venomrx7

89rag, do you do all of your waxing/polishing by hand, or do you use a orbit or rotary buffer?



I bought a Porter Cable 7336 random orbit polisher/sander at lowes, and ordered some Lake Country pads for it.



any pointers on using this thing before I dig in?



current plan for detailing my moms van (Mothers day present)



Wash

clay

wash

Buffer using LC orange pad with meguiars light cut cleaner/scratch remover

wash

buffer using LC white pad with 3M swirl remover

wash

buffer using LC red pad and meguiars show car wax



I figure this should get the paint to a shine that it hasn't seen in, well, ever.



I'm hoping for that at least.



the bugs on this van are rediculous. they have been there for years, literally.

89 Rag

[quote name='venomrx7' date='Apr 25 2005, 09:00 PM']89rag, do you do all of your waxing/polishing by hand, or do you use a orbit or rotary buffer?



I bought a Porter Cable 7336 random orbit polisher/sander at lowes, and ordered some Lake Country pads for it.



any pointers on using this thing before I dig in?



current plan for detailing my moms van (Mothers day present)



Wash

clay

wash

Buffer using LC orange pad with meguiars light cut cleaner/scratch remover

wash

buffer using LC white pad with 3M swirl remover

wash

buffer using LC red pad and meguiars show car wax



I figure this should get the paint to a shine that it hasn't seen in, well, ever.



I'm hoping for that at least.



the bugs on this van are rediculous. they have been there for years, literally.


[/quote]



I am and always will be a rotary buffer guy, anything to do with the orbital polishers is greek to me, I will only foam finish pad a car as a last resort followed by at least two applications of polish by hand. As far as a rotary buffer goes, RPM and lubrication are key, a 100% wool pad will still cut a car without any product and 4000 rpm with a bottle of lubricant will still smoke the paint.



I would edit your process a little too. The initial wash and clay bar is one step I call this a "prep". Three seperate buckets of soap w/ mitts, one for the e-bay and wells, one for the body and jambs, and one for the clay bar only, always work from the top down and don't cross-pollinate mitts and wash buckets otherwise you are just moving dirt and rocks from one part of the car to another. After the "prep" has dried mask all the rubber mouldings, plastics and phelt then take a mustard bottle full of light cut cleaner and work it into all the cracks with a toothbrush (emblems, marker lights, antenna base, body lines etc., be meticulous!) after which you can cut, polish, and apply the first coat of wax and not wash the car in-between ( trust me, you are wasting your time by doing it any other way, it isn't that serious) also swirl remover is not polish, if you cut the car properly you can keep the swirls to a minimum and the polishing step with an actual polish (Mark V's IP 200 is one of my favorites) will take care of the rest. Then you are ready to strip the wax and wash the car again, this is the equivilant of the "prep" without the use of the clay bar, again be meticiulous, there will be compound everywhere which needs to be washed away before it really sets up. Once the car is dry you will want to wax the car again and leave the wax in order to "dress" the car completly, (mouldings, wells, jambs, door gaskets, gas door, etc.) after which you can strip the wax, stick and microfiber all the cracks and gear up for the interior, lol.



I would image that the same basic principles apply to the orbital polisher, high rpm is not getting anything done faster, keep the rpm under 2000 when cutting, my guess is the Meguiar's light cut will not be enough, you might need to step up to a more coarse cutting product, buy an actual polish and keep the rpm around 1000, and buy a great wax, I prefer beauty shine 502, but there are many great finishing products out there

venomrx7

ok, thanks. I'll 'try' remember all of that. I'll come back to this post when it comes time to do the detail.



I'll also do before and after pics.



and I would be a rotary buffer guy, but I'm a begginner and I don't want to burn the paint by screwing up. orbitals are apparently idiot resistant (not proof) so it will hopefully work a little better for me.



Here's the products I plan on using (some of them anyway)



Clay

http://www.autogeek.net/motcalgolcla.html



Meguiars fine cut

http://www.meguiars.com/store_meguiars/pro...=M-02&store=meg



3M cleaner wax

http://www.digitalriver.com/dr/v2/Ec_Main....RP=0&CACHE_ID=0



Pads

http://www.properautocare.com/hipadkitwive.html



another pad

http://www.properautocare.com/coprorpopa.html

(I have the 6" constant pressure)



polish

http://www.meguiars.com/store_meguiars/pro...=A-21&store=meg



wax

http://www.autogeek.net/meg26hityelw.html

Rob x-7

[quote name='89 Rag' date='Apr 25 2005, 11:13 PM']

I use dyna-might, but it is caustic to a certain extent, but it is what I am used to.


[/quote]



Auto Magic Engine Wash is safe for all surfaces, is bio-degradeable as well, it wont harm anything and works great. What you are washing off on the other hand technically should be contained, but no one does.



Venom- you should try to hook up with a local detail supply, get your supplies locally, when new products come out they always give samples and advice.

banzaitoyota

I like BLACKFIRE

venomrx7

[quote name='Rob x-7' date='Apr 26 2005, 02:43 AM']Auto Magic Engine Wash is safe for all surfaces, is bio-degradeable as well, it wont harm anything and works great. What you are washing off on the other hand technically should be contained, but no one does.



Venom- you should try to hook up with a local detail supply, get your supplies locally, when new products come out they always give samples and advice.


[/quote]





i'm hooked up with the only local detailer for about 15 miles. She isn't big enough for the product companies to send her stuff, but she's been doing it for 20 years, and is teaching me a lot.



I do want to make friends with a bigger detailer on the coast just so I can buy products through them, and get different tips and pointers.



I'm seriously considering doing this in college for some extra cash.

89 Rag

The deep crystal polish isn't bad, but a little goes a very long way, it's really oily in the way of polishes, you will see what I mean when you use it, lol.



The liquid wax is ok for a quick touch-up wax job but I would use a more paste like 100% carnauba after you polish, and dampen the terrycloth applicator pad with a little water before applying it to the car keeping a good 1/4" away from all the body lines and such, use a little wax on your finger to get closer to the edges of panels, emblems etc. Waxing across panel to panel and across mouldings and such only makes more work for yourself.

Shane.Trammell

venom be careful when you clay bar the car. i swirled paint doing that. i guess i didnt use enough lube, and it was cold when i did it so the clay was a little hard at times. keep the clay soft and kneaded and lubed and you should be fine

Rob x-7

You can clay a car in about 10 minutes and have it come out great.

The lube is a waste of money, use soapy water.

venomrx7

[quote name='Rob x-7' date='Apr 26 2005, 12:45 PM']You can clay a car in about 10 minutes and have it come out great.

The lube is a waste of money, use soapy water.


[/quote]



I use a quick detailer spray for lube... it came with the clay, and works great.