Machine Polishing. Experimented on new-to-me 08

[finagle69]

I picked up a CPO'd '08 4.8i sport a few weeks ago, black on black. I had no delusions of the previous owner being a detailing nut like myself, so I just steeled myself for the inevitability of having to spend the better part of 2 days to get the paint back to a near showroom finish, especially on Jet Black paint.

I use a Flex polisher with Lake County pads. My first attempt was with Menzerna P0106ff (light to medium cut) on a white pad (medium cut). This took away only about 50% of the swirls. Figuring I needed to step it up, I used some leftover 3M Perfect It II Rubbing Compound (medium to heavy cut) with a wool pad (heavy cut). This had great results in removing all the swirls and minimized some of the scratches, but this leaves a haze from the high cut. I followed that up with the Menzerna on the white pad, which got it looking like a black, wet mirror.

This took some time, so the whole car will take LOTS of time.

Here are some crappy iPhone 4 pics. When I do the actual detail, I'll break out the DSLR for better snaps.

Befores:





Afters:

[BGM]

Man they murdered that paint. From a long time Jet Black fan/owner of 10 years it looks awesome when cared for correctly.

[Denalio]

Which flex are you using, orbital or rotary? With high cut polishing you almost always need to finesse with a finer cut afterwards. Now to keep it swirl free!! hand wash with the two bucket method. What are you going to use for your LSP? Before you apply your LSP spray down with a mix of Isopropyl alcohol and distilled water to remove any residue.

[finagle69]

I'm using the orbital flex, so cutting power is inherently less than a true rotary. My finer cut is the P0106ff from Menzerna, which is awesome at that. I use Blackfire Wet Diamon Sealant, and have used Poorboys White Diamond glaze on my Ivory Pearl G37 with great results. I'll probably pick up a bottle of their Black Hole glaze for darker colored cars. Either that or some Danase Wet Glaze if I can find some. I heard they have closed up shop or something.

[Denalio]

I use mostly Menzerna myself and Lake Country pads. The Blue twisted wool pad works good on major correction work. I use Zaino to seal then top with CG Pete's 53 or Victoria Concourse Red. I have a Saphire Black Metallic. PO106ff is that the Nano Polish, the new one is PO106fa I believe?

[finagle69]

I'm not really sure. I think they either discontinued the ff or renamed it. I love it though. I just found a site selling Danase Wet Glaze 2.0. Reviews show that it really does nicely for dark colors. Ordered it up along with the heavy cut 3M Perfect It II. Now to just find some time to do it all.

I've got a new set of Leatherique sitting on the shelf as well. The weather needs to warm up a little before I do that, though.

[BGM]

FYI---I recently read reviews on Poorboys Black Hole Glaze for dark cars and decided to buy it---was really impressed with it.

[finagle69]

Just updating this thread. I've since spent 3 solid days working on the car.

Claying took a very long time. I used one clay bar on the roof alone.. it felt like sandpaper. There's definite clearcoat damage throughout all horizontal surfaces on the car, mainly the roof and hood. These will be not correctable via paint correction methods. I'll live with that. My main goal was to get the paint as good as possible for the age of the car, and for not knowing what the previous owner did (if anything at all).

These are resampled hi-res shots at 100 ISO with my XSi along with 100% crops.

First up is what the car looked like after the initial wash. This is pretty much what the entire car looked like, but even worse on certain areas.





You can imagine the time it takes to correct this. Refer to the before pic in post one for an even worse shot directly on top of the hood.

Here is after the heavy cutting. Major scratches and swirls are removed, but there is a haze on the whole car. If you look very closely, you can see the micro swirls created by the compounding with the wool pad.





Now the near finished product (as I'm still not completely finished - need to seal then treat the rest of the car). What you're seeing here is after an application of glaze. I used Wet Glaze 2.0. After what it's done, I love the stuff. It's better for darker cars than lighter, similar to PB Black Hole (which is also very good).

[Denalio]

You may want to try Menzerna Power Gloss with Orange pad, then finish down with Intensive Polish or Power Finish. You may want to put a glaze on when done to "fill" some marks that can't be removed, then seal and top with carnuba. Those marks look like either auto car wash brush marks or brush marks from the coin op wash bays, they are notoriously nasty and full of grit.

[finagle69]

Did you read?

I used Wet Glaze 2.0

I tried different combos, but the one that worked was wool pad and 3M Perfect It II heavy cutting compound. I have some SSR3 and SSR2 from PB that did nothing.

The combo I used is what worked for me.