Help with poorly maintained car by previous owner

[ijavame]

Basically I recently purchased an 07 plate Golf Mk5 1.6 Match FSi in BLACK and it has swirls, light scratches and some deep scratches also on the windows and the body theres water marks which just won't go away. From some reading up I see one method is by wet sanding and then machine polishing to restore the scratch free OEM look paint job. So my question is How do I go about doing every stage of bringing the car back to life and exactly What products do I need at every stage of the process. If possible please provide links and detailed advice as I will highly appreciate it. I know theres different levels of wet sanding (Some numbers which I don't understand) and then theres the polish to remove the post-wet sanding and retrieve a scratch less surface. I would like this very much and then to make it shine like the pearl Black kind of effect and not the Dull Black that it currently is. I hope you guys can help me and I will definitely write up my adventure to help people back who may be in my situation.

Kind Regards
iJavaMe 

[cuprajake]

If your asking what product you need Robert flat your car then YOU shouldn't be doing it.

Wet flattering a car is a huge process best left to some one with experience.

Your car needs ad best a very good machine polish. It's now know as detailing

Find a detailed in ypur area ans pay around 100_300 for it to bedone

[ijavame]

I am well aware of my inexperience as such I ask for friendly advice. I know of local detailers but I choose not to pay large sums to get it done. Ideally I would like to do it myself as I can always repeat the process in the future.

[Veee-dubber]

I would steer well away from even so much as contemplating wet sanding youself... chances are it won't end well for you pal!

A machine polisher is deadly in the wrong hands let alone some sandpaper.

We mean you no disrespect but seriously.... don't do it! 

[cuprajake]

You don't have the experience to do it, no amount of reading and guides will prepare you for sanding the clear coat off your car, by the time you have bought all the products needed it would be cheaper to go to a specialist, couple with the fact wet sanding is really a one time thing,

But if you insist

Choirs of

2000
3000 wet and dry £10
Rubber block £10
3m trizact disc £30 a box
Dual action sander £50 upwards
3m fact cut £30 a bottle
3m yellow top fine  £30 a bottle
3m blue top ultra fina £30 a bottle
Green pads £15 box
Yellow pads £15 a box
Mushroom pad £15 a box
Rotary polisher £60

Wax of your choice £25-£1000

Respray when you burn through £400-£3000

Jake

[Llew]

If you want to get scratches out use 1500 paper and keep it constantly wet applying just enough pressure in circular motions to let the 1500 do the cutting to remove scratch -if you have loads of scratches in an area work the circular motions to the size of your hand about 6 inch in diameter then move onto next section -light scratches should take about 5 -10 minutes with deeper scratches a bit longer with a bit more pressure applied . Just make sure the 1500 grade does the cutting and not your elbow grease. When it comes to using the polishing machine if you are not used to it put it on the slowest speed and make sure you keep it moving all the time never leave it in one spot -apply pressure to the machine but let the compound do the cutting- the machine can be motioned horizontally about 10 inches back and forth you can keep putting compound on it (the car)and water for cooling but most important is to keep the machine moving- the faster the machine rotates the swifter your horizontal strokes will be and the same applies to  horizontal strokes -the smaller the strokes the swifter the movement- don't stay in one area too long unless if you add water -you can work another area and come back to it just watch a video on you tube and you,ll get the joist of what I am saying  about handling the machine hope this helps

[Rhys_Gti]

another idea which is what im doing to really get to grips with wet sanding is having a one to one session with your local detailer - get your car worked on at the same time then so you pick up some extra tips for the future but still come out with your car detailed. Win win in my book.

any way good luck with it

[stealthwolf]

In all honesty, if you have no experience, you can ruin your car. Remember that polishing removes maybe 1 micron of clear coat and with wet sanding you can remove 10-20 microns without realising it.

You would need a paint depth gauge to check the thickness of the clearcoat. You would need to varying grades of wet and dry paper. You need a polisher + polishes + polishing pads. That lot alone would cost you in the region of £400. Compare this to a detailer who might charge £250 but will have the experience to know when to wetsand, when to polish, and when to aim for minimising scratches rather than attempt to remove them.

Not all scratches will be removable. You won't be able to fill in and flat back every stone chip.

Personally, I'd get the car professionally detailed and then just maintain it. Meanwhile, you can buy scrap panels to practise on and develop your technique.

[cuprajake]

Not to mention a paint depth gauge that can just measure clear coat is a grand plus. All others just tell you how much paints on the metal so kinda useless

[stealthwolf]

Not really. You measure where there's little or no clearcoat eg door shut, and you compare this to the reading for the panel. Subtract and you have the reading for the clearcoat.

[cuprajake]

still guess work though,

wet sanding is a very fine line, and should only de done by those who know what there doing and really, should not be done, if you avargae clear is 30 microns thick and you remove 15microns, you've destroyed any uv protection that clearcoat had, and what was protecting the basecoat from damaging,

try sticking a news paper on your dash for a month in the sun and see what happens to it, thats what the clear coat is there to prevent.

manufactures have a minimum paint depth for a reason

[stealthwolf]

I've filled in and flatted back a few chips and scratches but they were minimal and I tried to made sure I didn't touch the surrounding clear coat. It's hard work even just to do a bit without causing problems.

[xjay1337]

A couple of things in this thread I feel the need to point out

Jake is right to be fair it's better to pay a professional to do that. However many people do Wetsand and it's something I would be looking into learning. I would start on a scrap panel.

Machine polishing can actually take just as much, if not more clear coat away than wet sanding - You'd be surprised.
Some guy on Detailing World did his BMW and the wet sanding took a mere 3-5 microns out of his paint (measured).
Total clear coat removal was 7-9 microns following the compounding and jewelling.

You can easily remove just as much clear coat (5-10 microns) in machining alone. It's certainly not 1 micron!!! I bloody wish.

Now I have read lots of guides and watched lots of videos and feel fairly confident I could do wetsanding (I do paint correction and detailing as a spare-time hobby for friends and family) hence why I feel fairly confident I could get some good results. I plan to practice on either scrap panels or a friends car (which would be getting panels replaced anyway) -

Paint correction is EASY if you actually do it right and take your time.
However as has been said you can EASILY  make things much worse. German paint is very "hard" in terms of the level of cutting required and is not the easiest to work with for a first timer.

When people buy a car and see swirls and scratches the first thing they run to is WETSANDING because people throw the term about like it's something that's done regularly.
It's not. Your car will 100% only need correction by forms of pad and polish.

The fact you are asking on here rather than on detailing world or on Youtube watching Mike Phillips or Junkman or AmmoNYC videos does make me worried and I'd suggest you speak to Shinearama up in Manchester who will for the cost of a machine correction, not only do it but show you how to do it.

))))(*S()*S)(*DDHFGD blah.

You can buy a DAS6 PRO for £100 if you know where to look
(I use Menzerna polishes and Hexlogic pads, buy a couple of orange pads, couple of white pads and a black pad, buy FG400, PF302 and SF4000 along with Menzerna Powerlock and some tape, a paint depth gauge and a few other bits and pieces (wax, IPA, clay, shampoo etc) you are looking at around £500.)
this is more than capable of doing any paint correction work you need to especially with the combination of pads and polishes available now. It is my opinion that rotary polishes are being made redundant. I've only ever used a Silverline rotary which was OK but it weighed a bloody ton and the vibration made my hands numb after 2 panels (my arms gave up after 1).
While with the DAS6 Pro I can quite literally (and have done) gone all day and I must say achieved better results.

The machine everyone in detailing is hankering after is the Rupes polisher.. well guess what these are DA!

[stealthwolf]

You can achieve great correction with a DA. Certainly the megs DA system works really well.

[xjay1337]

It does indeed!



However I do not like how the pad gunks up (it happens I believe with MF pads in general)
I am not entirely confident with the rate of removal (in terms of how much clear coat it removes).
I did not do an IPA wipedown on the roof so did not get to check whether the results were genuine.
I honestly prefer sticking with my Hexlogic and Menzerna compound.

I also used it on my roof and after 2 sets it did not remove all the swirls. I guess UAE sun baked the paint a bit harder than normal. FG400 on an orange pad had more effect.

HOWEVER this is much quicker. I would not recommend using the Megs pads as they can split. Mine hasn't (it's been used on 2 cars approx 6 panels in total) but still, not worth the risk. I only using them as I got them free. I'd recommend the Chemical guys MF pads.