First Cx Car + Compound recommendation

**veeko** · 10-05-2010, 01:45 PM

This past weekend I had my first customer car which was a platinum grey 2006 VW Jetta. The car was just recently purchased as a pre-owned vehicle and seemed to have been severely neglected over the years. The new owner was looking to remove swirls and scratches. Upon assessing the paint with the customer, I pointed out all of defects. Just about the entire car was covered in moderate swirls and scratches, some scratches much deeper than others. I explained how a multi-step approach works and even did a test spot right in the front of the customer. The customer was instantly sold.

The polishing products I used consisted of Optimum Compound II and Optimum Polish. I currently only have 6.5" pads and a few 4" pads. I wasn't too impressed with how the compound was working with the orange pad and felt the need to step it up to the yellow. The results were good but i found it took a lot of time switching between 3 pads (yellow, orange, white) to get the results I was after (approx 30+ mins per panel) and even still I felt it could have been better. The clear-coat on the VW definitely seemed like a tough one to work with.

I'm definitely going to be picking up some 5.5" flat pads in hopes of improving the over-all process. I keep reading the 5.5" pads are much better for paint correction. I spent a total of 12 hours on the car from start to finish and I would really like to find a way to kind of speed things up.

Aside from that, does anyone have any recommendations on a compound that works quicker and better than Optimum Compound II and still finishes as nicely? Is Megs #105 any better or about the same?

Any suggestions or feedback on any of the info above is greatly appreciated.

Here's a couple of pics of the customers car finished off with some WG DGPS.

Thanks,
Lu.

**mbkite** · 10-05-2010, 02:00 PM

Super buff pads and 105 is the magic

**mbkite** · 10-05-2010, 02:48 PM

I sent you a few pm .. links to a different site their good reads
but don't get me wrong this is the best forum..

**veeko** · 10-05-2010, 02:50 PM

Originally Posted by mbkite

I sent you a few pm .. links to a different site their good reads
but don't get me wrong this is the best forum..

much appreciated. i'm always down for a good read and trust me i wont be leaving ag. ag is where it's at!

does 105 work just as well with LC hydro-techs or flat pads as it does with the super buff pads? and i'm assuming 105 is more abrasive then then op compound II?

anyone else?

**veeko** · 10-05-2010, 03:13 PM

or do you guys think optimum compound II is perfectly fine and probably just the size of the pad that could have slowed down and possibly impeded the results?

Mike Phillips · 10-05-2010, 04:11 PM

Originally Posted by veeko

The polishing products I used consisted of Optimum Compound II and Optimum Polish. I currently only have 6.5" pads and a few 4" pads.

Did you mention what type of tool you're using?

That usually helps... I hate to assume for the reasons we all know but I'll assume you're using a PC or a variant?

Regardless, 5.5" pads rotate best on all DA Polishers and that means swirls and scratches are removed best using 5.5" pads. It's all about keeping the pad rotating as that's when you remove paint and it's by removing a little paint you level the surface and thus remove swirls and scratches.

Meguiar's M105 and Ultimate Compound are the benchmarks for removing swirls and finishing out almost LSP ready, so maybe consider trying one of these.

Originally Posted by veeko

Any suggestions or feedback on any of the info above is greatly appreciated.

Resize your pictures so people don't have to horizontal scroll. 800 pixels is good Netiquete...

This is 800 pixels wide...

**veeko** · 10-05-2010, 04:34 PM

I didn't even realize I forgot to mention the tool. You're correct, I'm using a PC 7424XP and I will definitely be ordering some 5.5" pads and looking into the products you mentioned. Due to using a 6.5" pad I had my PC on speed 6 and made sure the pad was always spinning while still applying pressure.

My apologies for the size of the pics. I was under the impression the forum or browser would resize them automatically. I'll resize them once I get in.

Thanks.

Mike Phillips · 10-05-2010, 04:47 PM

Originally Posted by veeko

I didn't even realize I forgot to mention the tool. You're correct, I'm using a PC 7424XP and I will definitely be ordering some 5.5" pads and looking into the products you mentioned. Due to using a 6.5" pad I had my PC on speed 6 and made sure the pad was always spinning while still applying pressure.

The new XP model will rotate a 6.5" pad, heck it will even rotate a 7" pad like the Meguiar's pads but maximum efficiency is reached with LESS surface area, thus 5.5" pads are the trend and,

Thin is in...

Originally Posted by veeko

My apologies for the size of the pics. I was under the impression the forum or browser would resize them automatically. I'll resize them once I get in.

Thanks.

Our software does resize your photos IF you load your photos to our gallery, your photos are hosted on Photobucket...

Nice looking car but with a 24" monitor in landscape mode I'm still horizontally scrolling.

**veeko** · 10-05-2010, 06:44 PM

crap. for some reason i'm unable to edit my original post. pics have been resized on photobucket and they're still appearing the same size. my bad.

**veeko** · 10-07-2010, 03:30 PM

Originally Posted by Mike.Phillips@Autogeek

Meguiar's M105 and Ultimate Compound are the benchmarks for removing swirls and finishing out almost LSP ready, so maybe consider trying one of these.

any idea how M105 compares to Optimum Hyper Compound Spray?