Anyone detail their car properly?

[Racer7]

As above really. Just wondering if anyone uses a proper (well DA) polisher and pads on their 2?

I'd like to find out the best pad and product combo for the MR2 as I have read that the paint is quite soft and therefore easy to mess up.

I noticed that on detailingworld most of the owners seem to have german or british/american brand cars which tend to have hard paint. This don't really help me!

It'll be the first time i attempt this so i am hoping to get a bit of scrap mr2 to practice on first...

[todd]

Just go for any brand, SONUS, Poorboys, 3M, MENZ, there's loads

But do the usual and get 3 grades and pads to match, then tackle your car starting with the least aggressive compound and get a feel for the machine, once you have a bit of confidence you can start working up the grades.

Just be careful around the edges, last thing we need in the world is another 2 with white corners

On a side note, when it comes to detailing, the expensive stuff is not the best, just don't fall for the hype

Did this wee guide many moons ago, may help

OK, before we get started, this is the way I machine polish, so it's not the "only" way to do it.

There are other products on the market that may work better for you, other tools that you may find easier to handle but in short, this wee write up is for the beginners out there

Car - One badly scratched and swirled MR2 Turbo (Jaffa).
Tools - One UDM machine polisher.
Products will be listed by each step in the process.


1. Wash the car, make sure to rinse it before starting to get the worst of the grit off, I'd recommend the 2 bucket method (one extra bucket for rinsing wash mit out after doing a panel). I use Poorboys but Johnstons baby bath is great and dirt cheap.


2. Clay bar the car, once again I use poorboys but there are different strengths of clay bar available depending on how bad the paint is. In short the clay bar lifts all the contaminants out the paint leaving you with a finish as smooth as glass. Clay bar does NOT remove swirls and scratches.

Wash the car again after Clay barring to get rid of any marring left from using the clay bar.


3. Now the fun starts

In the photo below you will see the pads and polish I will be using for this car. Each pad is slightly harder depending on colour, the harder the pad the more aggressive you will be attacking the paint. The compounds I will use are all Sonus (as are the pads), these come with a lot of the starter kits and are ideal for the beginnner.



Here are the steps from the UDM user manual on using the polisher.






4. Going to start with the rear spoiler, for this I will be using the yellow pad and Sonus SFX-1, this is a heavy compound for working at the scratches. Guide on how much polish to use and directions for machine to follow.

This is what I started with



Here is half the spoiler after 3 passes with the polisher




5. Moving up to the swirl buster pad now with the Sonus Swirl buster compound, pretty good stuff this and after 2 passes all the swirls were gone and there was a deeper shine to the paint.




6. I followed this up with a quick coat of polish using the soft red pad and some Sonus SFX-3. I was going to use a sealant here but time was against me. Using a quality sealant before applying the wax goes a long way to giving the deep glossy shine, once again I use the poorboys.


7. Last part now, the wax. There are many waxes available on the market and some are better for different colours of paint. I'm going to use nattys blue paste wax is it comes up great on black.



A 50/50 shot on the spoiler, spot the part that hasn't been done



And here is the spoiler and boot after some hard graft.





8. Tackled the bonnet next, once again in very bad condition but after several passes ended up with this 50/50 shot




And here it is finished.




9. Now knock yourself out and do the whole car, on a MR2 giving it the full works, you'd be looking at a day but this will last you for months, just washing the car and giving it the top up coat of wax and you'll be fine. The most damage you'll ever do is washing the car PLEASE always use the 2 bucket method and invest in a proper drying towel ALWAYS use good quality microfibre cloths for taking the polish off.





Not bad considering the state of the paint before






Cheers

Todd

[Racer7]

Wow! Thanks todd that is awesome. Both the guide and the detail. I didn't realise that the sealant was different from the wax. The only thing I couldn't work out is whether you use the polisher to apply the wax or just buff by hand. I have auto glym hd wax which comes with it"s own applicator pad.

Pretty impressive for a day. I would have thought a car in that Condition would have taken longer. Claying seems to be the time consuming part. How long did you spend on each of the stages with this?

Thank s again for the guide.

[todd]

Autoglym HD, just use app pad supplied and remove by hand with quality MF Cloths.

As to how long for each stage, as long as it takes You just can't rush this stuff so take your time.

Keep the machine moving at all times and keep checking the paint for temp, you really don't want it getting to hot.

Just keep reading up on detailing world, loads of good advice on there (and lots of folk plugging their wares ).

Good luck.

[T.F.S.]

i started off using sandpaper on mine, the search function is your friend

[Racer7]

i started off using sandpaper on mine, the search function is your friend

I think I saw that thread. Personally I don't have the big brass cahoonies needed to take sandpaper to my car!

I understand that fundamentally the principle is still the same but I'm not sure any inexperienced person would be that brave!

I'm still going to go with the polisher and am quite happy with the procedure. Just more a case about what products now.

[T.F.S.]

lol, yea i must admit i did do a couple of test area first..wish i had of used a more course paper now though, the jap paint is good!

on my mk2 astra i actually T-cutted through the paint on one area...and that was by hand!

[Racer7]

lol, yea i must admit i did do a couple of test area first..wish i had of used a more course paper now though, the jap paint is good!

on my mk2 astra i actually T-cutted through the paint on one area...and that was by hand!

That's interesting. I keep reading (but not verified) that Jap paint is soft and the Euro cars are hard paint.

Suffice to say, a test panel will be used first!

Maybe someone else on here can confirm for defo the paint type and recommended cutting compound/polish??

[todd]

That's interesting. I keep reading (but not verified) that Jap paint is soft and the Euro cars are hard paint.

In general this is true but you don't know the history of your paint

As for recommending compound, read my previous posts, doesn't matter which range you go for just ALWAYS start with the softest compound.