I may be a convert...HD resuts

jtaylor said:
Thank you for the advise, although I may have the curse of Autopia. I don't think I will do this professionally, its more of therapy/hobby in a way. In reality, I'm not satisfied with the way it looks, although my friends and family say it looks perfect. I just ordered the CG Foam gun, another grit gaurd, and new MF towels from CG. To hep reduce the chances of me instilling more scratches because the paint is rock hard to remove swirls...
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Note that there's a real knack to using a foamgun effectively. I *DO NOT* find "presoaking" with foam to be very effective, for instance. I shoot foamgun output at the point of wash medium-to-paint contact to "flush away the dirt".



With the foamgun, I have no use for grit guards as my rinse water (let alone my wash water) stays very clean. My approach is "dislodge and flush" so the dirt never makes it to the rinse bucket.



I have been able to achieve good correction with Meg's d300/mf. I do not have the talent to use the bottle of 105 without it instantly flashing on the paint.
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OK, just use whatever works best for you. I trust you're only using such aggressive stuff every year or two. But you'll probably need to go over that remaining marring a bit more to really get it out.



I'd probably try to sort out the wash/dry regimen first. Not a whole lot of point in getting things perfect until you can keep 'em that way.







Winter regimen - I live in the CA Bay Area, and never gave much thought to winter prep, anything I should do? I have only seen undercarriage dressings but nothing to actually protect. I have HD Poxy on the care now, should I strip it and apply the Nitro?
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Ah, that's different :think: What are your winters like there?



Here in Ohio (nasty, nasty winters...with lots of salt) I don't really do much of anything different. But then I'm a nut about my undercarriages/etc. anyhow. During the winter I just do the same stuff more often.
 
"Winter Prep" for us Californian's is putting on wax/sealant slightly more often than usual -- slightly, lol. I personally just keep the car wiped down with a waterless wash/quick detailer after it rains and am currently choosing a spray wax/sealant as maintenance. I've probably got 5 coats of Opti-Seal on my car, lol. I get bored easily...



If you're worried about M105, pick up some UNO. It's a lot easier to work with and cuts pretty damn fast. I don't even do big corrections, but have never had an issue getting good results. With today's products like UNO, MF Pads and powerful DA's, getting a near perfect finish is easy. I think the problem most people have is they don't follow directions, they just think they are. For instance, I showed my buddy how to use a waterless wash. "Glide it over the paint like this, buff off gently like this..." I then let him loose and he instantly started scrubbing the crud out of the paint. 1/2 hour later, I gave up and told him to either pay me or take it to the car wash. He would do it for a second, I'd turn my back and he'd go back to trying to scrub off water spots, bird droppings and bee poop.



The key to a great finish and good maintenance is technique, not what product you use. I could keep a car cleaner using tap water and microfiber towels than most people can using foam guns, 2 bucket washes and the plushest wash mitts. I maintain all of my clients vehicles with my version of a waterless wash which I picked up from Chris @ Optimum. The only swirls on any of these cars are the ones they wouldn't pay me to take out. :)
 
Quenga said:
"Winter Prep" for us Californian's is putting on wax/sealant slightly more often than usual -- slightly, lol. I personally just keep the car wiped down with a waterless wash/quick detailer after it rains and am currently choosing a spray wax/sealant as maintenance. I've probably got 5 coats of Opti-Seal on my car, lol. I get bored easily...



If you're worried about M105, pick up some UNO. It's a lot easier to work with and cuts pretty damn fast. I don't even do big corrections, but have never had an issue getting good results. With today's products like UNO, MF Pads and powerful DA's, getting a near perfect finish is easy. I think the problem most people have is they don't follow directions, they just think they are. For instance, I showed my buddy how to use a waterless wash. "Glide it over the paint like this, buff off gently like this..." I then let him loose and he instantly started scrubbing the crud out of the paint. 1/2 hour later, I gave up and told him to either pay me or take it to the car wash. He would do it for a second, I'd turn my back and he'd go back to trying to scrub off water spots, bird droppings and bee poop.



The key to a great finish and good maintenance is technique, not what product you use. I could keep a car cleaner using tap water and microfiber towels than most people can using foam guns, 2 bucket washes and the plushest wash mitts. I maintain all of my clients vehicles with my version of a waterless wash which I picked up from Chris @ Optimum. The only swirls on any of these cars are the ones they wouldn't pay me to take out. :)
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If you like UNO, you gotta try this: http://www.autopia.org/forum/car-de...ing-hd-cut-heavy-paint-leveling-compound.html
 
[quote name='jtaylor'] I do not have the talent to use the bottle of 105 without it instantly flashing on the paint. QUOTE] Same here!!! As mentioned by others you could try HD UNO if you want more cut--long working time and it finishes down really well on VW paint--it's more cut than HD Polish, but not a full cut compound. In a month or so you'll be able to buy HD Cut if you want a strong compound that has a long working time and no dust. I've had good luck with UNO on an orange pad on my Passat in the areas that needed a little more correction--just don't use much product 3 pea size drops to prime then one or two for additional sections. POXY is so easy to use (once I got the hang of putting it on very thin) I just add a coat every 3 months.
 
If you want to lock in perfect, then make it perfect and OptiCoat it. That's what I did and my car still looks perfect 6+ months later using only ONR washes to clean it.



I'm thinking about a very light polish with HD Polish and adding another layer of OptiCoat just for piece of mind/fun.
 
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