Amateur cleaning process, help required.

[len_beach]

Right, i'm going to give the car a good going over tomorrow so I need a little expert input. I will be blitzing it with a rotary but need help with the process and the gaps below filling or steps adding.

Rinse with Karcher,
Wash using 2 bucket method,
Clay,
Wash again,
Polish using SRP (X1???),
???Seal???

Bearing in mind the car has never been polished througout my ownership (Sept' 2005) so it may need something a little harsher before the SRP.

Any sugestions?

 

[Rich]

Are you looking for polish suggestions to use with the Rotary?

SRP is very mild so wont do much for paint defects.

I would seal with Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection and maybe add a nice wax like P21s for further looks.

 

[len_beach]

Possible polishs would be good Rich. I haven't noticed any major defects other than those that require a respray but a product I could use to remove any mild scratches would be good and how many coats are required with the rotary.

 

[Rich]

Hard to suggest how many passes of any polish will take without seeing the paint.

Routes that will probably needed

Meguiars 83 and 80
Poorboys SSR's 2.5, and or 2/1
Menzerna Intensive Polish and Final Finish

The lastter in each combo are the mildest, see if one of them works before stepping up to the harsher cuts. Also choose the grade of pads carefully first.

 

[Tigger]

I always seemed to use a cutting pad for cutting polishes, SFX-1 pad for megs 83 & SFX-2 pad for megs 80 etc..
..should this be the case? :S

 

[Rich]

Depends on paint type/condition, I always use a polsihing pad first and then step up to the light cut if need be.

 

[Tigger]

If you use a polishing pad for the more agressive polish, you need to use a seperate pad then if changing polish?

I have 2 sets of SFX pads

 

[Rich]

I would always use a pad for only one product. If you have used say 83 on it, I would get another pad for the 80. Dont re-use the same one. This is why I always advise people to get at least two of each pad.

That said say you where using SSR 2 on a pad, it was not working, I have used SSR 2.5 on the same pad, but that is the only instance.

 

[Tigger]

No problem cheers
How do the SFX pads compare to the Lake Country pads?

 

[Rich]

I only have a couple of LC pads - light cut and finishing so can't do a proper comparison, both work well. The SFX foam is a little denser.