What pads to use with this ancient machine...

[ahmed24]

Hello guys!
I bought a black dodge srt4 that looked perfect when i first bought it like 3 months ago but i guess it was just a wax, now the problems are a lot of swirl marks, water etching, a couple of small scratches, and white spots in the front bumper which im not sure whats the reason behind them...

The paint looks perfect from a 5-6 feet distance but close up, ehhh.. some pics. First is what it looked like on the first day..



Then all the spots that i hope would come out.. only very few of them are actual chips, the rest seems to hide temporarily when covered with water so i assume can be buffed out..












Now, recently i bought a slightly used Makita 9207spc 6 speed variable rotary, it was used but the owner gave me everything he had with it.. a 6" velcro backing plate that has a blue top.. and a 7.5 or 8" white foam pad, tried measuring it but didnt know where to start counting from , anyways it also had a 3/4th bottle of Megs 9 swirl remover 2.0, a 3/4 bottle of megs 83 DA cleaner/polish, 1/2 a bottle of megs 84 compound power cleaner, a 1/4 bottle of 3M Finesse it II finishing material.. Everything is 32fl oz except the swirl remover which is 16 oz. I also bought a brand new full bottle of Megs 105 ultra-cut compound, 32oz bottle. Idk if i need the 205 or not...


Last week i used mothers gold clay bars and did the entire car, now here are the questions. First would i need other liquids or are those enough? Which pads should i buy? i want very few holograms if possible and i have no DA... What would be the best combo to use , like for instance" use the wool pad with the 105" etc.. and finally, i tried the white pad with some M83 on my friends red prelude and it took out the swirls in a second but i noticed holograms so i stopped, i need to practice before ever using it on the srt lol.. and is it possible to take those white spots on the picture with the machine?

Oh and the machine seemed to glide away from me very easily even if i tried holding it firmly! at speeds 2-3, didnt try any faster and im a pretty strong guy so its not the way i was holding it. Is it a problem with my technique or the rotary itself...?


Thanks for reading all this, and hope someone can help me

[rwright]

You have some work on your hands. All the chips will be tough but AG sells Dr. Color Chip kit and several people have had good results with it. Look at the sticker on your door jamb for the color code. Dr. Color Chip has a brief tutorial on how to locate and recognize your code. If the car is all factory paint be prepared for somewhat hard paint. I polished out the same style car, please refer to this thread:

2005 Dodge Neon SRT-4

Best of luck and remember to tape off all trim and remove the plastic scoop insert. FYI, the ram head is removable.

[ahmed24]

Yea i know its removable, and thanks for the insight! ill definately be looking into that for the chips, but like i said the chips are minimal, the main problem is the other white spots in the pics... and i do have factory paint but on the side i have a place where it has touchup paint that i also need to get rid off soon but i wanted to figure out how i can take care of the other stuff first lol. I need a good pad/polish combo to start

[rwright]

The "sand" blasting effect is common on these cars, especially when you actually drive them. I was able to remove a lot of the defects on that one but be prepared that it's not going to be perfect. The best solution, which I'm going to do this Spring, is have the front bumper repainted and after proper cure time apply 3M Ventureshield Paint Protection Film. Even though my car is Electric Blue, the specs stand out just like they do on black and red.

[ahmed24]

omg.. the results were great!!! damn bro lol but i think that using the rotary may somewhat take most of the sand effect youre talking about more, i might even wetsand it but not sure yet. The body is no where as bad as this one but the front is actually a bit worse sadly =( oh you have a skittle too lol nice. How hard is it to work on the front and rear bumper cause thats where most of my problems are..

[rwright]

omg.. the results were great!!! damn bro lol but i think that using the rotary may somewhat take most of the sand effect youre talking about more, i might even wetsand it but not sure yet. The body is no where as bad as this one but the front is actually a bit worse sadly =( oh you have a skittle too lol nice. How hard is it to work on the front and rear bumper cause thats where most of my problems are..

The paint is way easier to work with but go easy because most likely you're not going to have as much paint to play with. I only work to the point I'm comfortable with, I don't push it. The cross hairs can be tricky but other than that, not bad. You can try to wet sand but if it's like mine, and looking at the picture it appears to be, you are going to be in for some work. I'm looking forward to seeing your work. I don't know if you're a member of srtforums but let me caution you, there's a lot of mis-information over there. It takes some time to filter through the members and figure out who actually knows what they are talking about.

[ahmed24]

yes i am a member but i only use it for performance mods and so far ive build a very solid and reliable car and very soon im going with a zeta 3.0 lol , anyways i just posted the question there in the detailing section and thats what i got from one member


"105 would be too aggressive, use the 205 and a somewhat aggressive pad. I'm assuming you know how to buff correctly, right? Buy the softest foam pad you can, and a decent amount of black fire wet diamond, and maybe some Menzerna PO85RD, do the 205 first with the harsher pad, go back over with the 85RD with the soft pad, clean the pad out, then use it to apply the wet diamond. Chances are the previous owner used something like zaino that just hides the problems and doesn't correct anything. "

i paid 34 bucks for the M105 and now i find out its bad =/ lol
im just trying to determine what pads to buy before doing anything else and whether i would even be using any of the other polishes i have

[rwright]

yes i am a member but i only use it for performance mods and so far ive build a very solid and reliable car and very soon im going with a zeta 3.0 lol , anyways i just posted the question there in the detailing section and thats what i got from one member


"105 would be too aggressive, use the 205 and a somewhat aggressive pad. I'm assuming you know how to buff correctly, right? Buy the softest foam pad you can, and a decent amount of black fire wet diamond, and maybe some Menzerna PO85RD, do the 205 first with the harsher pad, go back over with the 85RD with the soft pad, clean the pad out, then use it to apply the wet diamond. Chances are the previous owner used something like zaino that just hides the problems and doesn't correct anything. "

i paid 34 bucks for the M105 and now i find out its bad =/ lol
im just trying to determine what pads to buy before doing anything else and whether i would even be using any of the other polishes i have

Hmmm.....

[ahmed24]

Hmmm.....

lol

[rwright]

Responded. By the way, nice choice with the Zeta. Erabbit23 put that one in the spot light.