Help Diagnose My Problem

[emmjay]

I just want to thank everyone on this thread. I am a total amateur with little experience. Last weekend I spent 7 hours doing the roof and trunk of my Black Sapphire BMW. Wash, decontaminate, clay, two step correction with the Flex and a GG 3" (for the tight spots.) Then waxed with Pinnacle Souvran paste wax. I thought "It will take me forever to do the whole car." Then I realized I really enjoyed the work, my wife let me count it as exercise and I was thrilled with the result. Tomorrow I'll do the hood and front bumper. My inexperience means it will take a lot more time than a professional, maybe 20-30 hours to finish the whole thing, but who cares!

Thanks again autogeeks!

After all that work, when you stand back and admire the car, all that time just disappears.

Due to this, I look at my car everyday after I park it at work and sometimes I smile, cuz it looks so damn good!

[RPM_BR]

You'll get faster as time (and cars) goes by.
Practice makes things speed up.

In my particular case, after working by myself for several years, I finally got myself a partner, with a huge plus, he is nineteen years younger. I got the experience, he has the youth.
After washing, I test spot and decide the set up, always explaining to him the reasons of doing so.
Usually he does the cutting stage with a rotary, and I come up after with a 3401 and/or Rupes 21.
We get really thrashed cars, heavily swirled, we even wet sand, so it is almost always three stage polishing jobs. Sometimes we do a pre-cut, like rotary Menz 300 on a wool, to remove heavy oxidation and scratch marks. Even coating is a lot faster, since one apply and the other level it, the last car we coated, a huge Dodge Ram 2500, we took 1h10min.
We are doing cars on the fly.
And it is a lot of fun, you know, man talk, about women, beer, football, nasty jokes, facebook memes etc.
The reason I'm digressing and telling you all of this, is that maybe you have a friend, team up.
Less money, obviously, but faster jobs. Maybe you can make two cars on a weekend.
Best regards.

[Octopiston]

I know, it's a long stretch, but I'm used to it. At work I have to plow snow, sometimes up to 3 days at a time with one 4 hours break over the course of 3 days. I'm used to slaving lol.

I'm using a Flex 3401 with 6.5 inch Lake Country Hybrid pads. My car is a 2016 Chevrolet SS sedan. The longer I worked on it, the more I was like "Holy s*** there's a lot of surface area on this thing!" On my girlfriends S5, I spent almost 3 hours on the wheels, scrubbing the grime out of the barrels.

I'll post a picture of my car in a few when I back it out of the garage.

Forget that! After having some health issues, and a youngish family member committed suicide working like that isn't worth it to me anymore.

You have a good machine. Nice ride also. I have similar realestate on my cars (g8 gxp, cts-v). When working on them I'll take all sorts of time. Most of it is due to me getting sidetracked "While I have the car jacked up and the wheels are off" type stuff, or my wife wanting to go do stuff.

[JSMet]

I feel the same way that you do, but I think I've reconciled myself to it. I try to save steps and cut down on the time factor in certain ways, but you didn't mention how your projects end up when you're finished. If you are satisfied with the result, then that's the main goal, isn't it? I mean you don't want to make time more important than the result, right? I recently washed, clayed, decontaminated, polished, and coated my truck, and it took about 14 hours. I was tired but extremely happy and satisfied with the result.

[Paul A.]

Damn BlackDevil, that thing looks incredible!!! Nice work and pro level shizzit in those photos.

[Blackdevil77]

You'll get faster as time (and cars) goes by.
Practice makes things speed up.

In my particular case, after working by myself for several years, I finally got myself a partner, with a huge plus, he is nineteen years younger. I got the experience, he has the youth.
After washing, I test spot and decide the set up, always explaining to him the reasons of doing so.
Usually he does the cutting stage with a rotary, and I come up after with a 3401 and/or Rupes 21.
We get really thrashed cars, heavily swirled, we even wet sand, so it is almost always three stage polishing jobs. Sometimes we do a pre-cut, like rotary Menz 300 on a wool, to remove heavy oxidation and scratch marks. Even coating is a lot faster, since one apply and the other level it, the last car we coated, a huge Dodge Ram 2500, we took 1h10min.
We are doing cars on the fly.
And it is a lot of fun, you know, man talk, about women, beer, football, nasty jokes, facebook memes etc.
The reason I'm digressing and telling you all of this, is that maybe you have a friend, team up.
Less money, obviously, but faster jobs. Maybe you can make two cars on a weekend.
Best regards.

A partner would definitely speed things up if he/she knows what they're doing and are willing to work as hard as you. Cutting with a rotary would definitely speed things up. In my particular case, I didn't do much cutting, over 90% of what I did was polishing with SF3500. It had enough cut to remove the light scratches and marring my car had and finished with incredible clarity. I wouldn't mind teaming up. I'm looking to move soon and a big garage is an absolute must for my new place. Once that happens, I'm in business

Forget that! After having some health issues, and a youngish family member committed suicide working like that isn't worth it to me anymore.

You have a good machine. Nice ride also. I have similar realestate on my cars (g8 gxp, cts-v). When working on them I'll take all sorts of time. Most of it is due to me getting sidetracked "While I have the car jacked up and the wheels are off" type stuff, or my wife wanting to go do stuff.

Yeah, it's beyond rough. It takes me a week to feel normal again after working that hard. I can't do that the rest of my life. I work with some guys that have been doing that for 35+ years, which is insane to me.

Thank you, the 3401 is a great piece and I love my SS. Much more than I ever expected to. It's a hell of a car.

I feel the same way that you do, but I think I've reconciled myself to it. I try to save steps and cut down on the time factor in certain ways, but you didn't mention how your projects end up when you're finished. If you are satisfied with the result, then that's the main goal, isn't it? I mean you don't want to make time more important than the result, right? I recently washed, clayed, decontaminated, polished, and coated my truck, and it took about 14 hours. I was tired but extremely happy and satisfied with the result.

I am satisfied with the result. If I wasn't, I'd still be out there working lol. Sometimes as I'm working, I can't help but think, "there has to be a better, more efficient way to do this. This is taking forever.

Damn BlackDevil, that thing looks incredible!!! Nice work and pro level shizzit in those photos.

Thank you! The compliment is very much appreciated, especially after spending that kind of time. Menzerna SF3500 is incredible stuff. Works wonderfully, finishes with great clarity and shine, and so easy to work with. Very minimal dusting, you can work it as long as you want, and has a decent amount of cut as well, I was able to get out some scratches I didn't think it would get out.