2 step process, how do you do it?

ShaneB

ShaneB

New member
Simple question just looking for advice.

When doing a multi step correction, do you compound the entire car before moving on to polish? Or do you do it a panel at a time, compound a single panel then immediately follow up with polishing, then move to the next panel, thus only going around the car once and its all done?
 
I speak for myself, I compound the entire car and then polish the entire car. This saves from switching pads and polish back and forth.

To be honest you can do it anyway that you like the best.
 
Yeah, unless circumstances require that the vehicle be corrected in a piecemeal sort of way, one/two panels at a time like over the course of a series of regularly-scheduled washes. If you can't take the vehicle out of service long enough to do the whole thing, this approach can work great. Wash, chose a panel or two, and do that area from clay to compound to polish to LSP. Next wash, do another section. When you get it all done, reLSP the whole thing.
 
When I still used Megs I would do a whole step, remove all tape, wipe down thoroughly and re tape before starting the next step. Sometimes I would get tracers and such from leftover compound that sneaks out of body crevices and old tape which made the polishing more challenging and time consuming. Once I switched to Menzerna polishes this became less of a concern because they finish down so well but in the interest of being thorough I still clean and re tape.

Recently, I started using a steamer to blast out all the cracks and "wash" the paint before the next step. This saves me from washing the whole car as well as from hard wiping the paint with a towel. It only takes about a gallon of DI water to steam the whole car, the floor stays dry, the paint gets clean, cracks get blown out and I just have to lightly wipe the steam residue off so no marring is induced. I'm really starting to see the utility of a good steamer, but I digress...

- Patrick
 
whole car per step

other times, I have done the entire multistep on roofs (3 steps) and then proceeded to do the trunk, hood, and verticals
 
I do the whole car one step at a time. Going back and forth seems to take a lot more time:
Switching pads, more overlap means more surface area to work, constantly cleaning compounding dust.
 
On my cars, I do a panel or two at a time. A full two step plus LSP may take me a week. If I'm doing work for someone else, obviously that changes.
 
I start first by doing a panel with compound and then polish to make sure I have the desired results.

Then I compound the rest, and finish polishing.


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It can change with the circumstances, but most times I do each step for the whole car then the next step.
 
Today was the first time I ever did it one panel at a time, because I was compounding a heavily oxidized Miata with the wool pad on the rotary, I taped all the body edges of the adjoining panels... I really could have.... wait a second....

Damn you I just realized since my second step was with a DA I could have just compounded then removed the tape, and then done the second step after all compounding was done. Doh!
 
I will compound then polish and seal the roof so that I don't need to go back up there, or risk brushing up against the sides of the vehicle with anything.

Then I will tape up and compound the rest of the car. Then come back and polish.
 
Like it's been said many times before ... each step to the whole car all at once ...roof first, then the hood and trunk, then the sides, then the front and rear ends.
 
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