Experienced DA user near Mansfield area?

[DamageDone]

Hi there.

First time poster in this subforum. I've recently become interested in the detailing world through various videos on youtube and through this forum, but haven't dabbled a great deal. After foaming, washing, claying and decontaminating my car (probably all quite poorly at that) I set about using my Meguiars G220 v2 DA polisher for the first time today. I quickly realised that I have no real idea of what I'm doing and became scared of doing more harm than good and gave up after "completing" the bonnet lol. If there's anyone local that has experience who would meet up (I don't mind travelling myself if it's not too far away) and give my car a paint correction detail using my G220 and show me what the hell I'm supposed to be doing for future reference as well that would be greatly appreciated. Would obv offer some money for the time invested also. Not sure how much, but I'm open to suggestions!

Cheers,
Jamie.

 

[Amos91]

Make a cup of tea.

 

[Amos91]

What polish and pads are you using?

 

[DamageDone]

I don't like tea! I've seen a few How To videos, but clearly I still don't know what I'm doing so I'll take a look at those too.
I have 3 Finishing pads and 3 Cutting pads, 1 of each in 3", 5" and 6" sizes, relevant backing plates and Meguiar's D300 and D301 compounds. I attempted doing the bonnet with the 6" Finishing pad with the D301 compound as it was the least abrasive, but I could not really tell a difference at all after I'd done it. I'm aware I could have moved on to a cutting pad and D300 compound, but didn't feel overly confident given I had seen no improvements at all from the first going over and was worried about doing more damage than good.

 

[Knuckles]

Read the stickies (both rotary an da) at the top of this section.

Are you breaking down the polish then working it and finally buffing it? (That's a very lazy attempt at explaining the zenith technique sorry)

 

[Addicted]

As above, watch those videos, his intro guides are brilliant.

It's all about technique, if you don't know what you're doing then you are probably doing nothing to the car :] watch above, then try that method, you'll see immediate improvements imo.

 

[DamageDone]

I've read the DA sticky, but not the rotary one, I'll look into that too if it's applicable. What I did was to rub the D301 compound into the pad with my fingers until it was fully covered, then placed 4 pea sized blobs on to the surface of the pad, dabbed it around the bonnet, worked it in a little on the slowest speed before turning it up to speed 3 and making 3-4 light pressure passes as recommended here: http://www.meguiars.com/content/global/pro_charts/VDETMCG_DAmicrofiberWallChart_1_lg.jpg before wiping off the residue with a clean MF cloth. I thought I should at least be seeing SOME improvement even if not completely getting rid of the swirls, but that doesn't appear to be the case so I'm assuming I'm doing it wrong rather than the pad/compound combination not being up to the job?

 

[Addicted]

You only need to read the rotary one if you have a rotary imo.

Put 4 blobs onto pad, dot the pad over the panel to spread to both panel and pad - then go over area at speed 1 to fully spread it. Then do your polish.

Again, all covered in the vids imo.

 

[Knuckles]

I've read the DA sticky, but not the rotary one, I'll look into that too if it's applicable. What I did was to rub the D301 compound into the pad with my fingers until it was fully covered, then placed 4 pea sized blobs on to the surface of the pad, dabbed it around the bonnet, worked it in a little on the slowest speed before turning it up to speed 3 and making 3-4 light pressure passes as recommended here: http://www.meguiars.com/content/global/pro_charts/VDETMCG_DAmicrofiberWallChart_1_lg.jpg before wiping off the residue with a clean MF cloth. I thought I should at least be seeing SOME improvement even if not completely getting rid of the swirls, but that doesn't appear to be the case so I'm assuming I'm doing it wrong rather than the pad/compound combination not being up to the job?

You've missed out the actual cutting stage of the polishing.

Vertical and horizontal passes at speed 3 solely to spread the polish around. Little to no pressure.

Same again but speed 4.5 with more pressure. This is breaking down the polish.

Same again on speed 6 with more/heavy pressure (depending on what the paint needs). This is where the correction happens. But, you inflict your own holograms at this stage. So;

Same again but on speed 3 with light pressure to buff out your holograms.

This isn't the be all and end all of how to polish by the way, this is just how I do it and it works for me.

 

[Knuckles]

You only need to read the rotary one if you have a rotary imo.

Put 4 blobs onto pad, dot the pad over the panel to spread to both panel and pad - then go over area at speed 1 to fully spread it. Then do your polish.

Again, all covered in the vids imo.

I've not read them in a while but I'm sure the rotary guide covers a bit more than the da guide, especially the zenith technique.

I could be wrong mind but reading it won't work.

 

[DamageDone]

Makes sense that I was missing something out, I'll give it another go later today if I get time or else whenever the weather is decent then. Thanks

 

[Knuckles]

No bother