning and detailing your car but when the reality sinks in most people become very frustrated.

If they're lucky... they found this forum before going out to their garage on a Saturday morning.... (like you)


Now if a person just wants to apply a paint cleaner to remove road film and previously applied waxes before applying a coat of wax, then this is pretty simple but this is NOT remove swirls and scratches, it's just cleaning the paint surface so the new coat of wax can better stick to the paint.


I wrote this article a few years ago because this topic comes up so often, click the link and look at the pictures of the,


Young boy
Young lady
Seasoned gentleman

It really is pretty easy... in fact if you were to read enough posts to this forum you will find many re-occurring themes, here's a couple,

"I should have done this years ago"

Meaning they should have moved up from hand polishing to machine polishing YEARS ago once they found out how easy it is, how much faster it is and what great results they are able to produce.


"After I detailed my car, now I have people asking me to detail their cars"

The point of this comment is what the person means is after they buy the polisher, pads and products, take their swirled-out mess and make it look better than new, now everyone in their circle of friendship notices their car and offers to PAY them to detail their car.

People end up starting weekend detailing business without even trying. Not everyone wants this but a lot of people do end up detailing cars for a few extra bucks and get their investment back.


Here's the article, click the link, read the text and look at the pictures....

It's not that hard... (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/ask-expert-featuring-mike-phillips/55512-s-not-hard.html)


And notice the cars they are LEARNING on....


:D

[Mike Phillips]

Which would be best to work with by hand?





Here you go...


From working by hand to working by machine - You can do it. (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/ask-expert-featuring-mike-phillips/83435-working-hand-working-machine-you-can-do.html)



:xyxthumbs:

[dlc95]

I might add that using the machine is a LOT of fun - for me anyways. Autogeek has some really nice kits available, with whatever machine / pads / chemicals you might want to try.