Newbie: tons of reading and hours of watching videos, finally used my DA and did a two step on wife's 2018 MB

[Scott in Houston]

It took me some time to get over the 'fear' of using the DA after years of doing things by hand or paying someone to do it.
Weather this weekend in Houston sucks, but I got a window with no rain to give it a good wash, then pull into the garage for the rest.

Tools and supplies:
Purple Power Boat and Auto Wash (for removing grime and any waxes, etc)
1750 PSI Pressure Washer and Amazon $16 foam cannon

CG yellow (OG) clay and tons of Meg's Quick Detail Spray
Harbor Freight DA
Chem Guys backing plate and hex pads (white and black)
Meg's Ultimate Polish (with white pad)
CG Top Coat Sealant

Not nearly enough MF towels. lol.

Steps:
Pressure rinse to knock off the big loose things
Foam with purple power let sit a minute or 3.
Pressure rinse off ... re-foam and clean with wash mits.
Rinse and dry.
Clay
IPA wipe
Polish
TopCoat Sealant/wax

(didn't do interior or wheels as this was a paint-focused day)

Notes:
You can never have enough towels.
It took me a lot longer than it will in the future.
Glad the roof is glass ... saves time.
Meg's Quick Detail was great for the clay and I'm glad it's cheap.
It's hard to tell how well I did on white. The few visible issues I could see before are not visible any longer. Under a spot light, the swirls are gone, but there weren't a lot to begin with.
White was hard to track progress or tell where I started and finished each time I was polishing. I will use little tape markers next time I think.
I'm still a bit scared to do my dark blue car.
May wait on my Griots Correcting Cream as the Meg's Ultimate Polish wasn't as easy to remove as I had expected.

Final pic is pretty anti-climactic since it's pouring rain, and I can't get a good outside pic yet.
Paint feels smooth as glass. I plan to put Megs Hybrid CW on it after the next wash. I'll use Meg's gold class soap for next wash too.












The CG Top Coat was very easy to apply and remove. It allowed me to cover a larger area than when polishing.




Anti climactic final pic. lol




Note:
From another thread I posted. I had a strange incident with a touch up paint job. The paint, after more than a week of being on the car, ran out of the chip and onto the original paint.
I was able to remove it with clay. Pics before and after:

[PaulMys]

Awesome job!

It only takes a few minutes to get over that fear of using the DA, and then realize how much fun it actually is.

[SWETM]

Great work and as Paul mentioned the scare goes away fast. Just be carefull where you can bump into parts and masking tape is a great insurance to do any oops. Otherwise a DA polisher on the paint is safe with some common sense.

Strange about the touch up paint.

Good write up too and pictures. You will do fine on your car too.

/ Tony

[Coatingsarecrack]

Yeah doing my 1st one soon on black. Will be doing chip repair with dr colorchip. Glad to her from another noobie it went well.

Great job!


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[Scott in Houston]

Yeah doing my 1st one soon on black. Will be doing chip repair with dr colorchip. Glad to her from another noobie it went well.

Great job!


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Very interested in our thoughts on dr. color chip.

Good luck!

[rlmccarty2000]

Those are large chips on your bumper. You will have to apply Dr Colorchip at least twice to fill in the largest chip. You need to carefully remove the paint that is hanging off of the chipped area. Apply Dr Colorchip once and let dry (maybe overnight) then apply another coat. Normally on small rock chips one coat fills fine, but on large chips it may take more to fill in the area. Be careful with the Sealeac liquid. It’s great for leveling small chips but on large areas it may pull the paint out of the chip. If it does don’t worry just reapply and use less pressure when wiping with the Sealeac liquid. The best thing about Dr Colorchip is that you don’t get the “blob” you normally get with normal touchup pens or paint. You can still use Dr Colorchip like normal touchup paint too. Watch a couple of Dr Colorchip videos prior to application and don’t worry about messing up, the Sealeac fluid will erase any mistakes. Remember you are not going to get 100% perfection, but it should be just about unnoticeable from 10 feet. You will always know it’s there but no one else will notice.

[Sizzle Chest]

It came out great!! Good work and glad you jumped in!!!