how would you polish this?

pb_foots · 10-01-08, 07:10

My sister is bringing her long neglected 2001 Grand Am down in a few weeks, and I promised her I'd polish it for her. After opening my big mouth, I started to try and formulate a game plan. I'm not too concerned about the horizontal surfaces, but this car has plastic cladding on the bottom, (see pic), and it's pretty convoluted. I am still pretty new with the Makita, so I'm thinking I may need to stick to the PC on the bottom of the doors, but I would sincerely appreciate any advice.

The car has not been waxed in the 6 years since I moved, and the last time I saw it the paint was not peeling and I couldn't find any CC failure, but was pretty badly oxidized. It's a maroon color, so swirls are pretty easy to see.

I have the following tools:

PC
Makita rotary
Edge black and yellow wool for the rotary
edge orange, white and black pads
LC yellow, orange, white and black pads in both 5.5 and 4"
the small PFW for the PC

polishes:

SSR 2.5 and 1.0
Autoglym 03B,02B, and 01B
ZPC

I don't mind ordering some new stuff if I need to.

Jakerooni · 10-01-08, 08:13

I was use the rotary for the entire car... But that's just me. I say use what you're comfortable using. If you can get it done via PC so be it.

Setec Astronomy · 10-01-08, 08:24

Yeah, Pontiac went pretty apestuff for a while with that lower body cladding, although that looks a little easier than the much smaller version of it I had in the front and rear bumpers of my '90 Bonneville. You could barely get your finger in there...what a joy to wash.

MBenz · 10-01-08, 10:20

Just do what you are comfortable with. Your sister should appreciate the work no matter how close to perfect you get the paint. At this point, the main goal in my mind would be protection protection protection. What LSP are you thinking of?

Do some before and after pics on this one, that would be cool.

pb_foots · 10-02-08, 05:28

Thanks guys. I'm sure it'll be better than when it gets here, I am just wary of all that soft plastic.

I have Collinite 476S in the cabinet, so I think I'll use that just for the longer protection. I have Natty's blue and some Zaino Z2 and Z5, but with her track record I want to use something that'll protect for a while.

Accumulator · 10-02-08, 10:43

What MBenz said

Remember that other people don't see things through Autopia-tinted glasses