first major detail.. need advice on my products

[malloynx]

well I got an 06 scion tc that is black cherry pearl. I have a ton of products; but i don`t know how the layer them well. the car is about 9 months old and it`s hasn`t seen a full detail yet. the is minor swirls and all in all just needs a good clean.





I have a PC, menzurna final poilsh 2, FMJ, klasse AIO,claybar, and tons of other stuff.



here is what i`m thinking on the outside, wash, clay, final poilsh 2 (with the pc), klasse AIO (by hand) then 2 coats of FMJ.



Does this sounds good, or is there a better approach? thanks in advance

[Accumulator]

malloynx- Welcome to Autopia!



Your proposed plan oughta work fine if the marring isn`t too much for the FPII, which is pretty mild stuff. I do like using AIO by machine though, with a polishing pad.

[malloynx]

with the AIO should I use a white or yellow buffing pad? The swirls are very light but i don`t know if the AIO will take them out. I usually run the PC at 3.5 or 4 for speed. I`m really aiming for a deep look and to bring out the pearl. thanks for the help.

[Thomas Dekany]

I`d do :



clay

aio - orange pad or yellow if you don`t have an orange pad (after all car is a year old) SPEED 6

fpII - white pad speed 6 or at least 5.

fmj



Post pictures!!!!!!!!!!!

[Accumulator]

A few things can factor into the "which pad" thing:



Some paints are too soft for a nice finish with a yellow, or even an orange, pad. In these cases I`d switch to a softer pad ASAP.



I never get any real benefit from using a very aggressive pad with a *not* aggressive product like AIO.



But I wouldn`t expect the AIO to remove the light marring, it never has for me.



tdekany- I`m confused by your suggestion, why use the AIO first and then the FPII? To clean/deoxidize the paint before correcting it? I`d do the abrasive work first and then use the AIO, but maybe I`m missing something here..

[imported_smprince1]

with the AIO should I use a white or yellow buffing pad? The swirls are very light but i don`t know if the AIO will take them out.



My experience is that AIO won`t remove swirls, it is more of a chemical cleaner and base for LSP than swirl remover. For swirl removal you will probably first need a swirl remover polish with some abrasives.

[Thomas Dekany]

A few things can factor into the "which pad" thing:



Some paints are too soft for a nice finish with a yellow, or even an orange, pad. In these cases I`d switch to a softer pad ASAP.



I never get any real benefit from using a very aggressive pad with a *not* aggressive product like AIO.



But I wouldn`t expect the AIO to remove the light marring, it never has for me.



tdekany- I`m confused by your suggestion, why use the AIO first and then the FPII? To clean/deoxidize the paint before correcting it? I`d do the abrasive work first and then use the AIO, but maybe I`m missing something here..



toyota paint in general is pretty soft. (my experience). So if the swirls are light in nature, aio may do the trick. FPII to finish since it looks alot better.



I deswirled a white subaru with aoi and an orange pad. Didn`t intend to but it happened.



Ot I guess he could do fpII and an aggressive pad and finish off with it too on a white pad.

[imported_themightytimmah]

Scion paint is pretty soft - esp as of recently. I deswirled an 06 Tc with ZPC on a white pad via PC, so FPII via white might just do it all in one step.

[Accumulator]

themightytimmah & tdekany- OK, thanks for explaining. Since I know nothing about the Toyota/Scion paint that deswirling ability of FP, let alone AIO, never occurred to me.



I also suppose I didn`t think of FP as looking better than AIO as the one time I did comparisons between my final polishes I wasn`t blown away by the look the FP left (I know, I must be the only person who ever says that :o ).

[imported_DieselMDX]

Normally after polishing you would use AIO and a white pad at 6 right?

[LeadingEdgeDetail]

Wow, a lot of differing opinions....



The only one that makes any sense to me would be to claybar the car first, then buff it out with FPII TWICE, and then apply your favorite wax. FPII will leave the surface ready for wax, so there really would be no sense wasting your time with AIO.



Claybar (Give the velvet smooth feel)

FPII with Orange/Yellow pad (take out the deeper marring)

FPII with White pad (Perfect the surface for wax application)

FMJ by hand



Thoughts?

[Accumulator]

DieselMDX- Much as I like using the PC at full speed, I turn it down a bit for AIO. More like 4.5 or so. Never found any real advantage to higher speeds.




Wow, a lot of differing opinions....



The only one that makes any sense to me would be to claybar the car first, then buff it out with FPII TWICE, and then apply your favorite wax. FPII will leave the surface ready for wax, so there really would be no sense wasting your time with AIO.



Claybar (Give the velvet smooth feel)

FPII with Orange/Yellow pad (take out the deeper marring)

FPII with White pad (Perfect the surface for wax application)

FMJ by hand



Thoughts?



If the FPII is aggressive enough (again, I don`t know from your clear) then I wouldn`t go any more aggressive than the orange pad. I try to match the aggressiveness of the product with that of the pad, and IMO FP is just so mild that I don`t see it working well with a yellow cutting pad.



I`ll be interested to hear what ends up working best.

[imported_DieselMDX]

thanx accumulator!

[malloynx]

thanks for all the responses. i`m going to be doing the detail this sat. i`m going to post the before and after pics. if the FP2 doesn`t cut the swirls, i have some 3m swirl remover i can try.. any other tips would be great.