menzerna polish

G

geddy2112

New member
hi everybody, just joined this forum, great reading material.
I got my car back from the body shop about 6 month ago from a new paint job "basecoat clearcoat". They did a light polishing before giving the car back to me and told me not to wax or polish it for 6 month. the car looked good. I was told to bring the car back for a 2nd polishing job to bring out more luster in 6 month.
I been doing lots of reading and watching various videos on youtube and though i would rather do the job myself then pay them $300. So i bought a Porta Cable orbital polisher and 3 Menzerna products. Intense polish, final polish II and finishing touch glaze.
I used the orange pad with the intense polish to try to rid the fine scratch marks and then followed with the final polish II on a white pad. The results were ok. I was hoping to get rid of all the fine scratches. My friends says i am crazy because the car looks like a mirror :inspector: but if i use my work light and shine it on the car, i can still see some very fine scratches. How do i get rid of all those very fine scratches? I am looking to polish all those fine scratches out so when i shine my work light on it, all i see is red paint and no scratches. I did work the intense polish for about 5-8 minutes till the polish is broken down. And i did do a 2x2 area each session.
Am i looking for the impossible? I did try and use the orange pad with the final polish II and it does take out some more of the ultra fine scratches. anyone with any other inputs for me to try. The body shop that painted my car used Farecla. I was thinking of try that.
 
First Welcome to the group:howdy

Your process seems fine with the polishes and pads...did you follow up with the glaze? A glaze might fill in some of those smaller scratch marks you are talking about. If you do a search there are a couple of threads that talk about using halogen lamps when detailing, that were pretty recent.

Halogen lamps, especially when you put them close to the paint and at that wattage show everything, which in some cases its good, you can then identify problems areas and work them. On the other hand they can frustrate you, as your once perfect finish does not look perfect under that lighting...but what you have to think about is, are there always going to be halogen lights barring down on the car for the world to see? Hopefully not:D How does it look under normal lighting conditions...like lets say outside?

If it looks good out there, then I am sure its fine...while we all want to be perfectionists, its practically impossible, unless your car doesn't get driven and sits in a show room that has no contaminents in it, and your paint never gets touched...

Now I have not heard of the product you said the auto body place used, but if you liked that then see if they can let you try some...also they probably used a rotary buffer which will allow you to remove more defects from the paints surface...

Just my two cents
 
thanks Stephan, its probably me.:thanks I am too anal :crazy:and when i see the videos on youtube, with the guy teaching you how to use the porta cable 7424 polisher with the polishing compound shinning a halogen light on it after he is done polishing. I though, huh, why am i not getting the same results. I am sure the car looks great outside of the garage. I have not roll it out yet and will once i finish doing the whole car and glaze it with the Menzerna glaze, it should look great. thanks again
 
Yeah bro those lights will drive you bonkers...

After the first wash and lights again. You will be polishing all over again.
 
First, welcome to the forum, and glad to hear you're taking the plunge into doing-it yourself. Keep in mind though that manytimes what the camera sees is far from what our eyes can see. Don't be discouraged if you can't remove them all -- keep practicing & you may get it. It's important to remember that not all of us can paint like Michangeo, play guitar like Jimmy Hendrix, or write a book like Steven King. All of us are born with certain gifts and talents and even with decades of practice some just won't get it.
 
Welcome to the site from Sonoma County CA

Big points for taking on the project yourself!! especially when they are charging you another 300 to buff it out again!

What's that all about?

As stated do not beat yourself up on some of the minor scratches, halogens are brutal in this area...as Dr.Detail said what you can see under those lights has little baring on what you can see under natural light.

If you want to prefect the finish and not take all the paint off...look into pure glazes for the car..they have fillers that can HELP a great deal in filling in the minor scratches that you have left after polishing....and guess what? it can me our little secret here at DC:D
 
Re: Menzerna polish

I have a Black show car and i use a million candle power halogen light to find the places that need more work but I would not recommend being so anal on a daily driver
.
The first time you wash it if you use the light you will be polishing again.

If you want to take it to perfection you Will need to do more polishing.
.
The products you have are fine I would use the final polish with a white pad to get it as good as I could then use FPII with a black pad and spend some time with it and it will look like a mirror.

As already pointed out a more practical approach would be to polish to where it only has very minor swirls and use a good glaze to hide them.
 
thanks for all the encouragements guys.:yourrock i really appreciated. I am going to finish polishing the rest of the car and then use the final touch glaze on it.
I see everyones point about the car being a daily driver also. It would not make sense to me to spend all that time getting everything out and then not wanting to drive the car afterwards. That would not be call enjoyment.
anyway i thought i post a few picture of the car. It is a 1986 Mustang GT i bought new in Oct 86. Can't believe the car is 22 years old.


DSC00101.jpg


DSC01004.jpg
 
If you are just starting out you are using a great product . I started with the Menzerna line and have tried a few others but you I still keep back to Menzerna. You mentioned just starting out so remember polishes take time to heat up and break down so remove the most imperfections make sure you work it long enough and don't use to much product. GOOD LUCK !:bigups
 
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