[Mrryan]

Great paint polishing tutorial! I plan on getting a polisher but I can't find that exact model. Also, what brand of polish do you recommend? The store has turtle but not the pictured 3M. How about Mother's? They seem to be pretty good.

 

[chittychittybangbang]

There are many, many very good brands. Mothers is good but it's expensive. 3m is good, poorboys is good, optimum is good, sonus is good, they are all good.

The truth is that even turtle wax is good if you use it properly. Just be careful beause turtle wax products seem to be rougher because I think they are designed for hand use. If you use them with a machine, they do faster and rougher cutting. Because I use machines for polishing, I use a finer cutting polish because it gives a better finish.

I'm not up on polishing machines but there should be similar products out there. The cyclo is good but it's large, relatively expensive, but is more powerful. For home use, any random orbital polisher or sander with a large orbit is good. I avoid the 10" walmart polishers because they aren't good for detail work, you can't use a small foam polishing pad for them...they just aren't designed for auto detailing.

 

[Mrryan]

Cool, I think I'll just get that to try it out. I like to keep my cars clean but normally just take it to the car wash and the guys there take care of it. I'd rather take care of it myself.

 

[pearlgolf]

whats wrong with just elbow grease?

 

[grizzly]

Using a machine is much faster than doing it by hand! You can use finer abrasion with a machine which results in a more glassy finish.

 

[chittychittybangbang]

Look at the pictures in the polishing paint article and see for yourself what a machine can do. Plus, it'll save a ton of time and prevent you from getting tennis elbow.

 

[pearlgolf]

If you're a professional detailer and you are doing 4 cars every day, I can see how machine will pay for itself, if you can get that kind of results with a machine, I'd just rather take it to a pro for polishing and getting out marks and do the simple washing myself.

 

[cheekymunky]

Something I learned: don't go to automatic car washes that use those blue rotating brushes! They have lots of dirt from other cars stuck in the bristles and they are hard on the paint! They can cause lots of microscratches! If you go to a gas station car wash, go to a brushless wash.

 

[LIQUIDSILVER]

visit autopia and you can pick up a lot of good tips there too, one reccommended product is the ultimate detailer, you can get it here

http://ultimatedetailingmachine.com/

its pretty much the same thing as your porter cable.

 

[Mrryan]

great link, I've seen autopia before too

 

[buzybee]

Autopia is great but they can be overkill for your average person. Most people won't know the difference between a $15 microfiber towel and a $3 one. I personally think the Costco ones are actually pretty good!

 

[cadman1940]

cadman1940

great link, I've seen autopia before too

Hello Eric Davis here and may I throw another idea in the soup? I use a product named Novus2 it is a plastic polish and your paint today is acrilic which is plastic. I can do by hand the entire outside of my 96 deville and all door jams putting it on rubbing it out then polishing in about 30 minutes and I am 67 yrs old. I learned about this product while polishing windows on the AF1 747s a half gallon is about 25 dollars but if kept from freezing and shook well before each use you will have several years of polishing. If you have a convertable besure and get the anti static cream as this will prevent static electricity from building which attracts dust which will scratch the plastic. Further if you or someone hand prints a polished panel you can spot polish to remove the hand print. Thanks Eric Davis 03 Jetta 40M AT 96 Deville 165M

 

[chittychittybangbang]

AF1 Air force 1? That's pretty cool. I think someone else also mentioned novus 2 and I added it to the polishing headlights link.