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Santheb posted:Hey guys, got a question about headlights here. The inspection man told me mine were right on the limit of passable and probably wouldn’t pass next year, and honestly I don’t think he was bullshitting and trying to upsell me because I have noticed my night visibility has decreased in a noticeable way over the past year or so. So before forming over money I decided to put some elbow grease into it. Polishing compound, caranuba wax, a little power sander. I think they look better than they did before but there’s one thing I can’t get rid of and that’s the condensation looking stuff on the inside. I don’t know if it’s condensation or not honestly. Basically what am I looking at to start eating away at this stuff? Wet sanding? It's probably crazing in the plastic. If it's just on the outside hopefully they're not too deep. If it's on the inside of the lens you'd need to take the plastic lens off the headlight housing to get at it at all; usually people DIY this by baking the headlight in an oven on a relatively low temperature and pry the lens away from the rest of the headlight. It's possible that you will have to get new headlight assemblies to fix the issue.
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# ? Oct 5, 2018 08:13 |
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# ? Mar 29, 2024 09:02 |
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Suburban Dad posted:Don't do this. Get a 3M or other kit with a drill attachment and do it that way. I've used these on two cars and it does a really good job.
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# ? Oct 5, 2018 12:22 |
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If y’all are ever polishing wheels or exhausts I’ve been doing my E88s and would highly recommend Autosol Then Meguiars nxt metal polish I found doing it by hand and being patient works much better than the polishing ball I bought thought may be useful to someone. Cheers
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# ? Oct 5, 2018 16:59 |
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Bape Culture posted:If y’all are ever polishing wheels or exhausts I’ve been doing my E88s and would highly recommend Autosol is the typical stuff that I buy on a whim to do exhausts and stuff only to not find the time / forget. Oh and of course I always find one or more laying around at home that I forgot about. Nice to hear it works.
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# ? Oct 5, 2018 17:13 |
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Thanks for all the advice on the headlights guys. I wasn’t too successful beyond my initial efforts with the compound but in any event they are better than they were before. Which is important because man coming down a highway without many lights on it was getting sorta scary, especially with rain. I did go out and buy the 3m kit so I have that if I ever really want to try and get them right.
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# ? Oct 10, 2018 08:21 |
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Santheb posted:Thanks for all the advice on the headlights guys. I wasn�t too successful beyond my initial efforts with the compound but in any event they are better than they were before. Which is important because man coming down a highway without many lights on it was getting sorta scary, especially with rain. I did go out and buy the 3m kit so I have that if I ever really want to try and get them right. If you have a drill it takes about a half hour per side and will look new afterwards (on the outside at least, can't fix the inside).
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# ? Oct 10, 2018 12:34 |
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I have half a bottle of CQuartz UK sitting so I decided to try it on black trim plastic, thinking that I doubt there really is much difference between the paint coatings and the dedicated trim coatings. Did a very good job on my MiTo and it's holding up perfectly a month later. The trim looks as black as it probably would have from factory. Next I decided to give the surprisingly faded trim plastic next to the windshield as well as the trim on the mirrors on my dads 2014 V70. Probably has been 3 weeks or so but I got to see them yesterday. Same great result as on the MiTo. I have used 303 before with good results, but it doesn't seem to be as great as using a coating on the trim as it doesn't last as long. 303 was amazing at restoring my rubber floor mats though. Edit: I always forget to take pictures. MrOnBicycle fucked around with this message at 13:01 on Oct 10, 2018 |
# ? Oct 10, 2018 12:58 |
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For headlights I got the Sylvania clear coat thing and it seems to work pretty good. For the actual sand and polish I bought the meguiars kit because the sanding pads are mounted on foam instead of just little pieces of sandpaper for the full Sylvania kit
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# ? Oct 10, 2018 14:26 |
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OXBALLS DOT COM posted:For headlights I got the Sylvania clear coat thing and it seems to work pretty good. For the actual sand and polish I bought the meguiars kit because the sanding pads are mounted on foam instead of just little pieces of sandpaper for the full Sylvania kit Seconding the Sylvania Headlight liquid. Works great.
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# ? Oct 10, 2018 14:47 |
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Krakkles posted:So I just dealt with this - white vinegar mixed about 50/50 with water, spray on, wait a beat, wipe off with some pressure. I actually was looking at filters the other day, so I went ahead and bought those. My problem was a sprinkler got messed up and sprayed all over my car, then I left it there. Going to have to try vinegar this weekend.
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# ? Oct 10, 2018 18:02 |
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Since this is probably the most appropriate place to put this. I'm in the salt belt of mn and am considering putting fluid film under my car. Has anyone ever done this in their garage? Should it be done outside on a tarp?
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# ? Oct 10, 2018 19:03 |
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stgdz posted:Since this is probably the most appropriate place to put this. I did dinitrol fluid film in the cavities and it's messy. On a tarp unless you don't care about the surface under the car. Speaking of tarps, I just (very annoyed) found out that our house is on the edge of a water protection area which means I'm not allowed to wash my car on the ground. I am allowed to wash just using cold water though. I'm thinking I might just gray area this and find / make a tarp and collect the run off. Anyone know of a product like that in Europe that is reasonable? Has to collect the water, not just prevent it from running off as I'm on gravel.
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# ? Oct 10, 2018 19:08 |
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Can you get Optimum No Rinse or something similar? I've been using it to wash my car in my garage and it works well with minimal drips and no runoff going into the storm drains (HOA rules say something about no car washing). I recently polished my car for the first time and applied Optimum Gloss Coat, all of which were a lot easier than I expected. Modern coatings and DA polishers conflict with everything my dad ever taught me about how to wash & wax a car.
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# ? Oct 10, 2018 19:43 |
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stgdz posted:Since this is probably the most appropriate place to put this. This guy here gets super serious about it. Looks like you'd want to put a tarp down to me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiIym5JiMOc
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# ? Oct 10, 2018 21:12 |
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heffray posted:Can you get Optimum No Rinse or something similar? I've been using it to wash my car in my garage and it works well with minimal drips and no runoff going into the storm drains (HOA rules say something about no car washing). Yeah I actually have the Meguiars equivalent (D114, which I got because it doesn't leave anything). I'll probably start using it more. I do need to do full decontamination before polishing e.t.c. though. I found a decent solution. As I can wash it with water, I can use high pressure to remove crud, and then roll it onto a "depot tarp" (special tarp that is mandatory at amateur race tracks in case of spills) and rise chemicals off onto it. If worse comes to worst I'll just roll it into the garage on the tarp and rise it off in there. Then I'll collect the runoff into a container and take it to the recycling center when full. I already do it with oil, so not that much of a hassle.
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# ? Oct 11, 2018 09:32 |
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Following up my earlier posts. I broke down and ordered a set of lake county pads for the RO polisher. They are sooooooo much better than the known trash from HF. Here are the results. There are still a bunch of scratches in the clear but they wouldn't come out with the compounds that I had on hand. Guess I should have stepped it up and gotten some 105 or whatever the meguiar's liquid sand poo poo is. I even went so far as to put on the yellow/coarse pad that I got but still..the deep scratches did not come out. I'm still happy with the way it looks; it's the best it has been while I've owned it. The car is Alpine White. Reflection of clouds off of trunk. Right side with now shiny dent Roof Ignore everything but the paint, I didn't even clean the windows afterwards. I'm looking forward to doing another car that doesn't have paint that lived in Texas for 20 years.
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# ? Oct 13, 2018 01:00 |
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OXBALLS DOT COM posted:For headlights I got the Sylvania clear coat thing and it seems to work pretty good. For the actual sand and polish I bought the meguiars kit because the sanding pads are mounted on foam instead of just little pieces of sandpaper for the full Sylvania kit Someone posted his fluid film video, but Eric from South Main Auto posted a headlight video today. He uses the 3M kit and SafeTClear coating. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U9xh0u6WEE
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# ? Oct 14, 2018 13:48 |
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I am a bad detailer. I washed and clay barred my car this weekend and realized i have 0 wax/sealant. I'm looking at Chem Guys GAP_106_16 All-In-One Polish + Shine + Sealant, Butter Wax and Jet Seal as a 3 step process. (applied/used in that order) I'm also down with buying a tub of ye olde paste wax too, but am open to suggestions. I also have a bottle of ceramic coating but i don't have access to an empty garage for the half day it would take at the moment.
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# ? Oct 15, 2018 19:14 |
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The wax would fail before that sealant does. I’m not familiar with that all in one, but normally you would use that sealant then the wax. If you really wanted to go crazy you would do the all in one, sealant, then wax but it’s probably overkill.
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# ? Oct 16, 2018 03:20 |
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Yeah, you're supposed to polish/paint correct and then seal. A carnauba wax on top is last (and I never bother as the sealant is a synthetic wax and lasts longer anyway - carnuaba is just the old school stuff) Every month I wash and seal. Every 6 months I wash, clay, polish and seal. Even on the old chem guys vids I have seen it's wash, clay, polish, glaze (scratch and swirl remove), seal (jet seal), and then wax (butter wet wax). I would skip the all in one, get a polish (what type depends on how old/hard/worked the paint is), a scratch and swirl remover (glaze), and a sealant; and keep it at just those three products. E: maybe pick up a quick liquid wax/detail spray for when you have to remove poo poo between washes. Fo3 fucked around with this message at 11:48 on Oct 16, 2018 |
# ? Oct 16, 2018 11:39 |
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I have gotten so damned lazy after ceramic coating my cars. The BMW was filthy, since it hasn't been washed in 2 months and has been in the garage during rain. So yesterday I left it outside during a shower and it's all clean now. (Actually, the wheels are totally brake dust filthy and I never coated those, so it's not clean-clean, but... welp.)
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# ? Oct 16, 2018 12:49 |
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Fo3 posted:Yeah, you're supposed to polish/paint correct and then seal. A carnauba wax on top is last (and I never bother as the sealant is a synthetic wax and lasts longer anyway - carnuaba is just the old school stuff) This seems way too frequent to me. I'd only polish if you really need to (1-2 years min) as to not remove any more clear than necessary. If you're washing correctly, you shouldn't be getting too many swirls in the first place. Sealant lasts longer than a month, so I wouldn't do that as often either. If you did it every 3-6 months, that would seem more appropriate IMO. I usually use sealant every 6 months. I don't wash as often anymore (lack of time more than lack of necessity), but try to do one good detail before winter and spray at the car wash weekly (no brush) if I can. In the summer I wash when I can and do a good detail at the beginning of the season and clay/seal winter grime off then.
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# ? Oct 16, 2018 13:08 |
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Fo3 posted:Yeah, you're supposed to polish/paint correct and then seal. A carnauba wax on top is last (and I never bother as the sealant is a synthetic wax and lasts longer anyway - carnuaba is just the old school stuff) I've got enough correcting stuff, I grabbed the all in one because there is barely anything wrong in the paint to correct. (I've got the V-Line 32, 34, 36, 38 but it felt like it would be too aggressive for the surprisingly good paint/clear). At this point in time i'm reasonably confident the finish can be taken care of with a hand polish and wax, hence the drift to the light duty/AIO for this round. Re: Correct/seal/wax: I was not paying attention while work posting and got the order wrong. Sorry for the confusion on that one. I've got a quick wax/detail spray in both their Clay Lube and After Wash.
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# ? Oct 16, 2018 13:37 |
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Suburban Dad posted:This seems way too frequent to me. I'd only polish if you really need to (1-2 years min) as to not remove any more clear than necessary. If you're washing correctly, you shouldn't be getting too many swirls in the first place. Sealant lasts longer than a month, so I wouldn't do that as often either. If you did it every 3-6 months, that would seem more appropriate IMO. It's more to get better at it, and it's usually by hand as the paint is old single stage and worn down in places so I don't attack it too hard with a machine polish or compound, just trying to bring it back with a little manual treatment when I have nothing else to do or no money for mechanical spendy. It's a 1990 car so there's heaps of old swirl marks and damage there that takes a lot of applications if not using a machine, and also because bored a lot so I just take a little bit out each time. I have a rotary mains tool (not random) but that's for beating up new and thicker paint. Plus it's white, it's dirty after 30min. Fo3 fucked around with this message at 13:58 on Oct 16, 2018 |
# ? Oct 16, 2018 13:56 |
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I just picked up the Meguiar's heavy duty headlight restoration kit and will be trying my hand at unfucking one of my headlights in about an hour or so. I actually read the instructions, twice, but just wondering from anyone who has done it, any last minute tips, tricks or whatever to make the job go a bit better/easier?
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# ? Oct 20, 2018 19:32 |
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I've been slowly breaking down detailing my car into after work chunks. This week, black plastic restoration: Before-ish (during) After: I also did some basic polishing with the AIO from chem guys followed by their butter wax: (You can also see the grey plastic here. I also did the wiper arms) Lessons learned: I need a compressor to clean out my (one is not enough!) pad between body panels. even with applying it lightly i'd still get residue buildup on the pad and then it'd start flinging polish marbles. I ended up hand applying and buffing off the wax because of this. I'm still not sure how, but this 10 year old car doesn't seem to need anything besides a really light polish. I don't really see any of the usual compound/cutting problems to correct (visible swirls, fading, etc. just a couple rock chips) I really want to get the ceramic coating on it, but i lack a garage, and doing it in the sun, even on a cool day, gives me pause. Worst case i'll break out a collapsible awning to give me shade.
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# ? Oct 24, 2018 18:53 |
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Mini review this weekend. A little bit ago Renny Doyle came to Boise and had an open house at The Rag Company. I got to try out some Double Black and Flex products and learn about some of the chemicals from P and S. I already had Beadmaker so I picked up the tire shine. Decided to throw it on today while prepping the wife’s car for winter. In typical P and S fashion, I feel like I had to use a ton of product. Consistency is a little more watery than AMMO mud, but wasn’t too bad. I realized after applying on the first wheel that I forgot to scrub the tires during the wash so I’ll try again another time to get a better idea of how long it lasts. Other than that, worked well and the price is super reasonable.
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# ? Nov 5, 2018 04:40 |
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meatpimp posted:I have gotten so damned lazy after ceramic coating my cars. That's the "problem" with ceramic coats though, they don't do "street parking" very well. It's perfect for garage kept vehicles that can be washed properly whenever and kept from the elements. A daily driver that is street parked, left in rain, bird droppings etc will get scuffed and get etchings. You can' just do a quick polish to bring the shine back up since it'll remove the coating. After a couple of years with coating and silica stuff like Hydr02 I'll be going back to sealant and wax for my new to me car. I did a quick wax and boy have I missed the putting wax on car bit. Also, spent 7 hours just doing stone chip repair / polishing my hood. Decided to really get to know the Chipex paint repair system and really see how good I could get it. Good news is that the paint is 100% matched. The smaller stone chips can't be seen after repair is done. It is also possible to build up bigger stone chips so that they become 100% invisible. Bad news it that it takes a ton of time when the PO decided that a completely different shade of blue was perfectly acceptable, and I don't think the paint like sub 10 degrees Celsius with high humidity. Still worth it.
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# ? Nov 5, 2018 13:55 |
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AI Secret Santa is up!
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# ? Nov 6, 2018 14:33 |
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OK, so I want to head over to my parent's place where they have outdoor water and power and give my dirty old daily driver a cleanup tomorrow. I've been on the scrounge and I've got: Megs Ultimate Compund, Polish Megs Tech wax 2.0 Turtlewax & CRC polish 2 clay bars that have been used once. Series 500 gold polymer wax Would I be right in thinking I should just use the Megs stuff? As I've only got a day I'm thinking rinse> clay> polish > wax would be the minimum I could get away with? I'd like to clay it but the real goal is to put some wax on it because the only protection it's had recently is dirt. Thoughts?
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# ? Nov 10, 2018 02:38 |
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If you in a time crunch, pick up a synthetic clay bar. They cut the time down considerably. Otherwise you can skip claying and polishing and just throw a coat of wax or sealant on there if you're hard up to for time.
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# ? Nov 10, 2018 12:41 |
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Suburban Dad posted:If you in a time crunch, pick up a synthetic clay bar. They cut the time down considerably. Otherwise you can skip claying and polishing and just throw a coat of wax or sealant on there if you're hard up to for time. If he doesn’t clay first, the wax won’t properly adhere to the paint.
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# ? Nov 11, 2018 02:31 |
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ratbert90 posted:If he doesn’t clay first, the wax won’t properly adhere to the paint. 99% of people likely never clay their cars, the wax will adhere fine. Claying is more to remove any contaminants so that when you polish you're not working that into the paint more, wax will adhere to unclayed paint just fine. Claying is a must if you want to do it right, but just a wash and wax will be fine too if you're short on time. Shouldn't polish without a clay first though.
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# ? Nov 11, 2018 02:41 |
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Bajaha posted:99% of people likely never clay their cars, the wax will adhere fine. Claying is more to remove any contaminants so that when you polish you're not working that into the paint more, wax will adhere to unclayed paint just fine. 99% of the people do it wrong and the wax isn’t nearly as effective as it could be. You are putting wax on dirt, which isn’t good.
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# ? Nov 11, 2018 02:42 |
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I agree, it's just that as far as automotive detailing sins go, waxing an unclayed car is pretty low on the totem pole. Clay if you can and a synthetic will make it quicker but if you don't it's not that big of a deal.
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# ? Nov 11, 2018 03:18 |
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You don't, however, need to clay a car every time you wax it. Only if it's dirty. Some people use a plastic bag to feel if it catches on the paint. It's also important that you ensure that the panel is wiped with some panel prep formula. Some use dedicated panel wipe products like Carpro Eraser, some use IPA. I use a low dilution of D114 in combination with IPA. Claying a car too often is just going to leave unnecessary marring. If it never has been clayed or not maintained, you'll need to clay. It's good to have anyway because you'll inevitably get overs prayed or something where clay is great.
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# ? Nov 11, 2018 09:49 |
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Bajaha posted:I agree, it's just that as far as automotive detailing sins go, waxing an unclayed car is pretty low on the totem pole. My thoughts exactly.
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# ? Nov 11, 2018 14:31 |
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Well, in the end I only had about 4 hours, but my dad helped a little claying the car (He was very impressed by the way it removed a bunch of paint marks) so I just did one side and back of the car. Then gave it two passes with the polisher and one with the wax. It's gone from cloudy to slightly reflective, so that's progress I guess No doubt serious car guys would laugh at it, but luckily no-one looks twice at white toyota corollas Next time I'll try and be more systematic and do some smaller areas more thoroughly. so, dumb questions: When do you use a wool pad vs a foam pad? How long do you spend polishing a single panel? Say a fender or a door. Also any tricks for getting dirt out of rain gutters and under trim?
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# ? Nov 12, 2018 11:46 |
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Jaguars! posted:Well, in the end I only had about 4 hours, but my dad helped a little claying the car (He was very impressed by the way it removed a bunch of paint marks) so I just did one side and back of the car. Then gave it two passes with the polisher and one with the wax. It's gone from cloudy to slightly reflective, so that's progress I guess No doubt serious car guys would laugh at it, but luckily no-one looks twice at white toyota corollas Next time I'll try and be more systematic and do some smaller areas more thoroughly. A wool pad is traditionally significantly more aggressive than a foam pad (which there are many levels of aggressive on). Many of the wool pads you buy in normal auto shops are designed to be used with rotary polishers. I think there are some for DA:s now. Wool pads can leave holograms ("fine swirls") behind and need buffing with a foam pad after. An example of wool pad use is after sanding a car and wanting to get 1500 - 2000 grit marks out quickly. A foam pad on a DA can take forever to do this. Somewhere in the middle I'd say the microfiber pad is. I have one and it gets the job done much faster than my foam pads. Downside is that it can be too aggressive and leave tiny swirls, which can make it look slightly hazy. Depends on the paint and compound used. For duration on panel it's a bit like the age old "how long is a piece of string". It all depends on how bad it is to start with, and what products/pads/machine you are using. The rule of thumb is to do the least aggressive first. Many people do a test panel to see how little work they can get away with. You also have to mind the temperature of the panel. Temperature is your enemy while polishing. I usually feel the panel with regular intervals while polishing. Good lighting is key. Those yellow/orange tint tungsten street light will reveal tons, as will the sun. It's hard to use those when polishing though. Halogen work lights are good. Non specialty LED flood lights can be utter poo poo. Compressed air after a pressure wash is great for getting dirt out. I'd do it before you wash the car, because you'll have poo poo all over your clean car otherwise.
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# ? Nov 12, 2018 12:30 |
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# ? Mar 29, 2024 09:02 |
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Is it possible to get a 5-footer job out of heavily chipped paint around the fenders from aggressive rolling? Color is Taffeta White, if it helps.
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# ? Nov 20, 2018 02:56 |