Help me knock some time off my detail

[2StepsAhead]

Ok, did my gf's STI yesterday and it took me 8 hours to wash, dry, compound, polish and wax...but I left off the front and rear bumpers and the roof...



One of my biggest problems was I could not get the compound to wipe off, so I would wipe it down as best I could and let the polish take the rest off. I am using optimum compound, I worked it in for 2-3 minutes per panel and it would not come off willingly. It also didn't remove some clear coat scratches but I was using a smaller 5in orange cutting pad on speed 6 w/the pc and putting some decent pressure on it..



I tried to finish off with putting the poli-seal with a finishing pad but it didn't want to buff off, maybe I went too light with the product? I went back with collinite iw and it went on and off like butter.

 

[Accumulator]

2StepsAhead- Not sure how helpful I can be as a) I take forever to do a detail and b) I haven't tried Optimum Compound or PolySeal, but anyhow...



If the compound/4" orange combo didn't take out all the marring maybe it's good that you quit trying for perfection. I do wonder how many passes you made though. My WRX never had much deep stuff so I don't know how aggressive is safe but my M3 is taking numerous passes with Hi-Temp Extreme Cut/orange/*rotary*. Sometimes you really do have to go over and over some marring before you finally get it out...do you really want to thin the clear that much?



When I have tough compound/polish residue stuck to the surface, I often decide that I worked it too long. Try to buff it off as soon as it's broken down, but yeah, that's a tough call sometimes as it can be hard to tell when it's been worked enough.



A light spritz of Meguiar's #34 often softens such residue up enough that it'll wipe of easily, I suggest you give that a try. I really like using #34 when I polish.



Heh heh, if some LSP was tough for me to use and another (let alone one as good as 845) was easy, I dunno how much I'd struggle to master the tough one I'm in favor of user-friendly products. One thing though, I often prefer to apply my LSPs with a soft (i.e., functionally nonabrasive) polishing pad instead of a very soft finishing pad..just works better for me with a lot of products.



Oh, and sometimes the amount of time I have available (or that I honestly want to spend) dictates both how much correction I shoot for and my choice of products. Sometimes a sorta-quick "just better" level of detail is all I'm gonna do and in those cases I use different products (e.g., 1Z polish toppped with Collinite) than I'd use if I were gonna really try to make it turn out great.

 

[2StepsAhead]

I only made one pass unless it was a bad spot, the hood and the door I made two passes on.



The car is brand new so it shouldn't be in that bad of condition, I just figured if it wasn't paint deep/didnt catch my nail I should be able to get it out...maybe I need OHC or a yellow pad.



I also tried using some quick detailer to soften the compound up but it only worked right where the spray was and dried up quickly, I heard OC can be used for very long work times without drying up so I figured maybe I wasn't working it in enough and thats why it was so thick, but I didn't feel comfortable letting the pad get too hot and just working over one half of a panel for more then a minute or two at a time.



But I see people saying they compound, wash, polish, wax, interior/vinyl dressing in 5-6 hours and I couldn't imagine it...and this was a new car with no real scratching so I figured it wouldn't be as bad.