Quick buff job today

[fr34kout]

Been almost 3 years since my truck was last buffed out. Picked up a DA Porter Cable last week with a variety of pads and compounds. First time I've ever buffed with a machine and I was scared to cut too much, but I think it came out good.





Did a 3 step buff, polish, then paint sealant. Used all Technician's Choice products.

 

[STLtrailbSS]

Welcome to your new addiction. What Pad did you use, black is a pita. *What TC PAD* saw that last line of text you hid. Looks nice. That Porter wont cut that paint. Rotary polishing is when things get dangerous........ I miss my black TB

 

[fr34kout]

Yea I was scared to try and cut so I stuck with straight foam pads. The guy I go through hooked me up with Technician's Choice XPC3 pack. Comes with "Level, Polish, and Glamour" with corresponding pads. I didn't like the cotton pads, felt like they got gummed up with compound too quickly but I was probably using too much. Hit it with the Level (Tec 545) on the SPC orange pad, but decided to switch to the orange foam pad. After that I polished with the orange foam pad and the Polish (Tec 546) then used the Glamour (Tec547) Silicone Paint sealant with a blue foam pad.

First time using those products, thought they were decent. Previously I've used Malco Nano Care Polishing Creme only by hand and my cousin buffed my truck way back when with Buff Lite II and a rotary. Waxes I have on hand include Purple Premium (Tec 22) Ultra Finish (Tec 590) and Crystal Shine. I do my best to maintain the paint, but I was getting annoyed with the swirls and small surface imperfections which is why I picked up the DA.

 

[Charley12]

I love TEC products! Best bang for your buck! You did good work especially with black!

 

[fr34kout]

Yea I like em, and I like the price I get them for haha. Breaks down nicely, smells great, wipes off easy, and awesome protection.

 

[Ryda55555]

I bought a orbital buffer to make my life easier but theres no power outlets in my apartment garage...
So i've been using the meguiars ultimate liquid wax because it was the most expensive one at the store at the time
Does a great job but i still have to sit there and use some elbow grease with the scratch X 2.0 to get rid if the swirls and fine scratches

 

[STLtrailbSS]

Yeah I will not touch cotton pads. Lake Country and I like Meguairs only because a certain auto store started carrying them So I can pick them up immediately. Your paint looks pretty damn good in the picture. hard to tell when not in person and you have a garage with a good cut you could get 90-100% correction on that thing. Set up a work light to shine and show all the paints imperfection. Start Lurking AutoTopia site is full real professionals I learned so much there. Autopia Forums - Auto Detailing & Car Discussion Forum

 

[fr34kout]

I got almost all of the swirls out, but I noticed some weird kind of pitting in some areas of the paint. After looking around online it seems to be some type of water spot / acid rain etching. Sadly I don't get to park my car in the garage, so it sits outside in the elements and every single day my neighbors sprinklers douse the passenger side of my car with hard water. I will probably have water spots tomorrow lmao.

You're right though, luckily the camera hides most stuff lol. It looks good in person, but there are things here and there, it's nowhere near perfect. Just curious do you use the typical off the shelf Meguairs products that they sell in walmart and the like, or their higher stuff like 105 and 205?

But yea it sits outside and I don't get the chance to wash it as much as I want to. I'm afraid if I tried to cut down the pitting I would hit base coat since it's already been buffed once before. I plan to just maintain the paint as is with basic correction from time to time, but when I repaint the truck (last thing I'm going to do to it) I'm going to go all out with a car cover, triple bucket, grit guards, etc etc etc. I'll check out that site though.

 

[STLtrailbSS]

With a DualAction and modern clears you will have a rough time hitting your base unless you have some extreme clear coat failures. DA polishing is the safest method after hand application. Rotary and wetsand is the very intrusive methods and what I consider completely unneeded on modern cars.

My favorite product is M105 for sure it literally does everything. I use it on paint ,tail/headlights and even windows with oven baked tree sap/bird crap or those stupid trees that leave green stains all over cars.. I use retail for my interiors all my exterior products are usually the professional lines. I'm doing a silver escape tomorrow hence the pic of the TB loaded with supplies. I will try to document the best I can hopefully give you some ideas.

I don't know what auto stores you have in the area but a lot of them are starting to carry m105/m205 now might want to give it a try if its there. M105 will get that etching out. Even if you want to try to m105 with a less aggressive pad material characteristic change with pad type. It's a learning curve but I'm pretty sure you will have it down in no time. Black is the most work but the biggest payoff for sure already looking good and it only gets better with experience. And I feel your pain my SS is an outside animal 365 days a year.

 

[fr34kout]

I'm sure if I had a rotary polisher with a cut pad and used my Nano Care Polishing Creme I could get down the etching but I'm still scared haha. I feel like I could level the clear, but either I would remove too much or wouldn't be able to get out the holographs and hazing from cutting back to that nice glossy reflective finish. I think I'm just scared because it's OEM paint and it's been cut and buffed once before. I would be a lot more comfortable if it was fresh paint with 5+ coats of clear XD

And yea I agree black is the post PITA but when it's clean it's the most rewarding color. The drawback is that 2 hours after it's clean you get that fine layer of dust the snowballs into dust, dirt, water spots, etc lol