having a black car is so difficult.
03-22-08, 07:44 AM
#16
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It is all about educating yourself, and using the right products and tools.
No , absolutely not, do not remove your clearcoat (basically get a new paint job) for swirls/marring. As has been echoed here a decent Buffer (Usually a Random Orbital, such a Porter Cable) Is more than adequate to remove ALL swirls and marring on the clearcoat.
Alot of people mention Porter Cable.. like it is the only model available.. But there are UDM (Ultimate Detailing Machine) = Porter Cable with a little more power,.. basically the same otherwise. Then you have a Meg G110, Flex, and so on. But they all do the same basic job.
Menzerna is fantastic polish, but so is Pinnacle XMT, Optimum, and so many others. It is preference to a point. Once you get to the 'good' upper end polishes like those mentioned, it is going to be how you perform the task.
As was touched upon, you will need to experiment, and read , read, read.. Then experiment more. Use different pads, different speeds, vary how long you stay on a spot, how fast or slow you move your arm side to side, up and down. Work it in.
A well worked first pass, taking your time, is alot better than somewhat speedy multiple passes, by far. As someone else mentioned, there should be no need for 5 passes. Nothing wrong with it, if it pleases you, and the ultimate result is a perfect finish.. but the same result could be had with at most 3 passes, and generally 2. Followed by Sealant/Wax/Glaze (Dropping whatever steps you want at the end there).
The color black..
Enjoy it. Yes it shows everything,.. but it also looks the BEST out of any color. Hands down. It can be polished to a literal mirrior finish, people will stare, you get the best results from black paint -- there is no doubt about it.
Other colors will hide swirls to the general public, but don't have as much 'wow' factor. Sounds like you are more a Silver, or medium color person who just doesn't have the patience or know how to keep the car in the condition that pleases you.
That is not a cut down, or insult, not at all. It takes alot of constant maintenance and time to keep a black vehicle immaculate. It takes alot of time , patience, and work to keep any car immaculate in my definition of the word.
Just know this,.. your car if you are that worried about it, and you actually do alot of exterior maintenance, looks better than 99% of the other cars on the road, even when you think it looks bad from swirls and such. Half the people wouldn't even notice them, they would think it looks immaculate.
If it shines, alot of people think it is brand new.. Which is great.
I personally just got my supplies in of my UDM, with polishes, and a dozen pads of difference varieties, mostly Lake LLC's.. I have some mechanical work to take care of today, but if I have time I might end up doing a round of polish on it for the first time.
I only wish mine was black. I envy you.
No , absolutely not, do not remove your clearcoat (basically get a new paint job) for swirls/marring. As has been echoed here a decent Buffer (Usually a Random Orbital, such a Porter Cable) Is more than adequate to remove ALL swirls and marring on the clearcoat.
Alot of people mention Porter Cable.. like it is the only model available.. But there are UDM (Ultimate Detailing Machine) = Porter Cable with a little more power,.. basically the same otherwise. Then you have a Meg G110, Flex, and so on. But they all do the same basic job.
Menzerna is fantastic polish, but so is Pinnacle XMT, Optimum, and so many others. It is preference to a point. Once you get to the 'good' upper end polishes like those mentioned, it is going to be how you perform the task.
As was touched upon, you will need to experiment, and read , read, read.. Then experiment more. Use different pads, different speeds, vary how long you stay on a spot, how fast or slow you move your arm side to side, up and down. Work it in.
A well worked first pass, taking your time, is alot better than somewhat speedy multiple passes, by far. As someone else mentioned, there should be no need for 5 passes. Nothing wrong with it, if it pleases you, and the ultimate result is a perfect finish.. but the same result could be had with at most 3 passes, and generally 2. Followed by Sealant/Wax/Glaze (Dropping whatever steps you want at the end there).
The color black..
Enjoy it. Yes it shows everything,.. but it also looks the BEST out of any color. Hands down. It can be polished to a literal mirrior finish, people will stare, you get the best results from black paint -- there is no doubt about it.
Other colors will hide swirls to the general public, but don't have as much 'wow' factor. Sounds like you are more a Silver, or medium color person who just doesn't have the patience or know how to keep the car in the condition that pleases you.
That is not a cut down, or insult, not at all. It takes alot of constant maintenance and time to keep a black vehicle immaculate. It takes alot of time , patience, and work to keep any car immaculate in my definition of the word.
Just know this,.. your car if you are that worried about it, and you actually do alot of exterior maintenance, looks better than 99% of the other cars on the road, even when you think it looks bad from swirls and such. Half the people wouldn't even notice them, they would think it looks immaculate.
If it shines, alot of people think it is brand new.. Which is great.
I personally just got my supplies in of my UDM, with polishes, and a dozen pads of difference varieties, mostly Lake LLC's.. I have some mechanical work to take care of today, but if I have time I might end up doing a round of polish on it for the first time.
I only wish mine was black. I envy you.
"Alot of people mention Porter Cable.. like it is the only model available.. But there are UDM (Ultimate Detailing Machine) = Porter Cable with a little more power,.. basically the same otherwise. Then you have a Meg G110, Flex, and so on. But they all do the same basic job."
I have been using a Porter Cable buffer for over 10 years and heard people praising the Flex and I decided to give it a go. All that I can say is WOW what a difference. One of my cars is a black SL55 that I detail on a regular basis. The finish that the Flex leaves is unbelievable and eliminates fine swirls in half of the time vs the PC. In addition to that I had some marks on the hood that only an agressive compound would remove with the PC. With the Flex the same marks can be removed using Menzerna polishes.
So yes they basically do the same thing but the Flex knocks the sox off of the PC.
03-22-08, 11:17 AM
#17
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Join Date: Jan 2008
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Love a Black Car!
Hey, black is a great color on a car! When it is clean, the looks it gets! Anyway, enough about that. I am new to detailing and I am looking at a bunch of different products through posts like this and other forums. One website that I actually love is the one below:
http://www.pinnaclewax.com/productline.html
In the middle of this page is a button labeled "Click Here" under the Pinnacle Instructional How-To Video. It is a great video series. Now, I am not a salesman nor shareholder for Pinnacle products. I just felt that for a newbie like me, it was the best video I saw. In fact, I will be trying out "some" of their products. Some are too expensive in my opinion or I just missed a sale on the carnouba was (was $45 and went up to about $90!). But I will be buying their tire cleaning kit and some miscellaneous items. I am also going to autogeek.com, autopia-carcare.com, pashak.com to buy other items.
Hope this helps! Good luck!
http://www.pinnaclewax.com/productline.html
In the middle of this page is a button labeled "Click Here" under the Pinnacle Instructional How-To Video. It is a great video series. Now, I am not a salesman nor shareholder for Pinnacle products. I just felt that for a newbie like me, it was the best video I saw. In fact, I will be trying out "some" of their products. Some are too expensive in my opinion or I just missed a sale on the carnouba was (was $45 and went up to about $90!). But I will be buying their tire cleaning kit and some miscellaneous items. I am also going to autogeek.com, autopia-carcare.com, pashak.com to buy other items.
Hope this helps! Good luck!
03-22-08, 03:14 PM
#19
If it takes you 5 passes to do it, it's probably you not doing it correctly. Either due to impatience, which is common, a lot of people don't wait for the product to break down, or the wrong pad with the PC. I'll usually start with the LC orange pad with whatever product, then move on to LC yellow, if it doesn't work. I've done some old crappy black paint and 2 passes is enough if you use the right products and correct pads. Heck, if it's that bad, bust out the wool pad, but going over it 5 times is a lot of time to spend.
Menzerna is great stuff, but I'm a Zaino guy myself, I just like the ease of application, especially the new stuff.
Menzerna is great stuff, but I'm a Zaino guy myself, I just like the ease of application, especially the new stuff.
I find Meg #83 is a bit weird to use. It doesn't seem as easy to use as IP
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