[Pb]

I figured I'd post a pic of some polishing I did on a Mercedes this week. It had some serious scratches and abuse.

This is just polish. No wax. The drivers side has only been washed. The passenger side has been polished with PoorBoys SSR3, Sonus SFX2, and Sonus SwirlBuster.

 

[Pb]

After these pics I gave it some more work with Swirlbuster. Overall I removed about 99% of the scratches. Once it was waxed the paint looked like new. The owner of the car was ecstatic about the results. He has referred all of his friends to me.

 

[screeber]

Wow - that was some seriously abused paint there. Makes it easier to demonstrate your skillz when the paint is that bad (not downplaying the amount of work you had to put into it to restore the finish). Very nice work :thumbup:

Is that purple paint?

 

[LanNinja]

Look at all those ugly swirl marks. Great job on the polishing.

 

[Pb]

Wow - that was some seriously abused paint there. Makes it easier to demonstrate your skillz when the paint is that bad (not downplaying the amount of work you had to put into it to restore the finish). Very nice work :thumbup:

Is that purple paint?

Yeah, it was a dark plum color.

 

[Deviant]

Ouch... nice work on the swirls. Are you still using the PC?

 

[Tideland Prius]

holy sh$^# !!! dang! How long does it take to polish and what do I need? lol. I accidentally hit my garage door and the bottom part of the door with all the pebbles and other crap scratched the roof of my car. I was wondering how I'd remove those or at least minimise visual damage.

 

[Mayur]

Where are the after pics? Looks bad but Ive seen even worse lol.

 

[8legs]

Nice work....

 

[Pb]

I've worked on worse cars, but not in a while. I used a PC for that portion of the car that you see in the picture. I was trying to talk my friend into buying himself a PC, so I let him see what the PC could do. I did the rest of the car with a PC 7428 rotary, and then did the final polish and wax with a PC 7424 orbital.

 

[CamrySExxx]

^ what are the diffference between the 2? im planning to order one around spring time for my summer car washes but im not sure which one would be good...do u use your pc to apply wax and take it off too?

 

[Pb]

They are totally different machines. A rotary causes a lot more friction than an orbital. A rotary just spins in a circle real fast. An orbital moves back and forth and only spins a little bit. Only an experienced detailer should use a rotary. You have to constatly keep it moving, or you will buff down to bare metal in a few seconds.

With an orbital you can buff on a spot all day and not damage your paint. You need the PC 7424, which is a random orbital buffer. It is also marketed as a finishing sander. You just replace the buffing pad with a sanding plate.

If you only plan on waxing then you don't really need a buffer. Wax can be easily applied by hand. Wax doesn't need friction to do its job. Polish is different. I mainly use my buffer for applying polish. Polish needs friction and heat to work properly. This is the main job of the buffer. I remove wax and polish by hand. If you apply the wax and polish properly then it shouldn't be that hard to wipe off, but you can use a buffer and bonnet to remove the wax or polish if you want to.

 

[Tideland Prius]

and when do you exactly need to polish the vehicle? My 05 Prius has been waxed 4 times since it was bought my dad's 02 Camry was claybarred and waxed twice at the end of summer. It still looks shiny even though it's been parked outside 24/7. I don't know if it's the claybar or the wax (since I switched from Turtle wax [liquid] to Mother's paste wax)

 

[Pb]

When you shine a light on the paint can you see lines and little scratches? Then it needs to be polished. If your car is more than a couple years old and it has never been polished then I guarantee that it needs a good polishing right now. It doesn't matter if you have waxed it a thousand times. Using a dirty brush or a rough towel will leave micro scratches in your paint. Polishing fixes this.

Adopting a good car washing technique will decrease the amount of polishing you need to do. Most paint damage comes from washing and drying, especially if you take your car to a car wash and let a machine or people wash and dry your car.

Even if you're really careful with your paint it probably needs to be polished at least once a year.

 

[Tideland Prius]

Yeah probably. I do take care washing but you know, stuff happens. The Camry has its fair share of fine scratches. The Prius is starting to pick up some of its own. =(. I really have to get a buffer eh? I wonder if the local Canadian Tire has any.

 

[aussie_gen1]

http://autogeek.net/po.html check the video tutorials towards the bottom of the page

 

[TitaniumSE]

Is there a polish you can use to remove scratches and swirls by hand? Is DC3 any good? TIA.

 

[8legs]

I use 3M 06060 Perfect It 3000 by hand all of the time. I have all of my guys using it on our touch up service trucks. We also use it at our body shop. It is the best cutter I have used by hand. It works just as well by machine.

 

[AyzhenInvasion]

Hi, do you think Meguiars Deep Crystal® System Polish will achieve the same result ?
i was thinking about using that to remove scratches and use Meguiars nxt generation tech wax for a nice shine. does that sound ok ?
thanks

 

[8legs]

I have never used that product. The only way to know is to buy some and try it. Let us know how it works.