A Work In Progress: '96 Chevy Astro Van

opie_7afe

opie_7afe

New member
well ive been working on my father inlaws astro van every night after he gets home from work doing a couple panels a night untill its complete. doing this to gain some more rotary experience on clear coat finishes. The main focus for this correction is removing the light swirls/scratches while enhancing gloss tenfold!. I'm not worried about the deeper scratches as it is his daily driver and has never been polished before nor does it get washed unless I do it which i do not mind!. The polishing process I am using is meguiars m105 on a yellow 9" sm arnold pad, then following that up with meguiars m205 on a black sm arnold pad. then doing an application of meguiars mirror glaze #20. the m105 is one tricky compound to use but i am getting used to it. only thing i do not like is the random patches of stuck on like cement compound, however i found using some last touch diluted at 1:1 does the trick to remove that flaw!. i really am amazed at the swirl removing properties of m205 however, the painted black trim was simple to get rid of swirls/light scratches with 2 passes. I am using a harbor freight rotary buffer to do this van. however on a good note i should be getting a 7424xp this week! well enough yapping and onto the pictures!(my camera sucks BTW!)

Before:
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After Meguiars M105

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After Meguiars M205 and a coat of Meguiars Mirror Glaze #20 sealant

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Thats it for today! I will upload more pics tomorrow!. One question I have, How should i remove those rain drip marks on the glass? i have not tried m105 on the glass yet. i know the m105 wont harm the glass just wondering if theres a "spray on" method. I highly doubt there is!. Thanks For Viewing My Thread!.

P.S i do see the sling on the tire! it went everywhere i wasnt paying attention ment to turn it to low speed to spread m105 around and turned it up alittle too high before putting it on the paint! my face got some splatter on it some how!!!..was a funny mistake. however it took up some time to remove, luckily i removed it while it was fresh so a quick mist of last touch at 1:1 dilution removed it from everything including tires with no evidence it was there! *wasn't me!:dunno:* :autopia:
 
I've had 105 stick to really old, dried out paint. It's a PITA to get off when than happens. It might help if you prime the pad completely and then use a tiny amount at a time, really small sections, work for shorter periods of time, and wipe off immediately.
 
I haven't tried Last Touch to remove that stubborn residue, but #34 Final Inspection cuts through it with ease!
 
There is a huge improvement. Thats awesome you have something to practice on. That van could be a perfect test bed for you to also practice scratch touch up too. Projects like this will help you dial in a feel for the machine/polishes. Mike Phillips has posted some tips on picking up a bead of compound using the 10 and 2 method and some other techniques to reduce sling. Keep your pad brushed as much as possible your removing spent clear and compund that likes to gum up with it. The spent clear can bond with the pad and induce more swirls. If you have a few pads you can use one to take the top layer of oxidation off then switch to another to bring out the gloss. Just keep at it.
As far as the glass you can polish it with 105 just tape off rubber and edges and keep the heat down.
Mikenap is right on Final Inspection it also works great in jambs and edge cleaning when done.
 
Great improvement from your pictures opie_7afe:bigups, on those spots on the glass try the Diamondite Glasswork Kit, which removes water spots, mineral deposits etc. But if you want to try this, a hand application of M205 first to see if they come off. Keep us updated on your process.
 
for some reason i try the picking up the bead on the fly and it is worse then putting it on the pad, i need to test on some horizontal surfaces which i dont have on this van as the hood has clearcoat failure over the whole hood. thanks for the comments guys!. the van was in way worse condition a month ago i tried some scratch x on the rotary and didnt touch the defects just removed the clearcoat cloudyness and brought out the gloss that was lost.
 
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