Did my first PC polishing today. A couple questions...

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Passrat

New member
I finally started polishing my ride today with my new PC. I used Menzerna intensive polish on a LC orange pad. The car looks great, or so everyone tells me, but it has about 8 years of water and bird spot etchings (I guess) on it and has only ever been clayed and hand Color X'd by me, and lightly machine waxed/polished at a body shop once last summer. It looks pretty good but has a few light scratches and swirls, and in a flourecent light at a sharp angle it looks sort of like a speckled bird egg or something from the years of water spots and I assume bird etchings. All very small specks but pretty much uniformly everywhere.



So I did the roof and I have some questions. Exactly how long should it take to break down the polish? And there are now fewer scratches and swirls, (it already looks deeper and crisper than the rest of the car, even before the finishing polish) but the majority of the "speckles" are still there. Is the intensive polish just not abrasive enough? Should I just leave them there and try to bring out the best shine with the finishing product and be done with it? I was hoping to remove as little paint as possible (and do as little work as possible too). Is it common to just leave those there and try to create a shine over it?
 
Passrat- It's not at all uncommon to have etching and scratches that're too deep for complete (safe) removal. I just accept such stuff and live with it while others would want to wetsand/etc.



No idea how long to work the Menzerna as I've never used it, but IIRC it's not all *that* aggressive. Still, I'd think twice about trying to get the deeper flaws out.
 
Passrat said:
I finally started polishing my ride today with my new PC. I used Menzerna intensive polish on a LC orange pad. The car looks great, or so everyone tells me, but it has about 8 years of water and bird spot etchings (I guess) on it and has only ever been clayed and hand Color X'd by me, and lightly machine waxed/polished at a body shop once last summer. It looks pretty good but has a few light scratches and swirls, and in a flourecent light at a sharp angle it looks sort of like a speckled bird egg or something from the years of water spots and I assume bird etchings. All very small specks but pretty much uniformly everywhere.



So I did the roof and I have some questions. Exactly how long should it take to break down the polish? And there are now fewer scratches and swirls, (it already looks deeper and crisper than the rest of the car, even before the finishing polish) but the majority of the "speckles" are still there. Is the intensive polish just not abrasive enough? Should I just leave them there and try to bring out the best shine with the finishing product and be done with it? I was hoping to remove as little paint as possible (and do as little work as possible too). Is it common to just leave those there and try to create a shine over it?
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As Accumulator put it, some scratches may need compounding/wetsanding. But just to make sure you're polishing correctly: Make sure the pad is primed, meaning some polish is worked into the pad, and that you're only using 3 little dime sized pieces of polish for about an 18"x18" area. Menzerna is a diminishing abrasive, so after you work it in it will be properly broken down when it starts to become more transparent. In my experience it has been about after 3 or so complete passes going left right and up down. Also apply light pressure in the first two passes, you should hear the PC bog down a little. This insures that the micro abrasives break down correctly. I usually let the pressure off and lower the speed a tad on the final pass. Hope that helps!



~Jack
 
Oh OK thanks guys. I was making like 6-8 passes each way, this will make things a lot easier. LOL. I just wanted to make sure I was doing it right before I move on to the Micro polish tonight. I did everything else right though except I didn't slow the machine at the end, I just removed the pressure and went a little faster across.

Also, do I alcohol wipe in between each step, like clay, first polish, fine polish... or is it okay to just wipe with a dry towel and move on?



I read all the info and watched all the video's when I got the machine... last fall! LOL. Then I dove in yesterday and quickly realized I had forgotten a lot. Oops.

Thanks again.



Oh one last thing, is there any use in doing a second polishing with a softer less cut pad with the Intensive polish if I'm going to be doing the Micro polish next anyway?
 
As Accumulator said, in spite of the name, Menzerna Intensive Polish is on the lighter side of medium weight polishes. It's actually quite mild. IMO, too mild to be used for any real correction on a PC.



Being as how you have some deeper defects to be corrected (bird etchings, water spots, etc), you might want to get some polishes that have a bit more correcting ability than Menz IP.



The current "big hits" for the PC are Meguiar's M105 and M205. Start out with the 205, as it's the more gentle (finishing polish, really) of the two. See if it's able to get the defects out. If it's not, then move up to the 105. You'll see best results if you follow up the 105 with the 205.
 
This sounds like the paint on my truck. There's little tiny pits all over the paint. I think it's mostly due to some previous repaints, but I'm not sure. It becomes more obvious when the swirls are removed. One thing to keep in mind is that you can't polish away bad paint, or damage that goes too deep. It sounds like you're doing the right things (like super said, M105/M205 are the hot combo). I can't recommend much that should be changed.
 
I think I'll finish up the roof with what I have and then use the heavier stuff on the hood next since that's the worst part of the car anyway. Then I can compare the two and see where I want to go.

I'm not really trying to create a show car type finish, I just wanted to get the best shine within reason, you know, from a couple feet away. I only see this speckling with a florescent light at a sharp angle. In any other light it's pretty hard to see. And fortunately it got hit last year so about 30% of the car was repainted and needs no serious work. I'll admit I was a little bummed when I saw all that stuff still there though. Oh well, it's an 8 year old car that I bought when it was 6 and the paint had probably never been taken care of. But after I clayed and lightly polished it, with a LOT of coats of Klasse SG over AIO, people cant believe it's 8 years old. One tuner shop guy said - It's an 02?? What do you clean it like every day! :)



What about the IPA between polishing steps? Necessary or no?



So my next panel will be the hood with the 105 because that has more and bigger spots on it. Well... I'm off to the Geek. :bigups
 
Passrat said:
What about the IPA between polishing steps? Necessary or no?
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If in doubt, do the IPA wipe. It might uncover something, it might not, but you won't be second-guessing yourself and you'll be less likely to have unpleasant surprises later.



Those pits sound like what I found on certain panels of the M3 and on most panels of the old Audi. JUST LIVE WITH THEM, don't try to fix 'em.



You have the right idea- make it look better, get a feel for the PC and various products, and don't drive yourself nuts.



[Insert "Beware the Curse of Autopia" lecture here...]
 
Accumulator said:
If in doubt, do the IPA wipe. It might uncover something, it might not, but you won't be second-guessing yourself and you'll be less likely to have unpleasant surprises later.



Those pits sound like what I found on certain panels of the M3 and on most panels of the old Audi. JUST LIVE WITH THEM, don't try to fix 'em.



You have the right idea- make it look better, get a feel for the PC and various products, and don't drive yourself nuts.



[Insert "Beware the Curse of Autopia" lecture here...]
Click to expand...



I have some RIDS on the roof and hood of my 'bee that, every time I look at them, I repeat Accumulator's mantra, "Just live with them, don't try to fix them".



It's just not worth risking: 1. Going through your clear coat trying to fix them 2. Risking early clear coat failure.



You can minimize how noticeable they are with a mild polishing, then using a good filling glaze afterward.



I could get mine out with some wetsanding pretty easily, but my car has to withstand the desert sun all day, everyday. Not worth thinning the clear coat (and it's UV protection) out just to have it look perfect.... right up to the day the clear coat fails.
 
SuperBee364 said:
I have some RIDS on the roof and hood of my 'bee that, every time I look at them, I repeat Accumulator's mantra, "Just live with them, don't try to fix them"..
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Yeah, I have two RIShallowS on the hood of the Yukon that I simply have to ignore...it was a tough call whether to get it in its current oh-so-thin condition in the first place, but now that it's there I'm simply in live-with-stuff mode. The hood and roof of that thing are just too tough for me to clean properly, even with my work platforms I simply need more height and longer arms to really do it right.



Heh heh, every time I see your signature line I think how, actually, every one of my vehicles could really stand a good polishing, at least by Autopian Standards... but eh, you know how I feel about said standards in real life ;)
 
I thought about a glaze but doesn't that stop the sealer from adhering somewhat? Everbody says have a good clean surface to get a sealant to stick good and last a long time. I might not mind for the summer, but for winter I want to layer some Klasse SG, top it with WGDG sealant. That took me right through last winter and the car still looks good! At least the side panels, lol.



One thing though, the speckling on the roof is quite considerable. Very tiny pencil point like spots, like a good 10 or 12 per square inch. It kinda looks like when you wipe a dish with a sponge that still has soap in it, and it dries. You look at the dish later and it's covered in soap spots, if you know what I mean. I never saw so many till I polished it.
 
Passrat- You might look for the new version of Danase Wet Glaze, that's supposedly sealant-friendly.



I'll probably take that approach on my Yukon...or Autoglym SRP under FK1000P. If the glaze/SRP/whatever compromises the sealant's durability a bit, eh...I'll just live with that too.



Yeah, I know...but the whole perfection thing gets to be sorta problematic once reality rears its ugly head.
 
This is using Menz SIP with yellow pad followed by 85rd with orange pad then lightly burnished with red pad. topped with MPL. Just wanted to give an example of what menzerna can do. I didn't use a compound and this is 18 year old paint that was never waxed and sat in texas in the sun for 16 of the 18 years.
 
Yea depending on your clear coats hardness Intensive Polish won't do to much. I used it on my rock hard GM clear coat and it really didn't do anything. But a PC, speed 6 and an orange pad on my brother in laws severely swirled black 4 Runner took out a LOT of imperfections and it did a VERY nice job.
 
Well I finished the trunk and roof today and got out all the water spots. My GF used to spray it with the hose all the time and in two years of this it was covered. All the top surfaces. Then I used the Micro Polish to finish, followed by WGDGS. It looks pretty good for my first PC polishing.



Oh, it's a two year old white (Artic White?) Nissan. Don't know if it's hard or not.
 
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