1st Attempt with a DA

pgarner

TC ModFather
Points
417
Location
Lockerbie, SW Scotland
Car
Octy smoke machine
Ok have a few swirl marks on both mine and the wifes car, hand polishing does seen to do much, although AG SRP seems to fill them in slightly
picked up a DA pretty cheaply on the good old bay but rather than try it out on mine or the wifes car i used the sisters car as a test (basically itll be scrapped rather than sold on) using the bonnet as it would be easy to get pics and a nice large starting point.

what i was up against

BadPaintwork1.jpg
BadPaintwork2.jpg


oxidised paint, stone chips and a good few scratches

washed the bonnet and dried off before splitting into 2 halfs

one half was left untreated and the other got some Megs #83 with a polishing pad, followed by some AG Ultra deep shine on a finishing pad

Treatedside.jpg


Untreatedside.jpg


then done the other side before a coat of wax

Waxed2.jpg


it had got rid of the oxidised paint, the lighter scratches and swirls (didnt show up that well in the pics taken before even in the sunlight) Deeper scratches look better - more like lighter ones - and some of the stone chips look alot better but the bigger chips are obviously still, well, obvious
 
Looking good.

I took a good close look at mine the other day. My neighbour had his house painted and there are numerous little flecks of cream emulsion all over my car! :evil: Not a happy bunny but it should just lift off with a bit of elbow grease.
 
nice. hopefully they should come off pretty easy, some bug and tar might help - slight solvent

just waiting for a pretty cooler day to start on the wifes, that is after cleaning the pads as with the polo not having clearcoat it turned the pad blue
 
Very nice job you done there.

wayne, for removing the paint could always use detailing clay. bilthamber clay ~ tenner and can use water as lube or autoglym do a clay plus lube package :D
 
Dual action polisher. rather than just spinning it oscillates as well. this allows a less a head build up for soft paints so is perfect for a beginner into machine polishing.
downside is hard paints are very hard to do any real level of correction with one unless you spend alot of time.

on mine ive spend probably around 16hrs and still have a few deeper scratches there
 
Dual Action 'buffer', use the machine with a combination of pad + polish to remove all kinds of paint defects, swirls, clear coat scratches, holograms... picture of one click
 
Very nice job you done there.

wayne, for removing the paint could always use detailing clay. bilthamber clay ~ tenner and can use water as lube or autoglym do a clay plus lube package :D


Bilthamber is great stuff for what you get, 200gram bar for less than what some want for a 25g bar and some lube.

as for lube you can always use a very weak solution of shampoo, or im currently using a 10% concentration of demon shine. £5 for 4 ltrs at the min in asda.
its crud for what they showed on the TV during summer however works great as

lube
rinse aid
QD
 
Dual action polisher. rather than just spinning it oscillates as well. this allows a less a head build up for soft paints so is perfect for a beginner into machine polishing.
downside is hard paints are very hard to do any real level of correction with one unless you spend alot of time.

on mine ive spend probably around 16hrs and still have a few deeper scratches there


great post, but also no need to be afraid of using a rotary polisher (mainly accustomened (sp) with people that have machine polishing experience) where actually as long as you have 10 brain cells and pay attention to what you are doing then you are fine.
 
yeah it was the stories of burning paint, trailing etc that put me off. wished i had got one now as the DA has been great on a few cars ive done but hardly touched mine or the wifes.


your post got stuck because of the link, after 10 posts you shouldnt have a problem
 
ah ok will have to hit 10 posts soon then haha, and i did my research looked at both DA and rotarys and decided on the rotary mainly for the added uses once i knew what i was doing, added correction, less time etc. greatest decision ive made when it comes to keeping the paintwork tip top. ive found that the best way when using a rotary is to allow plenty of time, watch the heat build up, start with lowest cut combination then step it up slowly, work the polish properly ~5 minutes per one 'pass' and to take my time. then once im happy with the correction go over the whole lot with a finishing pad and polish to remove any trails holograms that ive caused.
 

Please watch this on my YouTube channel & Subscribe.


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