New member jumping into detailing head first

[dp3ngu1n]

Hello Everyone. I've been lurking around several detailing sites and looking into a lot of products ever since I bought my first car almost two years ago. This community seems to be the friendliest around and Mike's videos really brought me around to joining.

Prior to my research into how to take care of paint I was guilty of taking my vehicles to drive through car washes . When I purchased my own car I switched over to washing it with only the two bucket method and will never go back. I had a detailing service come by and clay and seal the paint and purchased the following products so that I can maintain it properly.

Ar383 electric power washer
MTM Hydro foam lance
Chemical guys car shampoo (I'll be switching over to OPT Car wash next just to try something different)
A grit guard
OPT Car Wax

These items, however, won't reverse the damage caused by my family's collective ignorance on the subject of paint maintenance. I've read and watched a ton of articles and videos on what to do and how best to go about it. I figure purchasing my own detailing equipment would be a better investment than having a detailing service come out and work on 3 cars so I've bought the following to tackle the job of restoring them:

Cyclo 5-speed polisher
OPT Opti-lens coating
OPT Opti-coat 2.0
OPT Hyper Polish
4" Hexlogic orange pads
4" Hexlogic white pads
1000 and 2000 grit sand paper for the headlights

I spent a long time trying to determine what the best polisher would be for my needs and I settled on the cyclo due to its, apparent, dummy proof nature. My only worry is that it may lack in cutting power on some of the more stubborn scratches in the clear coat but I'll find out soon enough if it's up to the task.

I've read a lot of the dumb dumb advice but if there's anything I'm missing here please let me know =D

TLDR version: I'm glad to be here and I look forward to learning a lot from everyone

[jamesboyy]

Welcome to autogeek....you off to a great start though a few suggestions would be that you need at least two grit guards and at least three buckets (two for car paint and another one in a different color for wheels) always remember to use the least aggressive to most aggressive method and if a defect won't remove then dont keep try just move on and do futher inspection later...happy detailing

[Hazcat]

I see you have Opt. hyperpolish do you have the hypercompound as well? If not, you'll want to pick some up.

[dp3ngu1n]

Ah yes, I have grit guards in both buckets. For wheels, I usually spray with sonax all purpose, agitate with a wheel brush, then spray down with pressure washer. So I don't put any metallic brake dust into the wash buckets.

I also forgot to mention I got a speed prep cloth to handle the clay work. I've read a bunch of reviews that either say it's Jesus on a cloth or it's the devil. I suppose we'll see. I have some left over Griots if the speedy prep towel doesn't work.

[dp3ngu1n]

I see you have Opt. hyperpolish do you have the hypercompound as well? If not, you'll want to pick some up.

I watched the video with Mike and Dr. G. They said it adjusts to how aggressive the pads are. With the amount of correcting that I think I'm doing I'm not sure I'll need the hyper compound, but I'll get some if I do.

I'm fixing mostly swirls from poor washing technique, nothing that will catch if you ran your finger nail over it. Do you still think I need the compound?