Cut and polish for the first time

[allicedout]

Hey guys picked up a 2002 C5 convertible before fall and its in need of a good cut and polish. Tried some Chemical Guys products on a test spot without and real success. I've been hearing good things about Meguiar's Ultimate Compound so ordered a bottle off Amazon to try out since it was relatively cheap. I'm using a Torq's polisher and will most likely get a Meguiar's sponge cutting pad as I've also read good things about it. Any recommendations, tips or help would be appreciated.

 

[Tourmax]

Meguirs is available at crappy tire. Same “good stuff” you get anywhere else.

Cut and polish is not an easy task. You need some experience with it to do it right.

It’s not a “one part” process. You need to cut with the compound, then you need to poilish with the meguirs ultimate polish, and finish with meguirs ukrimate carnauba wax. The compound cuts down the high spots, but leaves the paint “hazy”. The polish takes away the haze and brings the shine back. The wax protects it all.

I use meguirs ultimate compound, polish and wax. I also use a dewalt dwp849x rotary buffer. The rotary makes cutting and polishing possible, but it’s also super easy to mess your paint up...bad.

Not familiar with your buffer, but I think that is an obital. You can cut with an orbital, but it takes a lot longer than a rotary. Upside is you really have to do something really wrong with an orbital to mess up your paint.

Also be aware there are different pads for cutting, buffing and waxing. Using rhe wrong pad for the wrong purpose will get you poor results at best, or worst case; damage your paint.

What I would recommend is find someone who does paint correction (professionally) and just pay them to get your paint up to snuff. Then use your ordital to wax it and keep it clean.

Heres mine after doing my paint correctiin:

1988. It took roughly two weeks to do the whole car. Had I paid a pro to do it, it could have been done in a day....

 

[Vegas1500]

I used chemical guys products and had great success. As mentioned, make sure you have the right pad with the right product. Took some trial and error but the results I got were outstanding

 

[allicedout]

Thanks for the information guys, I have looked over the different pads and have found the ones I need. I'll be sure to get the all the complementing products to go with it. I'd pay someone to do it but I'd really like to give it a go myself.

 

[Tourmax]

Thanks for the information guys, I have looked over the different pads and have found the ones I need. I'll be sure to get the all the complementing products to go with it. I'd pay someone to do it but I'd really like to give it a go myself.

If trying for yourself for the first time with serious cutting products, remember to (at all costs) keep that buffer moving, don't ride it up on the edge of the pad or use any more pressure than the weight of the buffer itself. Also, stay off any edges or body lines as much as you can.

Possible results of not doing the above include:

Burnt paint, burn through on edges, "holograming" and there are many other paint defects you can introduce.

 

[Rruuff Day]

Thanks for the information guys, I have looked over the different pads and have found the ones I need. I'll be sure to get the all the complementing products to go with it. I'd pay someone to do it but I'd really like to give it a go myself.

Practicing first on your daily driver or a beater might be a good idea.

 

[kerry4]

I tried Turtle wax Ice and seemed to work well. Like others I have tried more waxes and detail sprays than I can count. Unless you want to go ceramic coating and pay big bucks. Even then I think you can buy the stuff and try it yourself, but for me I would rather have a pro do it instead of messing it up myself. Go to a shop that does it and ask to see their work and results first. Thats what I plan on doing when my cars comes in. With brand new paint I'm not taking the chance or wrecking it. But thats just me. The Turtle wax worked well on my Tesla Model S P85D in silver.

 

[Cariboocreek]

Call Sid.

 

[Jayman]

Thanks for the information guys, I have looked over the different pads and have found the ones I need. I'll be sure to get the all the complementing products to go with it. I'd pay someone to do it but I'd really like to give it a go myself.

I've read all the fear mongering for years and got tired of paying the "pros". Bought the Meguiar's compound and polish and took my time. No issues with patience and the finish never looked so good. Not tooting my own horn but glad I took the time to do it, and do it right. Very happy with those products, and they are designed so that it's hard to "overcut". Give it a go, I'm sure you'll do fine. If you're worried, sure practice on something else first.
Good luck!

 

[kerry4]

I've read all the fear mongering for years and got tired of paying the "pros". Bought the Meguiar's compound and polish and took my time. No issues with patience and the finish never looked so good. Not tooting my own horn but glad I took the time to do it, and do it right. Very happy with those products, and they are designed so that it's hard to "overcut". Give it a go, I'm sure you'll do fine. If you're worried, sure practice on something else first.
Good luck!

I think the key which is a lot of elbow grease is preparing the car first before you wax it. Stripping all the fine dirt from the paint is very time consuming. A trick I learned is when you think all the micro dirt is gone put one of those flimsy sandwich bags over your hand and lightly go over the area you have cleaned. It makes your fingers feel more sensitive and you can find any remaining dirt. Some use a clay bar but I had a bad experience with one of those with my Acura NSX that was black. Maybe the paint was cheaper back then because it was a 1991 or I just wasn't good enough doing it but I thought it dulled the paint just a bit. So there is no easy way to make your car look as good as you want it.

 

[Cobravenomous]

I would like to add my two cents.......as stated above an orbital buffer will give great results and is very forgiving. I'm wondering if the "Ultimate Compound" however would be too aggressive for your needs. Meguires "Ulimate Polish" is less aggressive and will remove light swirls as well as restore the paints lustre. Once completed you will need to apply wax. Many on this forum recommend the Meguires liquid synthetic wax because it's great to work with, doesn't leave a white residue on rubber or non painted trim and leaves a superb shine. As well, as stated above make sure you're using the correct pads. I found Lake Country Pads work best for me.

Here's some links

Amazon product ASIN B00F653O4S
Amazon product ASIN B00F653LAK

 

[Jayman]

Good point regarding pads. Depends how much your paint needs to be cut too. If you really feel you have to start with the compound (assuming you've prepped it and she's nice and clean), then perhaps don't start with the most aggressive pad and test it out. You can can always go deeper if you need to.

 

[allicedout]

Appreciate the feedback, I found a picture I took a while back that shows the worst of it. I don't think it can get worse then this. Now keep in mind I purchased the car knowing I'd be repainting it sometime down the road. I'm looking to see if I can hang off for a bit before I get into the inevidable.

 

[Jayman]

Yikes! Well then if it's that bad I think you can use your aggressive pad with the compound. You won't get the deeper scratches out, but it will look way, way better than it does now. Just be careful in this case that you don't over cut trying to make it perfect because you won't be able to remove all. The clear is only so thick and some of those appear to be deeper from the picture observation.
Good luck!

 

[Tourmax]

Appreciate the feedback, I found a picture I took a while back that shows the worst of it. I don't think it can get worse then this. Now keep in mind I purchased the car knowing I'd be repainting it sometime down the road. I'm looking to see if I can hang off for a bit before I get into the inevidable.

View attachment 33987

My 88 looked close to that before I went at it. The results are in my post above.

For that kind of paint correction, you’re not going to get it clean with an orbital and compound. You’ll get it better, but not as good as it can be. You need a rotary buffer for that since there's some serious cutting needed there.

But, i don’t recommend a rotary to beginners. They can do amazing work, but they can also do amazing damage if used wrong.

Honestly, unless you have at least SOME experience at paint correction, I’d pay a professional to go over that paint. Pics can be deceiving, but that looks like some pretty serious paint damage. It actually looks like there’s stuff there a pro won’t be able to do much about, without using touch up.

Then you can use your orbital to keep it nice. At least until you can afford a re-spray.

Here's some before/after on mine where it was the most damaged:

Paint fill and wet sand:

Buffed:

Still not perfect, but miles better than before.

With the damages that seems apparent in your pic you are going to need touch up, which means you will also need to wet sand:

And then a full buff:



That hood work wasn't a paint touch up either, it was scratch removal. Sometimes you have to sand, compound just isn’t aggressive enough. It can hide a scratch (at least if you don’t know it’s there) for a while, but it will always come back unless you sand it even with the surrounding clear. A buffer can’t do that because you can’t specifically hit just the scratch. The buffer hits the scratch and the surrounding paint, so it’s very hard (near impossible) to blend a deep scratch with just compound and buffer.

 

[Tourmax]

Last pics didn’t come through for some reason:

I’m not trying to turn you off on doing it yourself. It definitely is something you can do at home and I’m pretty sure you would be able to bring that back (again, I’m just looking at your pic, hard to say for certain from a pic on an iphone screen) to at least a nice 5 footer.

But you need the right tools and skills. That's not cheap nor is it a quick skill to learn. You don’t just squirt goop on the car and start passing a buffer over it. That might get you some results, but it will ultimately be disappointing for the money and time invested.

As mentioned, “prep” is key. Not only for your car, but for your pads, compound, microfibres, etc. One spec of crud and instead of buffing scratches out, you’re buffing them in. You need to wash, dry and microclean the paint right before you buff. Even overnight dust or car cover “fuzz” will screw things up. I wash it, blow it dry, microfibre, clay bar and then spray detail with a microfibre before I even think about dropping the buffer on it. Everything has to be spotless and perfect or you end result is not going to be....well, lets just say you won’t be happy with yourself.....

Maybe if you know someone who’s good at it you can offer them a case of beer on sone weekend and they can show you how it’s done properly?

Hell, if you lived around here (NS) I’d give you my adress and tell you to show up with a bottle of Crown and a couple nice cigars and we’d have a go at ‘er.

My 88 was close to as bad as yours when I bought it and we were considering paint this first year. I spent about 500 bucks getting my rotary and various products together. But now it looks like I’ll be able to squeeze another 4-5 year out of it before a re-spray. That's roughly 100 bucks a year for “wet look” paint. I have used a rotary before though, did some time in an autobody shop as a pup. Long time ago, but the skills come back fairly quickly.

I’m not a “pro”, just a guy who’s done it before....

 

[allicedout]

Thanks Tourmax that was thorough and super informative! After thinking about what you said there are a few scratches that will most likely need wet sanding and the hood does have a good amount of stone chips. One of the doors has a chip I'm assuming from someone opening the door and hitting a curb. The cost to have it professionally done has turned me off because I don't think it will look the way I want it too. A complete respray is in line for the future and with that I would definitely replace the hood and panels that are chipped, in the mean time I've been speaking to a friend who owns his own car dipping business, he has offered to dip my car for almost the cost of materials to give me a few years to prepare for a complete spray. I've seen his personal cars and have been impressed with the work he's done. He says once I'm ready we can just peel off the dip and get her set up for paint. Here are a few pictures of his personal cars he's done.

 

[kerry4]

I would suggest going to a pro detail shop. As stated you only have so much clear to work with. I had my NSX to a good shop and was amazed at what they did with my black paint. Remember they have access to products and chemicals not available to the public and the proper equipment. Plus they have the experience and know how deep to go and how much clear to work with. To me it was worth it. If you damage the paint theres no turning back if you were doing it yourself. Most good shops will be honest with you in what results to expect and will show you some of their other jobs they have done. Trust me its a lot cheaper than having your whole car painted if you damage the paint. Plus it will still be original. At least get an opinion and estimate. Then you can make a decision on what to do. Worse comes to worse they can frost the front end and make it look better. Had that done to my Tesla. The hood had lots of stone chips on it and with a light paint spray ( I don't know how they did it ) it looked just like new. Then I had 3M chip guard put on it to keep it that way.

 

[Tourmax]

Thanks Tourmax that was thorough and super informative! After thinking about what you said there are a few scratches that will most likely need wet sanding and the hood does have a good amount of stone chips. One of the doors has a chip I'm assuming from someone opening the door and hitting a curb. The cost to have it professionally done has turned me off because I don't think it will look the way I want it too. A complete respray is in line for the future and with that I would definitely replace the hood and panels that are chipped, in the mean time I've been speaking to a friend who owns his own car dipping business, he has offered to dip my car for almost the cost of materials to give me a few years to prepare for a complete spray. I've seen his personal cars and have been impressed with the work he's done. He says once I'm ready we can just peel off the dip and get her set up for paint. Here are a few pictures of his personal cars he's done.

View attachment 33995

View attachment 33996

View attachment 33997

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rock chipped and door bumped panels usually don't need to be replaced. On a fiberglass car, you pretty much have to crush the panel somehow to make it "non-repairable".

How about a pic or two of this damage you think warrants panel replacement?

 

[vette2000]

i '' personaly'' use ADAM's product, they are easy to use ,makes a wonderful job and smells awesome! you need the proper microfiber cloth tho, ( that is the secret ).
they have products for all your needs , at very good price. i always have a detail spray & glass cleaner bottle in my car so as find my corvette friends.
ADAM's is available in canada.
do not ask me where ,( certainly NOT at crappy tire ) i will be in trouble ........