Speeding up the process?

[imported_mystic04]

As said above speed comes in time and cut out the unnecessary things which you will learn as times goes on.Then again when people say your car looks so good that makes the time you spent worth it in the long run.

[schiddy]

Since buying my new car and finding this site, I`ve been taking much better care of my car. I even have purchased all the tools to practice mild correction with a DA.



One thing I noticed doing a wash, dry, and wax last weekend was that it took me HOURS. I`m not used to the two bucket method and being careful, etc. I was taking my time and not rushing, but it seemed to take forever!



This is only a hobby for me but are there any tips for speeding up the process? I can only imagine how long my first attempt at polishing will take. I will probably have to do it in sections and take 3 days! LOL

[Mindflux]

Use the hose flooding method to get the majority of the standing water off the body panels. This makes drying considerably quicker.

[Accumulator]

schiddy- IMO some stuff just takes a long time if you want to do it right...but then I`m the guy who spends several hours doing a "really fast" wash on the beaters (and you don`t want to know how long it takes to do a careful wash on the good cars!). With experience, you`ll learn which processes you can speed up (or even eliminate), which corners are safe to cut. Until you`re certain that doing that won`t cause some problem that you`ll regret, I`d just let it take as long as it takes to err on the side of caution.



Try to cut out purely wasted time. E.g., for me, that means having redundant systems (hoses/buckets/etc.) on each side of the wash bay so I`m not wrestling with dragging stuff around the car. Not saying you need to do that, but see if there`s anything truly *inefficient* about what you`re doing now. You can waste a lot of time without even realizing it.



For the correction, using the right stuff can make a huge difference. People waste time with big pads and too-mild products; if you`re not getting a section significantly better after 15 minutes then something`s wrong. E.g., M105`s work time is less than a minute per section, and four or six tries with M105 (on the *right* pad) should be sufficient in most cases; that`s not long to get the heavy compounding done, even if the sections are each pretty small (I work areas about 1` x 1` ).

[AeroCleanse]

I found the best way to speed up your process is to do it often then you naturally get faster at it.

[shadow85]

Use a clock and keep track of time through out the whole process. That way you`re not spending an hour on the same panel.

[Accumulator]

Use a clock and keep track of time through out the whole process. That way you`re not spending an hour on the same panel.



Different viewpoint here- I simply *never* look at the clock when I`m doing stuff like this. IMO (and I don`t mean to sound all :argue ) this stuff simply takes as long as it takes, and imposing (what I see as) an inherently arbitrary time limit might cause somebody to spend less time than is necessary for the desired end result.



I`ve often spent well *over* an hour on a single panel, and I needed all that time to get it right. Had I said "oops, times up, gotta move on.." I woulda had to settle for less-than-acceptable results.



Yeah, I`ve had to adjust my "acceptable end result" due to time constraints, but not all that often. And even then I didn`t let the clock influence me much. But maybe that`s just because I have a good "innate sense of time", you know...one of those people who never really needs to wear a watch or set the alarm clock.



And, OTOH, yeah...I can see how somebody else, in a different situation, might want to use your approach instead of mine. So again, I`m not really :argue