adamfogerty

Hi all,

I purchased my first Porsche about two months ago and am loving every second of ownership

Anyways, I want to look after my cars paint as much as the engine, electricals, etc...I've been reading this car care forum since day one and have nothing but respect for your talent and results - and the effort you put in.

This weekend I attempted my first 'detail' on a car - The car is driven every day so I don't expect the finish to be perfect, but I do want to move up a notch from washing with a sponge...

Some of the discussions on here actually worried me regarding the damage it's possible to cause if you do the job wrong, so I decided to play it safe and went with Menzerna Final Finish on a Lake Country white pad.

Having finished the job, I'm pleased with the depth of colour and shine on my 1990 Guards Red Carrera 4, but it doesn't stand up to closer inspection

Before I started there were not-insignificant swirl marks...and they're still there now

So my questions are:

Is Final Finish on a white pad too 'soft' to remove the swirl marks?
Or is it that I've just compounded the problem with poor technique?
How can an amatuer assess the thickness of their paint? On 17 year old paint I'm paranoid about cutting back too much...how do you know how abrasive you can be?
Is it okay to hand polish with a pad designed for a random orbital?
I know with a random you're meant to follow the lines of the car, but does this also apply when hand polishing? Or should I be using a circular motion? Big circles or small circles?
How much pressure should I be applying when hand polishing?

yes, I'm afraid there's more...

Cleaning the paint up properly has emphasised how faded some of the panels are

Can anything be done to restore the finish of faded paint? Or is it only fixable with a respray?

Many thanks and apologies for my somewhat basic questions.

Adam

uzj100

Yes, the Final Finish is not abrasive enough. You will probably need to step up the pad to a light cutting at least and to Intensive or Super Intensive Polish, then make another pass with the finishing polish on the white pad. Suggest you visit autopia.org. You'll find plenty of discussion and tips on there about products, techniques etc. It's a tremendous resource for all things relating to detailing

TOGWT

Menzerna's polishes are formulated with diminishing abrasives, which require at least a PC to enable them to 'breakdown' utilizing friction heat, IMO this is not possible with a 'hand' application. If they are not broken down sufficiently you will induce surface marring (possibly ending up with a worse surface finish than you started with)

Two suggestions- a) use a PC and follow the methodology below
b) pay a professional detailer to bring the car up to a reasonable finish that you can then maintain

a) methodology-

Use a chemical paint surface cleaner (Zaino Z-AIO ) to remove the oxidation (faded paint)

1.Super Intensive Polish (PO83Q) SIP will remove 2000 grit, cut 3.5 – gloss 3.0 (Orange LC CCS foam pads)
2.Final Polish (PO85U) FP will remove 2500 grit, cut 3.0 - gloss 4.0 (White LC CCS foam pad)

Slow cut method (using a Porter-Cable random orbital buffer) - start at speed 4, move the pad slowly across the area, then speed 5, without any pressure, polish starts to go clear, spray the pad with distilled water, reduce to speed 4, then spray pad again, increase to speed 5 and apply pressure. Allow 5-8 minutes for each 2-foot x 2-foot panel (hence ‘slow cut’) but the results are amazing.

Diminishing abrasives require friction heat to activate; they will not finish up dry, but will always have a hazy film to them. Polish to a ‘haze’ - when a polish "flashes" from a liquid paste to a light semi-dry haze; its colour changes from the polish colour to almost transparent; the polish has then broken down and is ready for removal. It is important to know when a polish has broken down because if you take it too far you will re-introduce surface marring


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Posted as it may help others that use a rotary polisher

Using a HS Rotary Polisher-
1.Super Intensive Polish (PO83Q) SIP will remove 2000 grit, cut 3.5 – gloss 3.0 (Orange LC CCS foam pads)
2.Nano Polish (105FF) will remove 2500 grit, for light surface marring and / or surface finishing, cut 2.5 - gloss 5.0 for LSP ready use a White LC CCS foam pad
3.Apply a 6” line of polish over the paint surface with the pad to prevent sling.
4.Polish at 1200-1500 rpm working slowly across 2-foot x 2- foot section with medium pressure, overlapping each pass.
5.Once the defects have been removed, reduce the pressure and continue polishing to a high gloss.
6.Wipe-down the surface with Menzerna’s Final Inspection to check paint surface finish


If you need further help; just ask many detailers here will be only to glad to help

Anthony Orosco

Hello Adam,

Your technique is wrong here in using a sponge by hand, especially a white sponge as it is most likely a 100 ppi pad meaning it's very soft. Those pads are meant for machine use, not hand use.

If you're doing this by hand then I suggest you get some terry cotton hand applicators or microfiber hand applicators. Use a product like Klasse All In One or Optimum PoliSeal. They AIO works more along the chemical cleaners while PoliSeal has a very mild abrasive in it, both though will remove the oxidation
on your Guards Red....I'm pretty sure you have single stage paint which means you'll be pulling a lot of paint onto the pads but don't worry, you're not going to rub through down to the primer unless you're Superman

Your best way to go by hand is back and forth, from bumper to bumper, avoid circles.

Rub each section out at least twice and as your pads become contaminated with oxidized paint toss it (toss it in the wash pile, don't literally throw it away) and grab a new one.

Because you have no clear coat with UV protection your Guards Red is going to fade again in a short time (depending on parking and driving habits) so plan on rubbing it out again every 3 to 6 months, but it should be easier the next time.

Hope that helps, let me know if I can be of further help.

Anthony

adamfogerty

Many thanks for your replies and advice.

I'm not quite ready to go down the PC route just yet (although it is very tempting!), so I know what I have to do right now

I'll put pictures up when I'm done, hoping to do it this weekend if the new product arrives in time

In the mean time here are some pics of my engine detailing job. I dodn't think it's a bad job, considering the minimal time and effort I put in. Was done with P21s Total Auto Wash:













Regards,

Adam