Did my first full detail (power polish), thoughts and questions inside

[wardpr68]

Hello everyone,

First off I have to start with a huge thank you to everyone, especially Mike, Hellabroke, and mwoolfso. Mike, for putting out a great book and awesome videos. I was scared to get into power polishing for fear of messing up my car, but after reading his book and watching his videos, I knew I could do it, and I did! Hellabroke and mwoolfso gave some great advice in regards to my vehicle (2012 VW GTI) and how to attack it with Menzerna products. Thanks guys!

Here was my process (sorry no pics, perhaps I can put up an after pic later today).

Wash
Iron-X
Clay
Menz 2500
Menz power lock sealant

First off, this car had an absolute ton of iron deposits/rail rust. The back hatch was just littered with spots. Last year I had clayed all these off with the help of my girlfriend. To this day she still brings up how much work that was.

So, I was more than willing to try anything else, and when I heard about Iron-X, I couldn't wait to try it. So, here is my first tip for others: Wear gloves, and you should probably wear a mask. The smell of this stuff is just absolutely horrid and I swear I can still smell it today. That being said, it works amazingly well. I sprayed it, let it sit for 3 mins, then rub it in with a damp microfiber chenille wash sponge and sprayed off. On 2 or 3 panels I did have to do a second application to get a few stray spots, but after that 2nd application it was ALL gone. I could not believe it. I recommend this product to anyone, especially those with white paint (which mine is).

Next came claying. Despite having never power polished I have clayed many vehicles. I used to do everything by hand for many years. I have to say, after using Iron-x, claying was astronomically easier. There was VERY little going on the clay, but I did need it as evidenced by the sandwich bag test. So while it still did need clay after iron-x, the job took about 50% less time than any other car I have ever done. Again, Iron-X was amazing.

Now came the hard part, or at least I thought it would be. I took out the PC 7424XP, attached a white flat LCC pad, Menz 2500, and went to work. I did a test spot on the hood and it seemed nothing was happening. This doesn't feel right, I thought. OH! I forgot to mark my backing plate! Marked it, tried it, ohhhhh... the pad wasn't rotating! NOW IT'S WORKING! I was achieving greater results than I thought I would, I would say 80-90% correction. Still some really small scratches, but I was more than satisfied. I had Menz FG-400 on hand, but I just wanted to do a minor correction for my first try.

More advise, don't skimp on taping off. As I was getting to new panels I realized, "man, I should have really taped that off," and I ended up doing so. If I had just done it all at the start I wouldn't have had to keep putting the polisher down and taping off.

In the end, I was satisfied. Next I took out the power lock sealant and applied it via machine. I let it cure about 20 minutes and then removed by hand. The car looked amazing. When my girlfriend came outside to see it she said it was absolutely blinding in the sun. I have never seen a white car look this good.

After I was done my uncle took a look and agreed it was amazing. He insisted we try Menz FG-400 on his blue 97 Dodge Dakota hood which was swirled like crazy. So, we did, and the results were amazing. His wife was absolutely floored by how much better the hood looked compared to the rest. I have a feeling we will be doing the rest of the truck in the future. (followed up with Menz 4500 and sealant).

Now for my questions.

1. I found it hard to kind of track the progress of my polish as it was breaking down, being that it is white, on a white car. Any tips for that? It was also kind of hard to see where my section was.

2. When I was cleaning my pad on the fly, it didn't seem "obvious" that it was doing anything. Is this normal? I assume you wouldn't really get a good visual result from a white pad, on white paint.

That's all I can think of for now, if I remember more I shall add on. Again, thank you to everyone on here, absolutely no way I could have done it without the help and knowledge I have gathered from here. My car looks BETTER than it did when I picked it up new.

[Theo_Auto_Fines]

PICS or it didn't happen..

[c8n]

Wondering if the OP tried Meg's UC.
Since its SMAT... don't have to worry about the polish break down period. As long as the pads don't load up... should be pretty easy to work with.

[wardpr68]

It's really hard to explain what I was seeing. I could kind of see the polish working, I was seeing after around 6-8 section passes that it was worked well, it was just hard to see where it was while I was buffing. It wasn't a huge issue by any means as I did no damage and everything came out perfectly, I just wondered if there was a trick to make white polish on white paint with a white pad more visible or something. If not, no big deal, it worked.

I will try to get those after pics up tonight.

[cleanmycorolla]

PICS or it didn't happen..

[wardpr68]

As promised... here is the pics!

These were taken today (2 days later) and I have driven the car quite a bit in those 2 days, and it still looks awesome. Has not been touched in those 2 days.

Thanks again everyone!

[Sicoupe]

^ looks sweet

[Merck]

Nice!