2003 Pathfinder - First time w/105/205

[dschribs]

So I figured it was time to show a little love to my daily driver. It's an '03 Pathfinder that has never really been cared for properly. I've done a few vehicles in the past with the Meg's 83/80 combo but this was my first time using the 105/205 twins. I have to say, I was very impressed. Work time was much shorter and I was very impressed with the outcome.



This is my first real "Click & Brag" so all pointers would be welcome!!!!





PROCESS



Wash/Clay/Wells:

Meg's NXT Car Wash

Lowes Grout Sponge

2 Buckets with grit guard in rinse bucket (because I only have one)

Griots Clay w/ Meg's Final Inspection as clay lube

Wheel wells - Megs APC 4 to 1 - Dressed with Armour All prior to polishing



Correction:

PC 7424

Meg's 105 on Orange Uber 5.5" pad

Meg's 205 on Green Under 5.5" pad



LSP:

RMG

Natty's RED



Trim/Tires/Wheels:

Trim got cleaned with GR-40 Trim Cleaner followed by PB's Trim Restorer

Tires got cleaned with Eagle One A2Z followed by Megs' All Season Dressing

Wheels got cleaned with Megs Wheel Brightener



Here's some befores so you know exactly what I was dealing with. Warning - it's not pretty...

Clay after 1/4 of the hood:

In the process of taping (PIA):

And some afters:

Like the bumper sticker says, My Other Car is a....

Most of my stash:

Things I learned:



1. Taping is a huge PIA but worth it.

2. There's only so much you can do to bring back a black hood with thousands of tiny stone chips.

3. Importance of a test spot. I started out with 105 on a green Uber pad and it just wasn't taking off enough of the defects. Switched to a Uber orange and that helped dramatically. I could have gone with a more agressive pad for the hood. I have to look into what most people are using because I need one step up in tersm of pads.

4. RMG looks awesome on black

5. It will rain heavily the day after I detail my car (for those of you in CT, you know what I'm talking about in terms of the weather today)

6. No way I could have even come close to these results without what I learned from this site

7. Priming the pad with product is SUPER important with 105/205

8. Don't use a pad that's even remotely wet with these products. You will lose cut big time. I had to wash my cutting pads because I didn't have enough and learned the hard way. Thanfully the dryer helped me out.

9. I need more cutting pads. (See number 8)

10. Four Rockstar's in 12 hours will not kill me

11. My next car will be Silver



Hats off to you guys that do this for a living. I work out four days a week at a gym and all in all consider myself to be a pretty healthy guy. This project just wiped me out - plain and simple.

 

[stilez]

Absolutely awesome first attempt at a C&B.



You've certainly done your reading on process/products here and I hope you're happy with the results.



I like #11 in "Things I learned". After my wife's black truck, I'm about done with that color for a DD.

 

[Carticular]

Great work, I love the 105/205 combo.

 

[rwisejr]

Simply great work !!!

 

[Cleaning Fool]

Amen bruthers!

 

[The Enforcer]

great job on the pathfinder. however, i highly disagree with #8......i always sprtiz the pad on each panel bc it will lengthen the work time just a little. if not, it will dry up and you use WAY more product than you need to.

 

[Jason M]

Nice work and write-up. The only suggestion I would have is that some full car shots, especially afters are always nice to see.



Other than that, great work! I agree with the importance of priming the pads with product and switching when they become "wet" or saturated with product and removed clear. The amount of cut is greatly reduced and the chance for marring increases.

 

[Jason M]

great job on the pathfinder. however, i highly disagree with #8......i always sprtiz the pad on each panel bc it will lengthen the work time just a little. if not, it will dry up and you use WAY more product than you need to.

The problem with that technique, especially on a DA type machine is that the chance for product clumping goes up....a lot! Once M105 starts to clump on the surface of the pad you lose some of the uniform cut that makes M105/M205 so effective.



In addition, these products are designed for quick work time. Increasing it by a large amount will just start to grind removed paint back into the finish. Even though these products have very uniform abrasives the paint they remove is not uniform. The marring you end up with is non-uniform paint particles being ground back into the paint along with clumps of product. Hence the need to clean the pad often. I get this a lot less with the old M105 as it just turns to dust and is expelled from the pad when you are working for the most part.



Next time you want to experiment try this:



Compound half a hood with M105 and SOLO yellow wool.



Compound the other half with a traditional compound and SOLO yellow wool.



Finish both sides with a no cut pad and M205.



I did this last spring on my GF's black Subaru.



What I found was this:



Neither side had the swirls completely removed. However, the side with M105 had uniformly fine swirls left. The other side had a mix of fine swirls and deeper swirls left by the non-uniform cut of the traditional compound.



By grinding the excess product and removed paint back in the finish (by spritzing with water) you are basically losing the uniform cut. You WILL remove more paint with the longer work time. You WILL also end up with random deeper scratches.



I was doing this to see what I could remove with a no cut pad and M205. The uniform cutting was something that I just happened to stumble upon. I've also had issues "renewing" M105 with a spritz of water to try and get more cut out of a single application of M105 with a DA type machine. It sometimes works for me with wool on the rotary but I don't have it down 100% of the time. Even on the rotary I will end up with some non-uniform marks sometimes.

 

[dschribs]

Thanks for the compliments!



I have read (here) that spritzing the panel/pad with water will help lengthen the work time with a rotary but that technique shouldn't be used when using the products with a PC. That was actually a piece of advice from Acumulator here on the forums...



When I washed my orange pad, and tried to use it before it was COMPLETETLY dry, I was getting far less cut. When I threw it in the drier and dried it out totally, it was business as usual.



I cleaned the pads after every other use which seemed to help ALOT! I simply ran them over a bucnhed up MF and then used a brush to get out some of the caked on clear and product. Even doing that, I needed to clean the pads and re-use a few of them (after they were clean and dried) because there was a limit to what the MF/bruch cleaning would do. They would just loose their cut after while and so I needed to go to a new pad. Bottom line is I need more pads so I don't have to stop in the middle of the job to wash and dry them.



Jason:

You know, I noticed the exact same thing after reviewing my post. Unfortunately, here in CT, it rained from sun up to sundown and any pics I would have taken today would have only shown Natty's impressive beading ability.

 

[The Enforcer]

gotcha....i use a rotary so i guess it may behave differently with that than a PC

 

[Jason M]

it rained from sun up to sundown and any pics I would have taken today would have only shown Natty's impressive beading ability.

I see. All my C&B's end with evening or night shots since I always seem to finish when the sun is gone...so I feel your pain.



But as I said before you did a very good job showing the correction you achieved and it did look great!