First time using PC - advice

[EnhanceSS]

First of all, this is my first time posting, but i`ve been lurking for quite a while. I own a red `05 Cobalt SS and I feel i have taken good care of it. That being said, I`ve started to notice a moderate amount of swirls so I`ve bought the Sonus SFX PC kit off autopia.



Here are some (very bad) pictures of my paint condition.



http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/Enahnce/swirls1.jpg



http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/Enahnce/swirls2.jpg



and some sureface scratches on the hood



http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/Enahnce/sscratch.jpg



I`d like to apologize for the quality of the pictures, my good camera is on the other side of the world atm :(



here is the detailing process i worked out for myself



wash - dawn

clay - megs quik clay

wash - megs deep crystal

polish - sfx-1 hood/trunk (surface scratches)

polsih - sfx-2 entire car

polish - sfx-3 entire car

2x sealant - zaino z5 w/ z6 between

2x sealant - zaino z2 w/ z6 between



Please feel free to critique my process and privide any tips you can. Thanks!

[firegate]

I`d skip the dawn wash and just use the megs soap for the initial step. Also, the swirls look to be kind of light, so you may not need SFX-2 for the entire car. I`d recommend starting off with the lightest polish and moving up as needed.

[Accumulator]

EnhanceSS- Welcome to Autopia!



IMO your plan looks good, though I too am not too thrilled about the Dawn wash. I only do that on real beaters that I don`t want to waste decent shampoo on. See what it takes to correct your marring, as firegate says you only want to use as aggressive an approach as you really *have* to. Sometimes that *does* mean getting pretty aggressive, just depends on your paint and how deep the scratches really are.



One bit of advice- set aside a lot of time, as this stuff generally takes longer than people expect.

[imported_Dave KG]

I too woulf leave out the Dawn wash (or it would be ````` over here) - when you do the washing up at home with this stuff, your hands feel dried out after it with the detergents stripping the moisture out of your hands - well it does that to paint too, and is something I would avoid.



Your process looks good. If you are just starting out with the PC for the first time, my recommendation (and this actually stands for any car where you are unsure of the paint hardness) is to star with a light abbrassive combination - SFX-3 on a polushing pad on a test spot and see what results this generates... On light swilrs on soft paints, this would be all that would be required, and you wouldn`t need the SFX-2. So I would try this first. If it doesn`t remove the swilrs, then step up to SFX-2 on a polishing pad and try that, then if required try SFX-2 on a light cutting pad... If this fails to work then I would consider stepping up to SFX-3 on a light cutting and then cutting pad. When you reach a combo that is suitable and removing the marsk to your desire, then you have found the correct combo for the paint and then run with that on the rest of the car.

[EnhanceSS]

So i can polish the car without stripping the existing coats of zaino first? and also, can i go straight from clay to polish or should there be a wash after the clay? Thanks!

[gregh]

Yeah, the polish will take the wax off. It has the ability to remove a little bit of paint, so wax is no problem :)

[imported_Dave KG]

So i can polish the car without stripping the existing coats of zaino first? and also, can i go straight from clay to polish or should there be a wash after the clay? Thanks!



I personally wash the car to remove any rogue bits of clay residue I may have missed before going on to polish.

[Accumulator]

IMO the wash/not? after claying will just depend on how clean it is at that point. If you think there`s clay residue that oughta get washed off then wash it. If not, don`t worry about it.



I clay while I wash most of the time so it`s not an issue. The last time I clayed after the wash I didn`t bother rewashing either.