Cyclo and meguiar's regime?

[efnfast]

Several months ago when I detailed my black g35 I had good success with the following cyclo cycle:

Green(G) + Meguiar's 83
G + Meguiar's 80
White (W) + meguiar's 83
W +_meguiar's 80
W+ wax

However, it is rather tiring to go through the car 5 times! I'm just curious if there is any overlap in there? For example, if W+meguiar's 83 needed, or can I just skip right to W+meguiar's 80?

Thanks for any suggestions

[Setec Astronomy]

Even if you want to do it five times, you shouldn't go up and down in abrasiveness like that. You should always be getting progressively finer with your polish and your pad. You could try 83/green, 83/white, 80/white.

[efnfast]

Okay - what about 83/green, 80/green, 80/white ; would that be considered okay?

[Accumulator]

Originally Posted by efnfast

Okay - what about 83/green, 80/green, 80/white ; would that be considered okay?

Yeah, and you might not even need the 80/white combo depending on the paint. For years there were *only* green polishing pads for the Cyclo, and most of us did OK with (just) them.

For serious correction, I'd use orange or yellow cutting pads with the #83 (or with something stronger).

[efnfast]

Originally Posted by Accumulator

Yeah, and you might not even need the 80/white combo depending on the paint. For years there were *only* green polishing pads for the Cyclo, and most of us did OK with (just) them.

For serious correction, I'd use orange or yellow cutting pads with the #83 (or with something stronger).

Out of curiousity, if there were only green pads, how did you apply wax? By hand, or with a green pad?

[efnfast]

I did 83/G, then 80G, then some areas in 80/W .... it's a silver Infiniti ..... as best as I can tell, the 80/W didn't really do or add anything. I don't know if it's just because it's not needed, or because the silver color hides a lot of defects that you have to crane your head and manipulate your hallogen light around to really see

I guess I just find this kind of odd because Ininifiti uses really soft paint/clear (mars like crazy when you clay bar it, cleans off easily with some polish), so I was expecting the 80/W to do something, even just a little something.

[Accumulator]

Originally Posted by efnfast

I did 83/G, then 80G, then some areas in 80/W .... it's a silver Infiniti ..... as best as I can tell, the 80/W didn't really do or add anything. I don't know if it's just because it's not needed, or because the silver color hides a lot of defects that you have to crane your head and manipulate your hallogen light around to really see..:

Ah..and therein lies the secret, and the challenge, with silver

When you get your inspection setup *just* right, you'll see subtle/incremental improvements even with final polishing steps more gentle than the #80/white. On my *hard* clear silver Auids, my final burnishing is with *super* mild polishes like 1z MP on finishing pads, and yeah, it makes a little difference *IF* (big "if") I do the preceding correction just right.

Out of curiousity, if there were only green pads, how did you apply wax? By hand, or with a green pad?

Depended on the paint. On soft paints we did it by hand, but on harder ones we used the green pads. The green pads are functionally nonabrasive on many paints, especially when lubricated with wax (we were using Malm's liquid).

A similar example for the PC is the Griot's Garag pads; now he sells red waxing pads (which are *VERY* nice), but for years the only machine pads he sold were his orange polishing pads (*VERY* different from most orange pads, very mild even though they're firm) and they work fine for waxing on most paints.

It's all about whether the pad is *functionally* abrasive/not when used with a given product on a given paint (and if it's functionally abrasive, to what degree).