You learn something every day

**Hey, Moe!** · 11-29-2006, 12:14 AM

Typically, I work on my own vehicle. For the last handful of years, it has been new, or fairly new.

Thanks to a lot of people here, I have done almost no work with my PC. With good wash/dry techniques, I didn`t have to. It has two coats of IW for winter (instead of the summer Natty`s Blue), and if I have a chance, I may throw on one more coat.

My learning tool? It is my girlfriend`s 2001 Chrylser Town and Country minivan. It`s a dark purple-blue meatllic. It has the scars of someone who never took care of the finish, and someone who uses her vehicle at work--she`s a realtor, and around here, that means trucking off to hunting camps in the middle of nowhere.

Because I promised, and because I had the day off, I worked on the van.

Everything that I did confirmed all of the things that I have learned here.

Let`s just say that the claying was intense. Two bars of Clay Magic gone.

I have only SSR 1 and 2.5 for now (looking at other polish options for `07).

I did SSR 1 over the vehicle with the Sonus DAS orange pad, since it`s best to start with the least aggressive step.

I used the 2.5 with a coarser, yellow cutting pad on the spots that looked really bad, then went back to SSR 1.

I then waxed with 845 IW.

Yes, I have good towels for all this (thanks, Patrick).

I didn`t get all the defects out, but I learned a few things.

With the PC, spread the product on a low speed (2-3), then crank it up to 5 to polish.

Take your time while polishing! Don`t hurry!

Unless you are working on your garage queen, or your baby, or you work on others` high-end vehicles, it is hard to go wrong with Collinite.

And, unless you want to spend forever, you can`t get out all of the flaws.

That being said, my girlfriend (one very sweet person), is driving around in one very nice dark-blue minivan. I`m happy to do it for her, though I am a bit sore.

All because I watched for all the expert comments here.

Thanks to everyone!