Hello all,
Longtime lurker but decided to finally join and learn some more sorry for all the questions off the bat but I want to do this car right!
I am what one would consider a semi-novice detailer but I have detailed a good number of cars in the past probably 30 or so and I haven't burned through the clear with rotaries yet haha. Recently picked up a 1998 Bmw 540 that is metallic black and needs some help. The car has 220k and paint has a good amount of rock chips.
The main issue is I am getting a chalking coming through, now I waxed the car about 4 months ago and the chalking did not show until recently. Attached are some pictures but it is very difficult to show in person it's obvious as day.
Car was washed and claybarred with griots clay bar i used m105 with a griots garage da for the heavier swirls followed by m205 and griots final finish, wax was 2 year old p21s should not matter if it was that old?. I think I did this properly I heard that the chalking could be clearcoat falling apart?
Now I have to do it all again as there are tons of swirl marks and I need new pads etc soo here come the questions
Should I stick with the griots da? Or upgrade and if so what is a good used bet?
What are the best pads to have nowadays?
It seems like most companies have pads and compounds that go together. 3M etc I know they are good but really expensive I don't want to break the bank what would be a good buy? I guess I would like something between the professional and the autozone off the shelf guy maybe closer to the professional spectrum.
Griots has been pretty good so far but I used to use lake country pads that seemed to be much better I just didn't have them around this time. I do pick up project cars so I would like to be able to do some heavier duty paint correction which I felt the griots stuff wasn't really designed for.


Longtime lurker but decided to finally join and learn some more sorry for all the questions off the bat but I want to do this car right!
I am what one would consider a semi-novice detailer but I have detailed a good number of cars in the past probably 30 or so and I haven't burned through the clear with rotaries yet haha. Recently picked up a 1998 Bmw 540 that is metallic black and needs some help. The car has 220k and paint has a good amount of rock chips.
The main issue is I am getting a chalking coming through, now I waxed the car about 4 months ago and the chalking did not show until recently. Attached are some pictures but it is very difficult to show in person it's obvious as day.
Car was washed and claybarred with griots clay bar i used m105 with a griots garage da for the heavier swirls followed by m205 and griots final finish, wax was 2 year old p21s should not matter if it was that old?. I think I did this properly I heard that the chalking could be clearcoat falling apart?
Now I have to do it all again as there are tons of swirl marks and I need new pads etc soo here come the questions
Should I stick with the griots da? Or upgrade and if so what is a good used bet?
What are the best pads to have nowadays?
It seems like most companies have pads and compounds that go together. 3M etc I know they are good but really expensive I don't want to break the bank what would be a good buy? I guess I would like something between the professional and the autozone off the shelf guy maybe closer to the professional spectrum.
Griots has been pretty good so far but I used to use lake country pads that seemed to be much better I just didn't have them around this time. I do pick up project cars so I would like to be able to do some heavier duty paint correction which I felt the griots stuff wasn't really designed for.

