Working with OCP and FK1 Decon...

[usdm]

Nothihng else to do today, so I played around with

the Optimum polish on my dad`s daily driver. The car is

on it`s last legs, so now I have a ready available

guinea pig almost whenever I need it



I started off with a decon of car. As the

car has never really been paint cleaned (almost 10

years), I knew this was going to be a job. Surprisingly,

the decon kit did manage to do short work of the main

sticky grime, but it did not get all of it off.



The biggest claim about the Decon kit was that it

removed claying from the process. This is not quite true.

The FK1 decon does work, but......

to get optimum finish, a clay job is still recommended,

even if you already deconed. The big advantages

I`ve found is that the clay lasts longer because a lot of the

grime is washed off during the decon step, and the

surface always feels slicker when both methods are used

as opposed to just doing either one alone. This is especially

true on cars that are in very poor shape like my dad`s car.

When the decon is done as the inital wash, the addtional

time to clay, or spot clay, should only add about 15-20 mins.

To me, sacrificing the time to these steps, helps me

recoupe time in the later stages like polishing, and waxing.



Now the pictures...



First is the unfinished trunk after the decon and clay.





Next, I applied a stripe of polish to work half the trunk.

The polish has a semi-thick consistency, but it does not

feel oily or gritty.





I then used an Edge 2000 green pad on my Mak Rotary.

I smeared the polish around the section, then ran the

machine @ 600 rpm to prime the pad. Ramped up the

machine to just under 1500 rpm applying medium pressure

during the initial passes, the lightening up to let the

weight of the machine do the rest.





Anthony was right about this polish, it does have a long

work time. In fact, I really have no idea how many passes

I did make. I really wanted to see how long I could run

before the product started to powder. 3m, PB SSRs`,

Menzerna (excluding MicroPolish) , and Hi-Temp, would

powder a lot quicker than this stuff did, using the same

amount of product. Also, after running the machine on

the paint for such a good while, I touched the paint, and

felt it to be warm. If I used any of the other above

mentioned products, I am sure the panel would have been

hot.



Next pic shows how well the polished managed to knock

down the haze and swirling. Unfortunately, I could not

do much for some of the deeper scratches. I`m convinced,

however that if I had a yellow pad, I could have made short

work of a lot more scratches, and cleared up the reflection

more.





Final pic shows a "final polish" with an Edge 2k blue pad.

This time, I applied 2 stripes per section, smeared, and

ran the machine @ 1300rpm. Like before, I applied med

pressure for the inital passes, then let the machine weight

do the rest. Once again, I continued making passes until

I felt heat. However, the heat wasn`t from the paint, but

the buffer, so I stopped. Obviously, it looks a lot better than

before.





As already mentioned, the pad dictates the cut. With

just the 2 pads, i was able to reduce the swirls, and improve

the appearance. Using softer pads like Meguiar`s polishing

and finishing pads, would definitely up the gloss factor.



Something else that I did not think about until after,

was the need to really prime the pad good. The first

pass I think was just ok, because there was product

on the pad, but the pad was not quite primed up yet.

However, in the "final polish" step, you can see that there

is big difference on how the panel looks. Maintaining a layer

of product betwen the pad and the panel is the key.



Have yet to try it with a PC, so that will be my next

experiment.







I still need some more time to really learn this stuff. But as of

now, Optimum polish looks like a keeper:xyxthumbs

[imported_themightytimmah]

Optimum has worked quite well by Cyclo for me, its conveient for me because all I need to bring with me is my cyclo, OCP, and orange and white (LC white, or cyclo green) pads. With other brands, I`d find myself carrying 3 bottles of polish with me, which can kind of be a PITA working out of the back of a GTP.