First time poster, want HD Polisher and a couple questions.

[pwaug]

pwaug- We're just kinda discussing different things at the same time maybe....



Yeah, the general idea is to start gentle and ramp it up so you don't start off using something more aggressive than necessary.



In this case, if blnewt decides to go ahead and do the "big correction" job, I'm pretty confident that the Meg's Ultimate Compound won't be too aggressive (9-year old car, never corrected before..) and I don't see any problem with just starting there. Consider how many people say "I did [whatever] numerous times with minimal improvement!".



Now I understand--makes sense









But your advice is the safer, and perhaps much smarter, approach and the one we generally recommend to newbies.



But I'm going so far as to say to just skip that whole thing for now and give it a good AIO-ing for starters.



You had suggested this to me and it worked out quite well--did my first polishing on my 07 Passat with just HD Speed on an orange pad--it's a great idea--little chance of doing harm and Speed really corrected well even with the hard VW clear



I myself would take a few days and really *DO IT* to that car, but I don't want to turn this into a huge ordeal for blnewt, rather something that'll give really good one-day's-effort results.



blnewt- OH, almost forgot to mention...when it does come time to compound/polish/correct the car, I always work *MUCH* smaller areas than the usually-recommended 2' x 2'. Just works out better for me, even after all the years I've been doing this stuff. So much better that I recommend everybody try doing smaller areas and only work larger ones (like that two foot square) as they gain experience. And even then, even if you do like that, I'd sure watch that it doesn't lead to sub-optimal results.

As a relative novice at machine polishing there is a question that I've had for some time that I think will also help blnewt. As an example-- with my test area I've determined I can get the correction I need with an orange pad and UNO at speed 6 on my GG DA, but it's taking me 6 slow passes with firm pressure. At this point am I better off to go up to HD Cut and/or a yellow or MF pad assuming that then I might only have to do 2 or 3 passes?? I haven't faced this situation with my own cars which were in good shape to start with, but this spring/summer will be doing some friend's and relative's cars that lets say have recieved less than admirable care.

 

[blnewt]

Thanks both of you for the informative and helpful replies. Luckily this is a 93 Toyota T100 so it's SOOO in need of help w/ the paint. 20 yr old truck paint on a truck that's just a work hauler so it's a great test mule. I WILL follow the more cautious approach when my Infiniti is ready for the DA, but I'm ready to go pretty aggressive w/ the truck. My yellow pad looks like the weapon of choice starting out and I will go with a smaller test area, like a sq. foot rather than a 2x2. I'll take some before & after pics so you can lol at my results, just be kind w/ your replies

Thanks again, and thanks for giving me a couple different battle plans that I can use for my 2 upcoming jobs.

 

[Accumulator]

blnewt- OK, that sounds fine. Just be sure to really work at the in-progress inspections so you don't have any unpleasant surprises when you're done. And allocate more time than you think you could ever possibly need

.. As an example-- with my test area I've determined I can get the correction I need with an orange pad and UNO at speed 6 on my GG DA, but it's taking me 6 slow passes with firm pressure. At this point am I better off to go up to HD Cut and/or a yellow or MF pad assuming that then I might only have to do 2 or 3 passes??

IF by "six passes" you mean...like, left-right/right-left/up-down/down-up/diagonal/diagonal then I'd keep doing that. Those six "arm sweep passes" are about right to properly work products like M105 and the incremental correction keeps it plenty safe; you can quit after, like...r-l/l-r (one-third of what was expected) if you notice things clearing up really fast.



If, OTOH, those "six passes" were to mean six "work it until you need to stop and clean/reload the pad" then yeah..I'd want to speed things along quite a bit if it were safely feasible. But even with the Flex 3401/M105/cutting pad combo I can often go over an area six times like that when it's pretty trashed.



Yeah, I might start thinking about getting out the 2-4K grit sanding media, but IME it's not unusual to need to compound a given area quite a few times when working on serious marring.

 

[pwaug]

IF by "six passes" you mean...like, left-right/right-left/up-down/down-up/diagonal/diagonal then I'd keep doing that. Those six "arm sweep passes" are about right to properly work products like M105 and the incremental correction keeps it plenty safe; you can quit after, like...r-l/l-r (one-third of what was expected) if you notice things clearing up really fast.

Yep this is what I meant by six passes. I just was thinking that if it was taking me six passes with UNO and an orange pad that perhaps I'd be better off moving up to HD Cut on an orange pad or even UNO on a MF cutting pad to cut down on the number of passes needed to clear things up--based on test spots of course.

 

[Accumulator]

Yep this is what I meant by six passes. I just was thinking that if it was taking me six passes with UNO and an orange pad that perhaps I'd be better off moving up to HD Cut on an orange pad or even UNO on a MF cutting pad to cut down on the number of passes needed to clear things up--based on test spots of course.

Maybe try both and see which one works best *for you*. Different ways to accomplish this stuff...

 

[blnewt]

Well the Ultimate Polish wasn't quite as aggressive as I thought so I had some Ultimate Compound and went w/ that. Used the compound w/ HD yellow pad and did the entire truck. I'll follow up w/ a round of polish on a green pad. I'm liking the results thus far, I bought the truck w/ some scratched paint and a couple small dents and never did more than regular washes and a couple hand waxes over the years, so today is the best it's looked since I bought it about 7 yrs ago.

Had a couple mishaps, the yellow pad flung about a third of the foam off the disc after about 1/2 the truck was DA'd so I had to go w/ Green HD pads to finish.

The HD polisher has a pretty sensitive on/off switch, a few times it would turn off from the vibration causing the switch to rise over the tabs that are intended to lock it in the on position. I called HD and they said try it for awhile and if it persists they'll send out a new unit, sounds like good customer service. Hopefully it'll settle out and won't be an issue.



At least I think I've gotten over my DA paranoia and can try my hand at my "real" attempt on my G37.



Thanks again!

 

[pwaug]

[quote name='blnewt'] the yellow pad flung about a third of the foam off the disc after about 1/2 the truck was DA'd so I had to go w/ Green HD pads to finish.

Sounds like you're getting the hang of it. Did you do half of the truck with one yellow pad?? If so, it probably over heated. Even with cleaning on the fly after every section you usually need at least 4 pads for each step--4 for cutting, 4 for polishing.

 

[blnewt]

[quote name='blnewt'] the yellow pad flung about a third of the foam off the disc after about 1/2 the truck was DA'd so I had to go w/ Green HD pads to finish.

Sounds like you're getting the hang of it. Did you do half of the truck with one yellow pad?? If so, it probably over heated. Even with cleaning on the fly after every section you usually need at least 4 pads for each step--4 for cutting, 4 for polishing.

Yep, I was using a denture brush on the fly and just kept going. I will heed your advice on going w/ more pads next time. It was pretty nice seeing the results, although it is a time commitment for sure. But anything worth doing is worth doing right.

 

[Accumulator]

blnewt- Glad to hear things have gotten off to a good start! I bet the truck looks great.



Heh heh, sounds like you've learned your lesson regarding the "buy more pads than you think you'll need" thing, huh? I think you'll even find that it helps a bit with the results too.

 

[blnewt]

blnewt- Glad to hear things have gotten off to a good start! I bet the truck looks great.



Heh heh, sounds like you've learned your lesson regarding the "buy more pads than you think you'll need" thing, huh? I think you'll even find that it helps a bit with the results too.

Yep, ordering more as I type

As far as the Infiniti plastic bumpers, do I just use the same pads/technique as I would for the metal body or are there precautions I need to take for those?

 

[Accumulator]

As far as the Infiniti plastic bumpers, do I just use the same pads/technique as I would for the metal body or are there precautions I need to take for those?

The plastic won't handle heat the way metal will, so it's easier to damage the paint.



Now that I've probably spooked you something awful I'll point out that this really shouldn't be an issue as long as you maintain your "!let's be careful here!" mindset; just take it a little easy on the plastic parts (do more easy passes instead of fewer aggressive ones), especially on any edges where the paint might be thin, and I bet you'll be fine.