2013 black Lexus ES with only minor swirls Fromm car washing

mathematics

mathematics

New member
What to use to help my friend out with polishing and sealing/waxing his car? Car will be properly washed and clayed, but I'm not sure which polish to use. I was reading about Menzerna FG400 as being a one step that leaves a great finish that only needs sealing/wax afterwards, but when I read about it on here more, it gets compared to Meg's 105 which would lead me to believe that it isn't going to get me a flawless finish. Seems like I'd need to do another step before sealing/waxing. I'll be using a griots garage DA and will have all the supplied pads with the kit. All I want to do is polish out the light swirls and then wax/ seal. What would you guys recommend (any brand) to do it in as little steps as possible?
 
And that's enough for a car in queens, ny that'll see a lot of road salt and nastiness in the winter? Just wanna make sure I give the kid the best protection possible.
 
I've never used it but Collinite's #845 seems to be a favorite wax for winter protection.

I live in the Northeast as well and I'm going with Sonax Polymer Net Shield for the winter. I applied it to my son's car last week and it beads like crazy. The durability is supposed to be excellent ..... we'll see.
 
Lexus paint is on the soft side - especially the obsidian black (non metallic). Depending on your pad choice, you will most likely see marring left over from the FG400. Be sure to thoroughly work the product so that it breaks down and leaves you with the best possible finish. SF4500 is a great finishing polish, but remember it contains very little cut. If you have a considerable amount of marring remaining, you need to use an appropriate pad with the SF4500 to provide adequate cutting abilities to remove the marring... ie instead of using a crimson ultra fine finishing pad, you may need to use a white polishing pad.

Just do your test spots, and you'll be able to figure out the best product/pad combo.
 
Well, you said the car had only minor swirls... so if your definition and my definition of "minor" are the same, I would not use any compound. I would simply polish with something like PF2500 or Sonax Perfect Finish.

Pictures would help to better understand what you are dealing with.

My idea of moderate - severe swirls:
blog_305383_2170145_1379098630.jpg


My idea of light swirls:
blog_297065_2147751_1377535548.jpg
 
I will agree with Zack 100% I have two black Toyota's with very soft paint. I've never used a compound on anything more than a isolated deep scratch. For my truck a LC black finishing pad and Wolfgang Finishing Glaze are all that is needed to remove any towel induced marring before a sealant or wax. On my wifes 2012 Camry (Attitude Black Metallic) M205 on a LC white pad remove all defects and leaves a beautiful finish. Test spots will give you all the information you need. Good luck! I'm sure it will turn out nice.
 
mathematics said:
Sounds good to me. The less work the better. I'll start with my LC black pad with menzerna 4500 and see how it looks.
Click to expand...

Do you have a white pad? If so I would start there.

Even though Menzerna uses a very fine diminshing oxide abrasive, it is still very hard. It seems to like friction in order to brake it down.

Using a pad with little-to-no mechanical action (cut) in conjunction with the hard abrasive and a dual-action polisher is going to, at best, greatly increase the amount of time you have to spend polishing each section and make your true results hard to gauge.

This is because SF4500 and SF4000, although not designed to "fill", use a thick oil that can mask or temporarily hide defects. If you find that you are getting a flawless finish, quickly, I would be very leery of the actual result. By using too soft of a pad you could be creating a glazing effect.

Instead, use something like a Lake Country white pad. This will provide enough friction to break down the abrasive and burnish your finish to a high-gloss, true swirl-free finish. It is one of those weird circumstances were using a more abrasive pad will yield a higher-quality, truer finish.
 
Went with the LC yellow pad with only FG400. Scrubbed with nanoskin on the DA, then polished, followed by dr. Beasley formula 1201 sealant followed by colinite 845 wax

2uvy5u7e.jpg
ahy4ubaz.jpg
uge5y6ym.jpg
y9aseteg.jpg
 
Isn't yellow the most cut off all the pads? Looks great but odd you went with the most cut pad when other suggest a pretty much low/no cut pad.

Sent from my LG-E970 using Tapatalk 2
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top