UNO, POLISH, SPEED, do they work?

T

Thomas Dekany

New member
I did a detail for the customer a couple of weeks ago (Cadillac XLR). Last week I went back to work on this older truck with only 56*** miles on it.



I was asked to clean it up for his son. How do you "clean up" a car that is over 20 years old? I only know one way to improve black paint unfortunately. So that is what I did.



Having fresh bottles of each product I started on a small section to test what pads I'd need to level the paint, which was thick enough. Interestingly the front fenders and hood were repainted at some point, even though the client had no clue. The original paint is flat black but the repaint seemed to have flakes in it and the hood is in pretty poor state and should be resprayed in my opinion. The one good thing about the paint was it's hardness. I really enjoyed working on it since I didn't have to stress whether I will mar the paint or not. It corrected pretty easy and I could wipe off the polish residue with no issues at all.



Anyway, I used UNO and a black wool pads on the Griots PC to level. This combo worked very well.



Next step was an Orange/yellow pad on the Flex 3401 and POLISH. This step cleaned up the paint perfectly, it was ready to be protected. However, I just had to do an additional step to get the best out of this color. I have to tell you, this black was one of the blackest paints I've ever worked on. Even with all the Orange Peel, the paint looked phenomenal.



Out came SPEED and a black pad on the Griots PC (my favorite pad with speed to finish with). Unless you try SPEED you really don't understand my enthusiasm about the finish it leaves behind.



I protected the finish with POXY. As far as I know, this car is very rarely driven, so it should stay looking great for a long time.



Here are some random pictures I took throughout the detail.



General condition of the paint - this is the hood





P1070397 by thomasdekany, on Flickr





Improved after 3 steps





P1070451 by thomasdekany, on Flickr

Left front fender was the worst panel. For some reason it had more water spots that the rest of the truck





P1070414 by thomasdekany, on Flickr





P1070415 by thomasdekany, on Flickr



Cleaned up the front fender





P1070438 by thomasdekany, on Flickr





P1070439 by thomasdekany, on Flickr





P1070440 by thomasdekany, on Flickr



RIDS, SWIRLS, you name it





P1070416 by thomasdekany, on Flickr





P1070416 by thomasdekany, on Flickr





P1070417 by thomasdekany, on Flickr



Much improved





P1070419 by thomasdekany, on Flickr





P1070421 by thomasdekany, on Flickr



Some random shots





P1070429 by thomasdekany, on Flickr





P1070399 by thomasdekany, on Flickr





P1070401 by thomasdekany, on Flickr





P1070411 by thomasdekany, on Flickr





P1070437 by thomasdekany, on Flickr



All done





P1070462 by thomasdekany, on Flickr





P1070461 by thomasdekany, on Flickr





P1070460 by thomasdekany, on Flickr





P1070459 by thomasdekany, on Flickr





P1070456 by thomasdekany, on Flickr





P1070458 by thomasdekany, on Flickr





P1070455 by thomasdekany, on Flickr





P1070453 by thomasdekany, on Flickr
 
OK thanks. I'm working on a car with all 3D products now, it's taking me more than two passes to get most of the defects off, just can't get all of them (using Makita 9227 and GG6).



edit: I'm amazed how mar free the UNO/wool works for you. I simply cannot get anywhere close to a mar free finish with just using UNO.
 
Nice job Thomas, that puppy's looking dang near flawless!!!



Just to let you know, I'm in love with SPEED! I'm working on cleaning up the roof of one of our ambulances (which hasn't been touched by polish/wax since being built 10 years ago). Let me just tell you that besides the RIDS associated with being a big ole ambulance, it looks brand spanking new. Taking plenty of pics and hopefully I'll have the first part of my write up posted tonight......as long as folks don't call for us at least!!
 
thomasdekany said:
What exactly are you using? Pads/speeds etc..? Car, color, year?
Click to expand...



It's a 1962 Tbird Roadster, LC orange pad on Makita at 1500 rpm, LC orange pad on GG6 and speed 5-6. Car is red and not in very good condition. Parts are single stage, other parts are clear coat. Oddly enough, the finish after just UNO is better using the DA.
 
If you have a wool pad that is not too big, for the GG6, that may make things easier for you. As far as the rotary, I'd always go with wool and much higher speeds. 1500rpm is for polishing.

:)





RZJZA80 said:
It's a 1962 Tbird Roadster, LC orange pad on Makita at 1500 rpm, LC orange pad on GG6 and speed 5-6. Car is red and not in very good condition. Parts are single stage, other parts are clear coat. Oddly enough, the finish after just UNO is better using the DA.
Click to expand...
 
thomasdekany said:
If you have a wool pad that is not too big, for the GG6, that may make things easier for you. As far as the rotary, I'd always go with wool and much higher speeds. 1500rpm is for polishing.

:)
Click to expand...



yeah i went with 1500 because that's what I've always used in the past with 105, and it keeps the heat down a little. I'll try a higher speed tonight and see where that gets me (hopefully not to the metal).
 
Very nice work on an old beater! I love to see the "elite" in the business work on something other than an exotic once in a while!
 
Tell me about it. I arrived to do a 1 day detail on the white Lexus. Ended up with a black truck and worked nearly 2 days.



Thanks Garry



Garry Dean said:
Very nice work on an old beater! I love to see the "elite" in the business work on something other than an exotic once in a while!
Click to expand...
 
Thomas - what is your method when using Speed? Arm speed, etc? Since it's called speed, I use it rather quickly, somewhat like Klasse, to more spread it out and work it in that like I would do a compound, what about you?
 
If you are just polishing with it I can go faster, but because it has protection in it, I still like to work it in pretty well. If I try to correct with it, I tend to go really slow, but the paint looks great behind it.



The only time I go "fast" is when applying wax. Does that make sense?



Reread your post - I do the same.
 
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