Old poster back with many questions I need your help!

C

corvetteman

New member
I havent been around in a couple of years. I just bought a used Black Benz whose paint is not bad but it has plenty of swirl marks and hair line scratchs . I'm going to have use of a porter cable buffer this week with all the pads. I was planning on applying the following materials in order. Please tell me if I have the order correct. Also if you could which polishing heads would be best for which product.

1) 3m swirl mark remover for dark cars

2) 3m hand glaze

3) klasse all in one

4) klasse sealant glaze

5) mothers yellow wax 326



Which products should I apply or take off by hand?

2) What heads work best with each product?

3) Is my order of products correct?



Thanks in advance. Its great to be back among you guys!
 
Skip the Hand glaze. AIO will remove it.

I'd skip the mothers or carnuba wax (which one is it).. I'd only top with No. 26 or NXT if you not willing to go with other manufacturers (S100/Pinnacle etc.)



3M with the PC

AIO with a PC/Hand

SG - by hand.



Note: You should definitely clay first (Mother's make's a decent inexpensive clay)..



You may find the 3M SMR doesn't cut it enough. You'll probably need something with a bit more bite. DACP is a good choice as it breaks down very quickly.



Personally, considering the finished you noted above; I'd go:



Clay

DACP / Cutting Pad ( 1 - 2 passes: as required)

SFP (SMR) / Polishing Pad

AIO (Polishing Pad)

SG (By Hand)



- There's some recent posts about a new way to apply SG offer up by a member (sorry, can't remember his name and I'll surely kick myself in a minute by I'm too tired at work). Search around.



Rather than putting a coat of wax. I'd spend some time cleaning the wheels, engine, door jams, interior, trunk, glass etc.
 
What color is the polishing pad and what color is the cutting pad? I think I will stick with the 3m swirl mark remover for black cars because Ive been spending money left and right. I will skip the 3m glaze thanks for the advice!

I will clay the whole car first!
 
I hate to tell you this, but if you have swirls, you are going to need something more aggressive than 3M SMR. It really just hides swirls with fillers that AIO will remove. I would suggest 3M PI-III MG or Megs. DACP for swirls with a yellow cutting pad, then AIO with white pad, SG. Hope that helps.
 
spree17- Yeah, what Greg and Paco said. I sympathize with your desire to save money, but you really oughta use the right stuff. With mild products like the SMR (which, BTW, has a bunch of fillers that the AIO will clean off, as Greg said) you're gonna end up wasting a LOT of time and it can get frustrating to work long and hard with little to show for it. Get the DACP and/or AT LEAST the PI-III MG (pn 05937), you'll truly be glad you did. You can use the MG with both a yellow (or Meg's maroon) cutting pad for the worst swirls/first passes, then follow up with a white (Meg's beige? I forget..) polishing pad for the final passes.



Generally, anything you can do by hand you can do with a PC. I even apply/remove PASTE waxes with mine (and SG, too).
 
Thanks accumulater and others. I will have to look up the new ackronyms and see if I can get those products locally.

I have always been told that there are some things you cant get done by hand that a pc will get done.
 
Spree- The 3M Perfect-It III Machine Glaze (pn 05937) should be available at autobody/paint supply places. Check the yellow pages. They might have the Meguiar's #83 (Dual Action Cleaner Polish) too (an alternative is 3M's Perfect-It III Rubbing Compound, pn 05933- don't let the name scare you, it's pretty mild), and could also be a good source for pads.



Yeah, the main reason the PC can do more than our hands is that it doesn't get fatigued or careless ;) The machine that can REALLY do stuff that you just CANNOT do by hand is the rotary!
 
Is the DACP for removing swirl marks? The name sounds mild. I'd probably be more inclined to go with the DACP if I can find it locally.
 
Spree,



Also, be careful about asking about pad colour to determine what cutting power they have. Each manufacture can end up having a different colour scheme.



DACP is a more aggressive than 3M SMR which is really just a filler and doesn't address swirl marks. However, DACP breaksdown quickly (unlike 3M's Finesse It II). I've found for decent swirls, you may even need some Compound Power Cleaner with a PC followed up by DACP / SFP to really get a nice finish.



I'm still pretty timid about using a Rotary unless it's a really old car. I've burned through and left buffer marks in the past on my beater. Not enough practice before it was totalled.
 
Ive been told this porter cable I will be using is almost fool proof as long as you dont leave it sitting in one place.

I have all wax and glaze removed from my car but I got several water marks depsit drying it just now. What do you guys use to dry the car. Water marks come fast on black cars. Also do you know if they sell dacp in stores like autozone, napa or pep boys?
 
Do a search on Megs. website for your local professional dealer under the dealer locator. Then call them and ask if they stock it, if they do, great, if they don't, they can order it and it should probably be there the same day. It is going to be available at a place like an auto paint shop since it is part of the Body Shop Pro line.
 
Looking in my supply bin I see I have 3m perfect-it foam polishing pad glaze Swirl Mark remover. It says for hand or machine use.



Part no. 051131. Is this useless for using with a porter cable?

I also have Klasse aio and klasse sg.
 
spree17- Well, few things are USELESS for PC use ;) but sorry, that particular part # doesn't ring a bell with me...a quick search at my usual 3M supplier's site didn't turn it up either.



And yes, the PC is pretty much fool-proof.



I dry with a Waffle Weave MF, blowing the water out of crevices with (double filtered) compressed air.



Some of us find DACP tougher to break down than other people do. It's generally not found in the stores you mentioned.
 
Maybe the 3m perfect it is the other number on the bottle. 39009.

Thanks for all the insite. I might try this first and if it doesnt work well then go look for the other 3m product. I think they sell the other 3m product at pep boys in small containers for machine guys near the body work supplies.
 
spree17- Heh heh, you're testing my memory :o but I THINK the 39009 (yeah, THAT is the pn) is one of the SMR's that we've been criticizing. If you don't like how it works, you know what to get next ;)
 
thanks accumulater. ill try it first with the pc and go from there. I would hate to just dump it. It cost me around $10 and seemed to work pretty well on my other black car. Its so frustrating waiting till tuesday to use the porter cable, lol but when I'm done my 10 year old paint will look near new. The body is awesome. Not 1 single tiny ding!
 
Hey Spree,



Don't worry too much about the porter cable sitting in one spot. There's very little heat generated from the PC that you can leave it one spot for a period of time and it would harm anything (within reason of course). If you left for 5 - 10 seconds, the paint would hardly get heated.



It's pretty dumby proof to do harm but does take time to master using it well.



The key thing is to minimize the time spent on areas where paint tends to be thinnest i.e. angle on panels etc. If I doing a careful detail, I go at those areas first by hand and then by the PC.



Paco
 
I find it strange though, did you check the pad carefully to see if you picked up some debris that was very very small that end up marring the surface?



It wasn't a wool pad was it. A wool pad on a PC could leave hairline scratches that you need to get out with a cutting pad and a SMR.
 
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