Polishing by hand

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05Sleeper

New member
I am going to detail my friends 01 Blue Acura RSX which has oxidation and swirl marks. I am doing this as a favor to her, but I would like to know what the best polish would be, considering I am doing this all by hand. I was contemplating using the Blackfire Polish, and sealent, but I am also a HUGE fan of AIO, but I am not sure how well that will fair against the swirls.



I am open for suggestions as to what I should use. I am contemplating the following products:



AIO

FMJ

Blackfire Polish

Blackfire Sealent

4* UPP

WG Polish

WG Sealent

NXT
 
i couldn't imagine that. i know scottwax can use DACP by hand and make a car look very good, but i tried his technique and it didn't work for me. i'd recommend just buying a PC. if you really don't want to spend the $150 on it and the pads and accessories, then don't even try to do the job by hand with the intention of taking out the swirls.
 
05Sleeper said:
I am going to detail my friends 01 Blue Acura RSX which has oxidation and swirl marks. I am doing this as a favor to her, but I would like to know what the best polish would be, considering I am doing this all by hand. I was contemplating using the Blackfire Polish, and sealent, but I am also a HUGE fan of AIO...
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I'd plan on using something stronger even given the reputation of Honda/Acura paints for being soft. AIO never removed and swirls for me and the BF polish is similarly mild- no matter what their ad copy says, it never removed/hid anything for me. I'd think of those products as mild paint cleaners only.



Of the stuff you listed, I'm familiar with the AIO/BF/UPP. The BF would probably look a little better than the UPP (at least until the first wash) but I find UPP to be much more user-friendly. I only use AIO before KSG so I dunno if I'd use it at all in this case. Trouble with all these products (except probably the NXT) is that they can make marring jump out at you rather than hide it.



When I did cars like this for family/friends, I used a polish that both removes and hides (e.g., Meg's #80) and then Collinite wax for the LSP. This will make it look good and give beading that will really impress people (and last a long time too). I only use the sealant route for my good vehicles, which I keep basically marring-free. IMO the #80/Collinite route is about as good as it gets for this kind of job unless you want to *really* put a lot of effort into it.



No polish with abrasives is exactly *fun* to use by hand, but the #80 isn't bad at all. But one of these days you oughta spring for the PC. I assure you that you will not regret buying one ;)
 
I did my Honda a couple months back with Optimum Polish by hand. Won't do it again since I now have a PC, but it worked great. Very slow process...
 
The only polish I tried by hand was SSR2.5 on a test panel and that just made it worse, IMO its because it is made to be used only with a machine and not ever by hand. So I dont think any polish that is made to be used by a machine would be any good by hand. You might try ScratchX, that works good by hand for scratches so I would imagine it would work good for the whole car. Otherwise I would try a glaze (before wax) to just hide the swirls.
 
tuffluck said:
i couldn't imagine that. i know scottwax can use DACP by hand and make a car look very good, but i tried his technique and it didn't work for me. i'd recommend just buying a PC. if you really don't want to spend the $150 on it and the pads and accessories, then don't even try to do the job by hand with the intention of taking out the swirls.
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I totally disagree; if you use the right products and put some effort into it, you can get equal (or close) results by hand.



I use a PC, and also polish by hand; my favorite polish by hand is 1Z Paint Polish. With it or other similar polishes, use a cotton terry pad or folded towel, not foam or MF.



If you cannot get (at least) swirls out with something like PP by hand, you're doing something wrong IMO.
 
05Sleeper said:
Could I just do a simple AIO + NXT on this and get good results?
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Guess that depends on your definition of "good results". Hope that didn't sound smart-alecky, I didn't mean it that way. Plenty of people just don't see marring and for them it might be just fine (you know her and I don't). Guess I just always use some kind of abrasive when I do people's cars to at least knock down the marring a little bit.



The big thing I wanted to get across was that stuff like the BF polish won't really do anything for marring. The ad copy sorta makes it sound like a miracle worker and in my experience it just doesn't do much of anything except clean. So the AIO would be at least as good IMO.



I do think I'd put something longer lasting/better beading on instead of, or on top of, the NXT.



I sorta like Percynjpn's idea about the 1Z PP, don't know how I forgot about that what with it sitting here on the shelf :o I use it with foam/MF instead of terry though, so you can see that there are options and you can go with your personal preference.



Maybe something like 1Z PP/#80 topped with Collinite 845 IW. I can't get away from the idea that if you're gonna do cars for other people you oughta have some Collinite on hand.
 
You have #7 don't you? I say just clean the oxidation off with AIO and then do #7 and NXT to hide the swirls. Then order a PC. :)
 
IDK I've had nice results with that combo, particularly when I'm trying to hide scratches. I was able to hide a scratch on a silver Sable that was caused by driving a little too close to a branch that was on the side of the road. :rolleyes:
 
05Sleeper said:
wouldn't the NXT strip the #7 off the car?
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Supposedly not. According to Meg's the cleaners in NXT aren't strong enough to remove the #7. They make a big deal out of how compatible all their products are so I guess I'd take their word for it.



I'd worry more about the #7 working on top of AIO. I'd expect the stuff AIO leaves behind to make the #7 just float on top of it. That's just a guess though, so if White95Max says that AIO and #7 work OK together then that would be good enough for me. Just keep your eyes open in case there *is* some kind of problem (so you don't do the whole car before you notice).



Note that in both these cases it's a matter of trusting people to give you good advice, advice that might seem counterintuitive. I'm always sorta cautious about situations like this since things that work great for one person sometimes don't work so well for somebody else. But both these sources are credible IMO.
 
Accumulator said:
That's just a guess though, so if White95Max says that AIO and #7 work OK together then that would be good enough for me.
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Whoa! I have't used AIO+#7+NXT. I've used #7 and NXT together, which worked well for me.
 
05Sleeper said:
I bought some #9 to use as a "hand" polish.
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So did I. Here was my process...



1. Apply #9 to 1/3 of trunk.

2. Polish and polish for ~10 minutes.

3. See no results.

4. Apply again.

5. Work polish, then wipe off.

6. Go inside.

7. Order PC.

8. Watch #9 slowly migrate to the back of the shelf.
 
White95Max said:
Whoa! I have't used AIO+#7+NXT. I've [only] used #7 and NXT together, which worked well for me...[Re #9] Here was my process... Apply #9. Polish and polish ... See no results..
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OK, sorry, I misunderstood about the AIO/#7 thing. Guess we still don't know if #7 works OK on top of AIO :confused:



You're not alone on the #9 experience. It's OK on *very* soft paint (old school black lacquer) with very minimal marring, and it'd probably work OK with a rotary, but IMO most people are not gonna get what they're looking for with that product. It's just too mild for most paints. I don't even use it on the Jag's soft lacquer. Mine is in the "unused products" box in the back of the storage closet.
 
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