I`ve had my PC for quite some time now, but was only able to use it on glass, as I didn`t have any pads. I`ve read way too many posts here on Autopia, and you guy`s have greatly affected my wallet, and my way of life, all I do is work on my car now, lol. Well, today I finally decided to put my new pads and polishes to work. I ordered the Sonus SFX polishing pads, and Optimum Polish and Compound. I have a motorsports edition 2001 Dodge Intrepid R/T, and she`s my baby, however, I`ve had to look at all the terrible swirl marks for way too long, and it was really getting discouraging. I started out with Optimum compound, and a White SFX-2 polishing pad. I read that it took a little longer for the Optimum lineup to breakdown, so after several slow passes, I turned off my PC, wiped off the residue and inspected. I was very impressed, as all of the swirl marks were gone, however I felt that that OC didn`t leave the finish quite LSP ready. So, I stepped down to OP with the SFX-3 finishing pad, gave it several slow passes, wiped off the residue, and inspected. It got all off the swirl marks out as I had expected, and I was greatly impressed, however I felt it still didn`t look near as good as some of the black panels I`ve seen on here, (partly because of the multitude of small microscopic dots in the paint{rocks maybe?} and water etching.) As I`m still kind of new to this game, I figured I would wait until I got some more skill to try and deal with the water etching, and small dots, I`m afraid I`ll remove too much clear coat? I was very satisfied to say the least, then I decided to pull out my spotlight! I placed the beam on the paint, and looked, I was still impressed. So, I decided to bend down (almost sticking my nose on the paint) and inspect further, and if you look reeeeeaaaallly hard, you can see very microscopic hazing, I`m talking little scratches that are ions in width, depth, and length! For some reason I have a feeling that any one else would just disregard it and call it simply awesome, but I`m a picky SOB. I cannot stress how fine this hazing is, keep in mind that I had to look as hard as I could putting a VERY bright light on it. I have a feeling that if I was to put some LSP on it, it would fill it in and dissapear, but I don`t want that! I feel like it should be prepped to where the only "Filling" that takes place is the deep scratches, and defects, ect ect. I`ve read a lot about how the SFX pads have a little more "bite" than others, maybe I just need to purchase an even softer pad? Or, it could be that I`m using too much polish, and it`s all not breaking down like it should, although I read somewhere that optimum polish doesn`t break down like others do, so I could be wrong. Am I? Maybe my eyesight is so super duper magnified, that I can see the bite marks left behind OP and need a gentler polish? Maybe I should just quit bieng so darn picky? Questions, Questions, Questions!!!



Any opinions would be greatly appreciated, as I want to do this right the first time!