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Given my old van a really good scrub and done a bit of patching this weekend. It's been pretty unloved and the paint is in a right state. I have a basic buffer and need to polish it up before waxing.
What's the next stuff to use these days?
Auto Glym resin polish is the standard, I also like Meguairs NXT for darker cars.
Need to wax or seal it afterwards anyway.
Although it may seem like a faff make the effort to clay bar the paint beforehand, I started doing that this year and it makes a world of difference to the final finish and makes putting polish and wax on so much easier, I reckon it takes half the time to polish and wax if you've clayed first. It's an eye opener as well to how filthy your paint really is!
It was so bad that I used a poly scourer and wet and dry on it 😯
Picked up some G3 restorer, I've got plenty of resin polish and carnuba for after that
Is say g3 or the 3m fast cut compound.
I like farecla stuff, though I didn't realise there's so many G3 products so I'm not totally sure what the older stuff I have is- I think it's the ultra abrasive, it's very full on but good if you don't want to piss about with 10 different products, it can go all the way from wet-and-dry to nearly-finished. I like how it naturally breaks down as you work so starts very abrasive then softens, though that's easy to screw up.
I don't know if they still do it but halfords used to sell a rubbing compound in an aerosol, it was piss-weak, but actually pretty damn good at finishing- more a polish than a compound in all honesty but I got good results with it
(this is all finishing new paint rather than repolishing, I cannot be arsed with that. I use Mr Sheen covered with a protective mud layer)
Meguiars #205 is my favorite polish at the moment.
gives results like this.........
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I've just done similar funkymonkey...my van is flat white and it needed a fair bit of touching up with rattle cans.
The original paint has gone matt and the new was shiny, bought a buffer but when I got it out the box it was so big it would have worn through the paint on all the panel edges in seconds, plus it said do not use with abrasive compounds.
It actually didn't take that long to do the first side using Halfords rubbing compound hand applied with some of their cloths, the shine came back fairly quickly and a few seemingly deep scratches disappeared.
Now just got some white T cut type polish with a white lipstick filler pencil for a couple of deeper scratches which I haven't got round to doing yet.
Before recommending a polish, you need to understand what you're getting into.
Firstly - all paints are different, BMWs have hard paint and require either a harsh compound, harsh pad or both. Pug's are the opposite and there are various levels in between.
You need to match your compound and pad to the type of paint you have. Also, what type of polisher have you bought/got? A dual action or a rotary? A DA can be used by anyone with relatively little risk, a rotary requires some skill to get the best results and/or avoid burning your paint.
Hmm, Daffy, sounds like you have the knowledge.
Part of my team are a production polish department, sending stuff straight in to JLR from our paint line.
Whenever anyone asks if I can polish their car I say I'm washing my hair, can't be arsed width all the grief, especially if it goes tits up!
If you get it wrong and burn the paint then it's at least a spot repair, if not a respray!
Only use one make and their products always apply and finish to first class standards :
Buy on eBay....
Mines similar spooky, lots of deep battle scars requiring filler, wet and dry etc. Bonnet resprayed, lots of touch up.
I've got a really cheap 150w buffer with a few different pads. Got rained off today so just managed to flat of the primer etc
I do car bodywork for a living.
Flat bodywork with p1500 to remove scratches. Then trizact p3000, then 3m fast cut plus on green pad. Then the yellow followed by blue then rosso Polish