Here's my Bible :
- Pre-wash. Buying a foam lance and some snow foam to be used with a pressure washer is a common way of pre-washing. This step reduces the amount of grit / dirt that you encounter during the wash stage. A good tar remover is also very beneficial.
- Wash. Use the the bucket method. Lots of different views on this regarding grit guards etc . . . but basically you have a bucket with your wash solution in (wash bucket) and a bucket filled with clean water only (rinse bucket). Also a wash mitt is preferable to a sponge. So you dunk your mitt in the wash bucket, wash a panel until you need more wash solution, then you dunk the mitt in the rinse bucket, agitate it / squeeze it etc . . . and then dunk in the wash bucket, and repeat.
- Drying. Try to use a nice plush drying towel instead of a chamois.
- Claying. A very important step. Not only will it remove any old wax build up, it will also remove contaminants that have embedded in your clearcoat (tree sap, industrial fall-out, iron filings etc . . .). You will need a clay lubricant and a clay bar (I will list some recommended products below). spray the panel and also the clay until both are nice and lubed. Gently rub the clay back and forth across the surface. It will grab at first which means it's working. Once it begins to glide over the surface you're done on that area and can move on. Lubrication is the key. Also keep folding the caly in on itself. After claying it is advisable to wash and dry the car again.
- Polishing / Paintwork Correction. Lots and lots of pointers / tips and tricks here:-
PREPARATION & TAPING
Before starting to machine polish your carâs paint finish, ensure that it is fully washed and dried. Ideally, the car should also be clayed before machine polishing to remove bonded contaminants from the finish which could otherwise embed in the pad and reduce the quality of the machine finish. Refer to other guides for information on washing and claying the car.
When ready, try to get the vehicle indoors out of direct sunlight and away from the potential of being soaked by the Great British weather! Controlled conditions help when machine polishing to ensure consistency in the polish performance.
It is a good idea to tape up textured plastic trim on the car before polishing â areas such as bumpers, vents, door rubbers that protrude outwards. This can be done using painterâs masking tape. You should use a low-tack masking tape which will remain in place even if a machine pad hits it, but yet is easy to remove when you are finished. An example of a suitable tape is 3M 3434 blue tape.
When deciding which areas to tape up: you are looking to protect textured plastics from having polish residue driven into them so these should all be taped; you are looking to prevent the pad coming into contact with regions trapping dirt so the pad doesnât drag the dirt onto the paint so these areas should be taped. When taping, ensure the area you are taping is dry â particularly important around water traps such as underneath wing mirrors.
Protruding edges of the indicator repeater taped up as these could catch the pad causing it to jump and also be harbouring unseen dirt that could embed in the foam and be dragged across the paint. Along the styling line on the doors has been taped up â again we have a protruding edge here but also regions of textured plastic trim which we would want to avoid staining with polish residue. The door handles on this car are black textured plastic so have been taped to avoid staining.
SETTING UP THE MACHINE
First of all, decide which size of pads you want to use. This will determine the backing plate that you will fit to the machine. For general polishing duties on most of the large area panels (bonnet, roof, doors, wings), a 5â or 6â pad would be the choice. For smaller panels (bumpers, bootlids with badges, pillars) or the working of more aggressive compounds, a 4â pad would be the choice.
ASSESSING THE PAINTWORK
With the machine ready to use, it is now time to assess the paintwork that you will be working on. This will allow you to begin to choose which polishes and pads you will be using to achieve the desired results on the paintwork.
PAINT CONDITION
The aim of machine polishing is to correct paint defects such as swirl marks, etching, random deep scratches (rds), oxidisation, hologramming. It is impossible to judge the severity of the paint defects by the eye to an extent where you can work out exactly what combination of pad and polish that you require. However, you can start to get an idea which will begin to help you narrow down the ideal combo for the car.
LIGHT IT UP!
Defects such as swirl marks also show themselves in direct sunlight. Or underneath the halogen lights in a petrol station. It is not always possible to rely on sunny weather to assess paint condition though, especially in the UK! It is also very bad for you eyes to stare at sunlight reflecting directly off of a paint finish! Please be careful! A very useful tool to have in your detailing armoury is a suitable light source that you can use to highlight the swirls on the paintwork. A Xenon torch is ideal.
In order to use the torch to its maximum effect, hold it far away from the paintwork rather than close up as this will highlight more of the swirls that are present. Additionally, tilt the to a slight angle which can help pick up lighter marring than may be missed from the direct beam. Very light machine holograms can be found by sweeping the torch from side to side and looking for a âwaveâ effect across the paintwork which is indicative of a light hologram.
Not all paintwork marring is best seen using bright light however. Random deep scratches are best viewed under a general garage strip light â the lower contrast of the dimmer light highlighting the softer and deeper scratches more clearly. A bright light would highlight all the swirls, masking the more spread out deeper marks.
CHOOSING A PAD & POLISH COMBINATION
Having assessed the paintwork condition and, if possible, found the thickness of the paintwork that you have to âplay withâ, it is now time to choose an appropriate polish and pad combination to achieve the desired correction and finish.
There is much written about the relative hardness and softness of paints on various cars. Mention BMW and you may well think rock solid paint that will need an aggressive polish. Think Honda and you may well think butter soft paint that will be a cinch to remove marks from. Alas there are a lot more factors to consider and at the end of the day, every car is different, even if it is from the same manufacturer or even the same model! It is also not possible to tell how deep general swirls are just by looking at them with the naked eye â they may be deeper or less severe than they appear.
For this reason, it is always good practice when machine polishing to choose a test section on the car and trial various combinations until you find the one that gives you the desired correction and finish. What we are aiming for is to get the desired correction by removing the least amount of paint possible (without using fillers, unless the paint is already very thin). In order to achieve this, always start by testing the least abrasive combination of pad and polish you have and work up until you get the desired correction â this ensures you donât use an aggressive combo unnecessarily, which would remove more paint than is required.
Depending on the paint you are polishing, the use of a more aggressive polish may leave marring of its own. Softer paints are more prone to this problem. In this case, you will need to follow your aggressive correction combo with a finishing combo to remove light machine marring and refine the finish to a deep gloss and high clarity. Always experiment with a finishing combo to see if you can enhance the overall result.
HOLDING THE POLISHER
One of the most important things when machine polishing is to get comfortable! If you are tense or stretching awkwardly, you will find the machine polishing experience an uncomfortable one. Always ensure before you switch the machine on that you can easily reach all areas that you are planning to tackle, and that the pad is of suitable size.
You typically hold a machine polisher with two hands. However some users will prefer to use the tool one handed. Finding the best way to comfortably hold your machine will take time and there is no right or wrong way providing a few basics are observed: you want to be able to comfortably move the machine around the paintwork; ideally you want to be able to control the amount of downwards pressure over the polishing pad. Typically, you would hold the machine at the back with your writing hand and over the head with your other hand
Another important point is to relax! Dual action polishers vibrate, if you are holding on to a machine tensely then the vibrations will cause you pain quite quickly. Additionally if your driving arm (arm at the back of the machine) is tense, you will be less able to easily follow the contours of the paintwork. It is necessary when machine polishing to keep the pad flat at all times â this will be much easier if your driving arm is relaxed as you will find yourself better able to follow the contours and shapes of the body panels you are polishing.
DRIVING THE POLISHER
A dual action polisher will require to be driven across the paintwork when switched on â it has little to no inclination to move itself. This makes it an easier machine to control when first starting out in machine polishing. Driving of the polisher is generally down with the back arm (your writing arm), while the arm over the head of the polisher is simply controlling the downwards pressure onto the pad.
It doesnât matter what pattern you move the machine polisher across the paint area in. Side to side, up and down, figures of eight, combination of all of them⦠So long as you cover the area evenly!
When using abrasive polishes, the machine should be moved at slow speed across the panel â approximately 1â â 2â per second. This allows the abrasives to be worked as discussed above to get the best cut and best finish. When using cleansers and glazes, the machine can be moved faster (using slower speeds) â around 3 â 5â per second.
Different products require a different amount of pressure when being worked. Many abrasive polishes work with between 10 â 15lbs of pressure. To get an idea of how this feels, push down the machine on a pair of scales. As a rough guide, when in use, you will hear the tone of the machineâs motor change slightly under this amount of pressure. To vary the amount of pressure, push down over the head of the machine using your arm. It is important to experiment using different pressures with the products you are using to see what delivers the best results on the paintwork that you are working on as while some products need pressure to get the best from them, others work best with only light pressure or none at all.
When using the polisher, ensure that the pad is not only vibrating but also turning in circles as well. This is best assessed by drawing a thick black line on your backing plate â you should see this line rotate at about 1 â 2 times per second. If the pad rotates faster than this it is not a problem, especially at high speeds. If the pad is not rotating then this means you are using too much pressure on the pad. Reduce the pressure until the pad begins to spin. Pay particular attention to this when working near edges and contours as these can be pressure points which will cause the pad to stop spinning. Additionally, pressure points can increase the risk of paint damage if too much pressure is used.
It is very important to start and stop the machine polisher when the pad is in contact with the paintwork. If the machine runs with the pad in mid air there is a large risk of the pad (and any product on the pad) flying off the machine at high speed!
WORKING AN ABRASIVE POLISH (DIMINSHING ABRASIVES)
As discussed above, the abrasives in many machine polishes on the market are diminishing abrasives. This means that they need to be worked through their stages of cutting from high to finishing. Here we look at how this would be done in practice. This is just a generic technique and guide to working such polishes â each polish will have its own characteristics and only through experimenting will you be able to find the best possible working methods that suit your technique.
Key to getting the best out of the abrasives in a polish, both in terms of cut and in terms of finish, is to work on a small area at a time â of around 12â â 18âsquare. Once the pad is initially primed with polish (a 3 â 4â line is enough for this), only a couple of skittle sized beads of polish are typically required.
With the machine switched off, spread your polish around the area you plan to work. You can either dab the pad on the paint, or drag it across the paint. The switch the machine on a slow speed (2) and spread the polish with one or two fast passes across the area as shown in the picture below. You can see that the residue of the polish is white and cloudy looking.
Once the polish is spread, step the machine up to a higher speed (4-5). Now increase the amount of pressure over the head of the machine as appropriate, ensuring that the pad is still rotating.
Move the polisher across the area at a slow speed of about 1â â 2â per second. Make three or four passes at this speed to begin working the polish. With certain polishes, for example Meguiars #83 Dual Action Cleaner Polish, keep the machine at this speed for the duration of the polishing set until the abrasives have fully broken down. The picture below shows the polish beginning to be worked.
For many other polishers, step the machine up to a high speed (5 - 6), maintaining the pressure from above. Continue to ensure the pad is rotating. Donât be tempted to speed up the movement of the machine (youâd be surprised how easy this is!) â keep it to 1â â 2â per second. Keep going until the polish residue goes clear. The residue will look like thick water has been spread across the paint and the white cloudiness will have vanished.
When the polish is at this stage the abrasives have fully broken down as described above, allowing you to get the best from the available cut and also the best finish the abrasives have to offer. The finish will be free from micromarring as discussed above (unless an aggressive compound has been used on softer paint).
So In Summary:
1. Make sure you mask up all black trim and glass before, residue marks are a pain to get off.
2. Start off with the least aggressive combo you have, i.e Menz Final Finish on a finishing pad. Only step up the scale if correction hasn't been achieved.
3. You only need 4 pea sized amounts of compound per are worked on.
4. You should only work on a small area at a time, mask the door up into 1/4's, that's about the right area.
5. Start off with your polisher at the lowest speed. Dab the polish on and then do 3 - 4 passes at speed just to spread the compound.
6. You then do 3 - 4 passes at speed 2/3, 3-4 passes at speed 3/4, 3-4 passes at speed 4/4, then you do the same but in reverse, coming back down the speed settings.
7. If your compound gets a bit dry give the pad a spritz of quick detailer.
8. I normaly change my pads every 4 panels.
9. Never use the same pad for different compounds.
10. Move the polisher at no more than 1-2 inches a second.
11. Draw a black line on your backing plate. This means you can see that it is still rotating, as sometimes when you apply pressure it stops oscillating.
L.S.P - Your Last Stage Protectant. I always advise a good glaze / pre-wax cleaner to prepare the surface for waxing and then a good quality wax.Your glaze can be applied with a finishing pad by DA.
Maintenance - Use a wax-friendly wash after waxing and a quick detailer to top up shine and protection.
This is all just related to paintwork, I will list recommended trim / tyre / wheel products below but all those cleaning steps are fairly self-explanatory.
Here are some links to advised products from a highly recommended supplier, Elite Car Care:
- Shampoo
- Lance and foam
- Tar Remover
- Wash Mitt
- Drying Towel
- Clay and lube
- Compounds / Polishes
- Finishing Pads
- Polishing Pads
- Glaze
- Wax
- Trim Dressing
- All Purpose Cleaner / Degreaser
- Wheel Cleaner
- Detailing Brushes
- Quick Detailer
