I'm pulling the trigger and getting a DA Orbital. I just wanted to get some input on a few questions I had. This will be my first time attempting to paint correct my vehicle. It is a black car btw. Which pads are recommended? I was looking at the Lake County six pack on auto geek for starters. Also thinking of going with a compound, polish, then wax process. This car is not garaged so I have to make effective use of the process, plan on doing this once to twice a year.

 

The lake country flat pads are good. I beleive those are the one's you're referring to. I would get a 5" backing plate and 5.5" pads. I would go with 2 orange, 3 white and 1 black.

As far as a compound and polish, Meguiar's ultimate compound and ultimate polish are very user friendly and give great results. They can also be found at any local autoparts store. You could even follow up with their ultimate wax which is a synthetic wax and can last somewhere between 4-6 months. Durablity is dependant upon the environment you are in. I would also recommend you get ultimate quik wax so you can use it once a month to boost ultimate wax and extend the life of it. In between washes I will use ultimate quik detailer while or after drying the car and like I said once a month I will switch to ultimate quik wax.

I have detailed my 02 SS and my dad's 02 Z28 and have found both car's to have hard clear. So you may need to go over the area with a few more passes with the compound to remove the deeper scratches and swirls.

Before you do any compounding you want to wash and clay the car.

 

Yeah I went with the 5 inch plate, and 5.5 pads by lake county. When I have the time and am ready to do this I'll pick up whats needed at the parts store local. This sounds like it will take a whole weekend to do from washing, claying, to compounding, polishing and waxing!

 

M105
M205
Gold class

Sears $20 buffer with a terry bonnet.

Product + process + experience = results

 

Ehh too late lol already went and ordered everything, total wasn't that bad, do you clay bar before using m105? I never really enjoyed clay barring it seems to take way too long compared to everything else.

 

I went with the Harbor Freight DA polisher. Think it was #69924? Anyways complete replica of the PC7424xp, for the most part. Also grabbed the Hex logic orange, white, and black pads.

I only have time to do one panel at a time with my schedule so it will be a long drawn out process.
Started with a good wash with Meg gold class. Clayed the panel real good then washed again. Used the plastic baggy test to feel for any defects.
I went with Meg ultimate compound, polish, wax combo. Made about 3 complete cross stitch passes with each product until flashed, minus wax which was done on a slower setting with black pad. My car by no means has perfect paint minus swirls. It has chips and regular DD defects until I can afford a new paint job but so far, I'm loving the results. This is a shot of my driver door after. Look close enough and you can see the chips and all but I like it



Now I don't have all the fancy lighting or garage to technically do this correctly... But I know what it looked like before and after and the swirls are drastically reduced. I guarantee someone could do much better.... Hell so could I given more money and the correct space and lighting but Im happy. I watched Junkmans videos hardcore one Sunday morning before attempting and I highly recommend doing so yourself

 

Yes. You want to wash and clay before you do any type of compounding or polishing. You want to remove all the surface contaminants. You should consider getting a couple of these. They work just as good as clay.

http://www.detailing.com/store/nanos...ine-grade.html

 

WTF? You were doing good till then.

 

i actualy lked claying the car. and it was amazing after u wash and u think its clean and then see all the crap thats glued to paint.

 

ALWAYS clay before ANY paint corrections.

 

I was leaning towards a porter cable because my paint had a million spider cracks. I asked the wife for a porter cable and she got me a rotary for a present. I had my old oem spoiler in the garage and decided I was going to try extreme measures to try and get the spider cracks out. Even with a wool pad and m105 on the high speed setting I couldn't burn the paint and it turned out brilliant except for the rotary blowing dust everywhere and shedding

I had a cheap sears buffer and generic terry bonnets and decided to try that. It was dust less and painless and the trick is to work the m205 until the compound gets hazy and keep working till it is clear. The best results were from working the m205 in to the paint as it dries.

I dont like claying as it often causes more swirl marks and spider cracks. However if you are using foam pads you need to clay first as the surface needs to be clean because a sponge won't pick up dirt or dust it will just move it around.

So for my weekly process i use my cheap buffer and terry pads with m205

 

That is not how you work M205. You never want to work any compound till it dries. M205 is SMAT and is non dimishing. It doesn't get hazy then goes clear. That's not how that particular compound or any other Meguiars compound works, except for one which no one really uses anymore. I can assure you myself and no one else in the professional detailing community does those things.

You are describing dimishing abrasives such as Menzerna, Adams, Pinnacle, etc. Those compounds get thinner and thinner as you work them as they are breaking down and become finer.

My "guess" is the reason you couldn't burn through the clear on your spoiler with a rotary was because it's in clear coat failure. When clear coat goes into failure it becomes VERY hard. I've seen it before.

Paint correction is not maintence; outside of a very light polish or jeweling/burnishing of the paint to bring the gloss back once a year. When that done a minuscule amount of clear is being removed if any.

I would venture to say that the reason you are having to do it every week is because 1. An orbital buffer is useless when it comes to removing any type of defects. It doesn't have enough power or enough OPMS. 2. M205 is quite thin and uses a lot of liquid to transport the abrasives. Those liquids fill in small defects and your panel will "appear" to be better than it really is. A true test to see what your panel looks like is do an %15 IPA wipe down afterwards to remove any compounds.

I'm not trying to be a jerk or attack you, please don't think that. I love paint correction and it's turned into a side business that keeps me very busy. I love talking about it, especially people who are interested in learning how to start.

There's been a lot of bad information in this thread and I don't want people who are either just starting out or interested in paint correction to think this is the way to do things because it's not.

The porter cable is a great machine to start on and I would recommend it to anyone. M105, M205 and D300 are great compounds to start out with. Meg's MF cutting discs, LC flat orange, white and black pads are really good pads.

To anyone that wants to learn about detailing and paint correction should read this thread,
https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearanc...-detailer.html

Anything that you can think of has been asked and discussed multiple times.

Probably the MOST important thing is learn how to wash your car properly. If you aren't washing it using the two bucket method there's really no reason to do paint correction in the first place. You are just going to scratch it up again, then remove defects, repeat till you eventually polish through your clear coat.

Again if I have come off harsh I apologize because that was not my intent at all.

J

 

Great advice from Liljay in my opinion. As I pointed out in my post I am no means an expert, I was just showing you what I used and how I did it. I know people could do better and so I am still researching and learning as I go.

 

Thanks man. That's all you can do, research, learn and try different things. Little things like arm speed and how you prime the pad can make a big difference in the results. Different clear coats react differently when compounded or polished.

One really good thing about doing paint correction is; paint is paint. It doesn't matter if it's a Ford Focus or a Dodge Viper. Which is a big advantage compared to working on them mechanically.

I'm constantly learning because I want to get better and better. No matter how good a vehicle comes out I want to do better on the next.

Feel free to follow me on Facebook, Detail 2 Correction

I just finished up a full correction and coating on a 98' Cobra and doing a one step on a black HHR at the moment.

I am happy to help anyone that I can. If you ask something I don't know I have enough resources now that I can find out.



J

 

No but you came off extremely condescending. I wax my car weekly because I choose to do so. My results are my own opinion as a hobbyist who doesn't spend time overcharging for labor and products.

By all means spend $300 on an orbital and pads, I have performed many paint corrections with brilliant results using simple patience and technique. But if you have the money to blow on what are now 14 year old cars then enjoy, I'm just trying to advise on my own cheaper cost efficient methods

Cheers!

 

 

I wouldn't call it condescending by any means. In Jays defense, you said weekly process way buffer and m205, which is not a wax, its a polish. Waxing weekly is cool by anyone really. Overkill for some? Sure... From what I have read even though m205 is fine, will still remove small layers of clear after a bit of being worked. This thread is informational so no hard feelings to anyone. Just helping OP with what he asked

 

You have no idea what I charge or what I do.

Yeah, cause bringing back paint that's 14 years old is a bad thing....I'll post some pics of a vehicle that's less than a month old when it's delivered. Is less than a month old OK with you?

I would love to see some pic's of your "corrections". Different light sources, same angles, same distance. Maybe a 50/50?

I can hardly see your car in the pic you posted at night, let alone the condition of the paint.

Post em' up.

 

Here I'll start


Before


After

 

Lol you win. My car has never looked like that. a 50/50 for me would just be mirror mirror. That could be why I've never needed a $350 buffer