First time polishing

[Mr Big Bass]

Here are some pictures of my car so you can help me decide if my polishing plans will be effective enough.

Here are the steps i plan on doing...

1)Wash the car with car shampoo

2)Wash car with distilled white vinegar

3)Clay the car.

4)Wash the car again.

5)PC w/ Sonus orange/green pad and 1z Ultra Paint Polish

6)PC w/ white pad and 1z Metalic Polish

or

6)PC w/ white pad and 1z Paint Polish

7)PC w/ white pad and Menzerna Final polish

8)PC w/ white pad and Klasse AIO

9)Apply Klasse SG by hand

10)One week later add another coat of Klasse SG



Questions...

1)Do you think it is necessary to clay the car if i am polishing?

2)With the pictures above, which color pad and polish compound would you recommend? I already have all the products listed above.

3)On step6, would you recommend the 1z PP or MP for a black car?



Thanks in advance

 

[andriver]

Unless you have clayed the car within the past year, I would definately clay it. I would skip the vinegar bath as well as washing again after claying. You may need to follow UPP with PP due to paint marring. Your pad selection seems fine. Good luck and post pics after your detail.

 

[Accumulator]

Questions...

1)Do you think it is necessary to clay the car if i am polishing?

2)With the pictures above, which color pad and polish compound would you recommend? I already have all the products listed above.

3)On step6, would you recommend the 1z PP or MP for a black car?

Note: I'm assuming that you're *not* using a rotary.



1) Yeah, and clay while washing and save a step.



2) Cutting pad with Ultra, then cutting pad with PP, then polishing pad with PP, then polishing pad with MP, then polishing pad with FP. you might need more aggressive pads than you expect for the worst of it.



3) Going from Ultra to MP is too big a jump (IMO, even on silver, let alone on black). Doing the extra steps (as listed above) will work a *lot* better than trying to do fewer steps. Even works faster, IMO. Don't go to the milder steps until things are really nice, and don't go to the MP until it's nearly perfect. Then just a quick pass with the FP and you'll be ready for the AIO. You might try skipping the MP and going from PP/polishing to FP/polishing, depends on your paint.



Good pics, BTW, gives us a great idea of what you're dealing with, and your proposed plan was easy to evaluate :xyxthumbs

 

[Lowejackson]

The only thing I would add is that it might take more than one attempt to remove the swirls completely

 

[Mr Big Bass]

Thanks for the quick replies.



Accumulator-

I was reading the instructions for the 1z UPP and it suggested that i use it with the orange pad. Then it says to follow the orange pad with the green pad and a less abrassive polish. It says to either use the 1z MP or the 1z PP after the UPP. Are you suggesting I should be using both the MP and PP?



Plus, why should i skip the distilled white vinegar step to get rid of the old wax. Won't that help prevent the old wax from caking up on the pad when i use the UPP?

 

[NavindraLR]

the polishes will remove all the wax... if anything i would used 50/50 water and alcohol to remove the waxes that are in the 1z polishes... im not sure if menzerna has any waxes in the fp, so that may even remove the waxes from the 1z.. but to tell u the truth... i put sg ontop of every polish and never really cared about getting rid of the "oh so small" traces of wax that are in some polishes

 

[Accumulator]

Mr. Big Bass- If there's a lot of wax on there, it can be a good idea to strip it off, but it's usually not a big deal if you don't. You can use rubbing alcohol to strip it too, BTW. The wash to skip is the one after the claying. Claying as you wash (during the vinegar wash) will remove one wash from the process. But you should do whatever's right for you, this isn't right/wrong stuff.



I use "regular" cutting pads with the Ultra (also less likely to load up with previously applied wax), and I try to not do any more work with it than I need to. I switch to the PP/cutting as soon as I can. I found that (for me) the extra intermediate steps are definitely worthwhile, and *I* am not happy going from UP straight to MP when doing things by PC/Cyclo, though using a rotary makes it work a lot better. On many/most paints, I see an improvement when I follow the PP with MP, but the Menzerna FP should accomplish about the same thing.



The FP is wax-free and should remove any waxes that the 1Z polishes left behind. Don't use too much lest you get the "Glue-zerna" effect.