so i got half my car painted due to a door dent. i waxed the new paint which prob i should not have done, they told me to polish it if i noticed any hazing. i dont see any but i still want to polish the whole car. i think it could help out the faded roof and trunk.
im getting a free buffer:giggle: from my friend. and i got some new wax ima try out (surf city garage) and am planing on getting turtle wax premium polishing compound and use the buffer with that to http://www.turtlewax.com/main.taf?p=2,1,4,22
is this the correct polish to be using? should i be doing anything else at the same time for the before winter wax?
how bout any tips on using the buffer with wax and polish?
i think i can handle the buffer or is it really that hard? would you suggest practice run on my moms busted up civic before i hit my baby with it?
If the one you’re getting is more like the DeWALT one then you will most definitely need practice as these buffers spin at a high rpm and you can do some serious damage (paint burning, scratching, hurting your wrist if you catch it on something, etc) but they are great buffers, ones that pro’s use.
The other type of buffer is definitely more of a wax-applicator type tool… Saves you from doing stuff by hand… But these do not cut through clearcoat-oxydation (hazing) etc.
As far as products… You want a Buffing Compound/Polish to break up that hazing and any light scratches, etc. A wax is only going to protect the finish that is currently there, wax does not ‘polish’ or remove scratches/hazing or any of that. Mothers makes some good stuff, I’ve liked SOME TurtleWax stuff, but some of it I believe to be garbage.
I would recommend some Meguires Diamond-Cut polish/compound. That can remove oxidation but it also will leave a nice finish, its not horribly aggressive. You can then move onto a smoother polish to give that shine/luster of a great paintjob, or just move straight to a wax to seal the paint/surface.
As for what wax I recommend… Anything that is a carnuba wax. And if possible, a liquid-carnuba that you can just spray out of a bottle and go over it with a very fine cloth or clean foam pad on your buffer at a low-low rpm.
Speaking of buffing pads, do NOT use the same pad for different products… You can scratch the crap out of your pad if you use the same one for an aggressive compound and a finishing-polish-type product.
If you don’t really know how to do it i would suggest taking it to someone that knows how to. You don’t want to risk a burn through… unified gave some good pointers but you also have to be very very very careful when polishing edges or corners because they will burn through the paint faster then a flat panel
A DA polisher with a foam pad is one of the safest ways to polish.
With any new polish try it out in the door jambs or underside of the hood to see if its safe with the paint. unified112 had a lot of good advice and I agree with him on Turtle wax. The basic white and red compounds are severely outdated and the red can ruin paint super fast.
I prefer Meguiar’s products mainly because I have never had a problem with them. Ultimate compound polish works great on neglected paint. They have a bunch of howto videos that are worth checking out. http://www.youtube.com/user/MeguiarsUSA#g/u
Good luck! When you are done post some before and after pics.
thanks!
the buffer is not a da sander or a grinder style its one of them cheaper ones that look like a space ship lol hopefully i can get some foam pads foam pad for it so i can polish
the meguiars pro line looks really good i will def be using that.
after reading these and other stuff and talking to meguiars i think for starters im going to use swirl free polish #82 on the new paint, and for the old paint ill start out with bsb dual action cleaner #83 and if that don’t work ill step it up to the diamond cut #84
i was planing on taking some up close pics so you guys could see exactly what im dealing with but i got side tracked cause new levers came for my bike:excite: ill should be able to snap some tomorrow
heres some pics it had just been waxed the driver side is new and the passages side is stock but still if awesome condition for an iowa car the back trunk is the worst but you cant really see it.
the problem is it looks really good for a week or 2 but then after it rains and shit and i wash it again it just does not look as good
ive got an extra hood to practice on but i might as well just do my moms 99 civic trunk its scratched up
hey, this may be random but i live in Moline and i work at a local dealership detailing cars for a living. Maybe we could work out a deal and i could buff the car for you or help and give you some pointers in exchange for car parts?
thanks for the offer but i figured out how to run the buffer, its purdy easy.
figured out the polishing shit, im not going to polish the old paint because id polish takes off some clear coat and we all know the clear coat is prob running thin after all this years baking in the sun. but end of November ill washing the new paint with dish soap to take off the wax, thank god nothing has happened to my fresh paint:manual:
i dont know if you already buffed your car or not… but
if you dont want to burn through the edges put some tape on all the edges of the hood fenders ridges ect. and do those by hand or somthing later that way you lower the risk even more of burning through the paint
While it is a good idea to research and practice first, You CAN do it if you get the hang of it. This is how my 223,000 mile Legend looked right after I polished it’s extremely cloudy clear coat, using a rotary buffer for the first time:
