Weekend detail 2007 WRX

Matt@Autogeek · 05-12-08, 09:58

Two weekends ago I had the pleasure of using the newly reformulated Pinnacle Advanced Swirl Remover, Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish, and Pinnacle Liquid Souveran w/Polycharger.

This is my friend's car....he's polished it a few times w/a 7424, but there were still some swirls left over that he wanted me to get out. Claying was not necessary as he did it 2-3 months ago and the paint was still very smooth.

I tried my best to capture the swirls it did have...only a few areas needed the Advanced Swirl Remover (bad scratch on the roof, as well as some other stubborn areas) with a light cutting pad. The rest of the car got Advanced Finishing Polish + a polishing pad.

I also got to test out the new Grit Guard Universal Pad Washer....very cool and convenient!

Oh and for those of you who have not used a Flex, you really need to try one out. It really does make the process go by a lot quicker than using a 7424. The whole car was finished a lot quicker than I expected, and as you can see, the results were great!

Onto the pics...

Here I am washing w/an Ulti-Mitt. We really liked using it...it glided over the paint nicely and dirt rinsed out pretty easily.

Some pics of the light swirls he had. It was hard to capture these but I tried my best.

Onto the polishing...here is me using the Advanced Swirl Remover with a light cutting pad.

Next up my friend wanted to try the Flex, so I let him use the Advanced Finishing Polish w/a polishing pad.

We decided to apply Liquid Souveran with a good ol' poly foam wax applicator.

And the finished product

CleanGSR · 05-12-08, 06:36

That looks really good. My dad has a del sol in that same color and his looks much darker (he's been using M26). The PS liquid looks great on that though.

How much time did you spend polishing? Kind of curious to see how much time you think you saved over using the PC.

Matt@Autogeek · 05-13-08, 05:38

Well, different people will take different amounts of time to polish a car....honestly I'd say we got this car done in about 60% of the time it would have taken if we had used a PC. The Flex really surprised me in how much faster it breaks down polishes compared to the 7424.

Bwalen · 05-15-08, 08:59

ok so i have a question for you-

my friend and I tried tonight (for the first time, mind you) to polish his 2007 wrx wagon (blk) and we couldn't really get the results we wanted. We found that there were still a lot of swirl marks left after we completed a section. Here's what we're working with:

1) UDM
2) Sonus SFX-1, 2 and 3
3) Sonus Pads (corresponding to sonus polishes)
4) Der Wunder microfiber towels (also, some pepboys microfiber towels)
5) Halogen light set

we clayed before with meguiars yellow and washed with meguiars gold class.

Any advice for us? weve done a little research and found that people don't seem to care for the SFX-1...and that the pads are bogus. any tips?

thanks!

Jscort98 · 05-15-08, 09:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bwalen

ok so i have a question for you-

my friend and I tried tonight (for the first time, mind you) to polish his 2007 wrx wagon (blk) and we couldn't really get the results we wanted. We found that there were still a lot of swirl marks left after we completed a section. Here's what we're working with:

1) UDM
2) Sonus SFX-1, 2 and 3
3) Sonus Pads (corresponding to sonus polishes)
4) Der Wunder microfiber towels (also, some pepboys microfiber towels)
5) Halogen light set

we clayed before with meguiars yellow and washed with meguiars gold class.

Any advice for us? weve done a little research and found that people don't seem to care for the SFX-1...and that the pads are bogus. any tips?

thanks!

I used the sfx2 polish and pad and it got some of the swirls out on my car but it wasn't strong enough to get all of them out. The sfx1 should get most defects out if you use it right. Slowly move the polisher and let the polish break down completely. On softer clearcoats sfx is good.

Bwalen · 05-15-08, 10:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jscort98

I used the sfx2 polish and pad and it got some of the swirls out on my car but it wasn't strong enough to get all of them out. The sfx1 should get most defects out if you use it right. Slowly move the polisher and let the polish break down completely. On softer clearcoats sfx is good.

and the subaru has the softer clearcoat and i figured it would work...but then again i keep reading articles about Subaru's lame paint. I initially figured the problem was not letting it break down, so i timed us to make sure we spent a solid 3 minutes, and it seemed to make a bit of difference, but i think we need to take it a full 5? I think we maybe used too much product too...which would cause the hazing and eventual non-breakdown of the polish...guess i'll have to try again tomorrow.

also, could our cheap-o pepboys microfiber towels cause swirling???

Matt@Autogeek · 05-16-08, 05:54

I have never used the Sonus polishes or pads, but it sounds like they weren't cutting enough.

Yes, using too much product will greatly increase working time, and will cake up your pads a lot quicker. I would recommend giving these Pinnacle polishes a shot. I think you'll be very impressed.

Oh and regarding the microfibers, invest in some good Cobra MF towels! Cheap ones will definitely swirl your paint...no sense in going through all the trouble if you're going to take a step forward then 2 steps back!

Microfiber Towels, Microfiber dusters and microfiber Detailing tools

Bwalen · 05-16-08, 10:30

thanks for the info matt, i think i'm going to try the pinnacle stuff out, and probably invest in some better microfibers.

we used the sonus because it was what came with the UDM kit my friend bought. I may try the sonus again someday on my civic or on my is250 just to see if it was op error or polish error, but im sure the pinnacle stuff will work great. ive read good stuff about it.