First time using a PC, how`s my plan?

[blazini]

Just picked up a PC and a few products, I`m gonna tackle the car tomorrow. It`s an 06 Jetta GLI and it`s "Deep Black" (metallic pearl black). Paint`s still pretty fresh, just has some light swirls all around, and a couple spots that are swirled a little worse. Most of the driver side was repainted about 5 weeks ago cuz the car was T-boned :angry . They did a nice job but there`s some very slight holograms from the buffer they used, and slight orange peel in a small spot on the bumper



The products I have:



1 CSS orange pad

1 CSS white pad

2 CSS grey finishing pads

2 orange microfiber bonnets and and 2 microfiber towels

XMT #3

XMT #1

XMT Carnuba Finishing Glaze

Klasse high gloss sealant



I also have the two free (generic?) orange pads from Autogeek, the white pad that came with the porter cable, and some meguires NXT paste wax. I don`t really plan on using these, are these pads good for anything?



I plan on going over the entire car with the XMT #1/white pad to see where I`m at. Then if necessary hitting the more substantial swirls and the with XMT #3/orance pad, then back over those spots with XMT#1/white pad. I`m thinking I should use the Klasse sealant before the XMT carnuba finishing glaze. The description on the XMT finishing glaze makes it sound like a cleaner type wax (fine abrasives), so I`m just trying to make sure it won`t take the Klass sealant off. I plan on putting both of those on with a grey pad, and removing them with the PC and a bonnet. Is there anything I should be doing differently?

[dshreter]

I`m not familiar with the XMT line, so I can`t give perfect advice. Anyway, I wouldn`t go over the whole car with a white pad and #1. Do a section, inspect your work, and determine if you need to use #3 from there so you can save yourself a lot of time. Make sure you have some good light to work with so you don`t do some polishing and realize it wasn`t sufficient. The pads that come `free` from Autogeek are excellent, and will let you do correction more easily than 6.5" pads. Especially on VW clear, you`ll probably want to use them actually, and if you would consider your paint swirled at all, you`re probably going to need to use an orange pad and appropriate polish on the entire car....



I also don`t find a bonnet on the PC to be more useful or faster than just using microfibers by hand for buffing off product.

[blazini]

Hey thanks for the advice. Do you think it would be a better idea to just start out with the orange CSS pad and the #1, and use an orange pad and #3/orange for the tougher spots? Then maybe run it over with the white/#1? I just assumed those orange pads were lesser quality since there was no brand name attached, good to know they are useful.