Machine polishing newbie seeks advice

[Drapoon]

After some sound advice from Stealthwolf and a few others I bought a kestrel das-6 with the menzerna polishing compounds kit & also some 3M final cut & set about my car saturday morning.

I read the machine polishing guide on detailing world & felt ready to go for it!

Got up nice & early, jetwashed, snow foamed, shampooed & dried then clayed.

I tried the medium cut polish with the orange menzerna polishing pad, then with the compounding white pad with not much of a result so I stepped it up & used the white compound pad with the 3m fast cut stuff - this seemed to go quite well & almost all scratches disappeared at a glance. I then went round the car with a finishing pad & the final finish compound before sealing with AG sealant & applying poorboys natty blue. Was pretty happy with the results for a first attempt, but I did rush as the sun was now beating down so not the best weather applying wax. The final finish stuff was realy difficult to work & didn't seem to want to come off the paint - cloudy hazeing?

I hadn't really had a good chance to take a good look under lighting as I had a busy wkend so when my car was under car park lighting last night I got to have a good look. I was pretty disappointed! I can still see most of the fine scratches but also I have some cloudy looking sections on most panels - would this have been due to polishing / waxing in the sun?

Any ideas how I can go about removing the cloudy marks & getting these frigging light scratches out, as a side note when I removed the compound with my mf cloth it seemed to leave fine scracthes behind - the cloth was clean, possibly volcanic dust?


Any help/ advice much appreciated!

After re-reading my post the only advice I can give to others is set aside a full day to machine polish - don't rush or promise to go shopping with the gf midday!


Martin

[S2 Ant]

I'm yet to try this yet, but it might be that you need to work the fine polish part a bit longer as it sounds like its not been fully worked in to leave the haze.

I've read an awful lot on this stuff but am yet to experiment with it so i can only go on stuff that i've read, but from what i have read it has seemed to indicate that when people get this cloudyness it tends to be things need a little longer to work - If you havent looked already, Detailing World can give you some good info but try not to get bogged down in it all as some people over there are very anal on what they do and how they do it and are sometimes seemingly a bit OTT.

Did you not get a scrap panel or something to practise on tho before hitting the main car?! Its certainly something i'd want to practise before taking a DA to the Golf even tho it is meant to be very difficult to actually do any damage, but would help to refine technique first.

Also German paintwork is supposed to be one of the toughest around so may require more than just a single going over with the medium polish, but again, this is what i've read, not my experience - JPC is prob the best person to comment on this from the work i've seen of his on here and on DW

[joesgti]

sounds to me like its been baked on by the sun.

[Drapoon]

The "scrap panels" I used was the gf's pug 206 - came up a treat much to my annoyance. Her car looks better than mine!

cheers for the advice - I'll try working the final finish a bit longer next time under cover


You're dead right - vw paint is hard as nails! the scratches on mine are very light - can't feel them at all (caused by sponge-wielding prev owner) but I can't seem to rid them ;-(

[JPC]

what finishing polish were you using specifically you were struggling with?

Aside from that, and you being disappointed, Im wondering if you weren't working it long enough. Its very hard to give advice when you weren't there to oversee proceedings, as there could be a million and one things not right.

It requires a sh*t load of time even just to get comfortable with a polishing machine, let alone get good results with one. Try not to get dissheartened and try again and take your time. As i said its hard to say what you were doing wrong, but with how you said you stepped straight upto white pad and fast cut plus worried me a bit.

With your previous combo, you should have seen some differences.

Always work with a light source straight on the bit your working on. If not, you might as well shut your eyes!

[JPC]

sounds to me like its been baked on by the sun.

A very good suggestion that joe. I asked which polish it was as a lot of finishing polishes are very delicate when it comes to panel temp and humidity. They can clump up quickly if too much product is used.

[Drapoon]

Hi guys

It was Menzerna final finish polish I used on a yellow menzerna finishing pad. I perhaps got a bit over excited & loaded too much product on the car plus it probably baked on in hindsight ( the side affected was the the most exposed to the sun).

I started with two pea sized dollops of polish then worked on 400mm square sections at a time. I then added one pea sized dollop for every next section.

Do you need to soak the pad in water, then spin off the excess before applying the polish? It doesn't say this on the detailing world guide but a few mates thought I should? I didn't do this btw

The car looked better before with my hand applied Ag ultimate deep shine (probably as this is a good filler?)

I guess I'm just not working the product well enough - is 3m fast cut & white compounding pad a risky mixture? I thught I was pretty safe due to the toughness of the paint...

I have a good light source - my 480 lumens bike light but no garage to put the car in ;-( 

[JPC]

- Yep, it sounds like a combo of too much polish and direct sunlight/warm panel were to blame!

- two pea sized dollops sounds about right, but i eat small peas! and that would only be for the first application, one pea sized amount it about right.

- No No and No, forget the water idea!

- Yep, fillers are often a good way for a guy like yourself to get the best out of their cars. No expensive outlay buying a polisher, no Hours and hour to try and get close to a good finish. But if you can put the time and effort in, why not.

- Its not a risky mixture, but you dont wanna be jumping straight to it. Its a very abrasive mixture, and yes our clear coats are hard, but they will still be open to hologramming, which isn't a huge amount of damage, but it looks horrendous!

[Top Cat]

but i eat small peas!

Your builders arse crackage tells a different story. 

[Drapoon]

cheers Jpc - yet more great advice

i'll have another go in a better environment (my folks garage) & take my time!

[stealthwolf]

After some sound advice from Stealthwolf

Are you sure it was me? Doesn't sound like the kind of thing I do.

went round the car with a finishing pad & the final finish compound before sealing

Did you wash the car after polishing? Or did you rub the polish particles along the paintwork to give more scratches?

...the sun was now beating down...

Although Menzerna is very good, it's also a bit picky about the weather. Too cool and it won't work, too hot and it won't work.

The final finish stuff was realy difficult to work & didn't seem to want to come off the paint - cloudy hazeing?

I've never had problems with this. As above, did you break it down properly?

I've always polished by misting the pad with quick detailer spray, a few tiny blobs of polish, use a low speed to spread the polish over the area I want to polish. Then I gradually step up the speed, but still going at the same pace and the same number of passes.

I removed the compound with my mf cloth it seemed to leave fine scracthes behind - the cloth was clean, possibly volcanic dust?

As above, did you take all the polish off?

After re-reading my post the only advice I can give to others is set aside a full day to machine polish

+1. I've found to do it properly takes around 3-4 hours.

[Drapoon]

Sw, I hope I haven’t been duped into thinking you’re a reliable source?! Joke ;-)

1. I didn’t wash my car after polishing no. I had to rub away polish by hand as I clearly put too much on…..ooops. The dust I just  kind of stroked away with a mf towel…& a feather duster was used for all the nooks & crannies, how quaint!

2. I concur it must have been far too hot

3. Again must have been due to using far too much product – by this stage I was running against the clock & the sun was getting onto the car so looks like a combo of too much product hence not working it enough & sun baking it on.

4. I thought I had taken all the compound off by eye but…..possibly not. Rushing too much & it really was a git to remove using a mf cloth…

So I take it you shouldn’t need to use an mf towel to remove excess compound & the polish should be fully worked to the point of being able to wash the car & just remove the dust?

[stealthwolf]

^^^The polish should be worked fully. To prevent the pad drying out, spritz some quick detailer on to the pad. This is more important in hot water.

I've polished in the sun too and provided you work swiftly but thoroughly, it shouldn't cause too much of a hassle.

Definitely wash the car afterwards.

But I'm just a novice. JPC should be able to provide much more info and tips since he does this for a job.