Professional detailing DIY

[Jeroen1000]

Since I've been waxing my civic with meguiars everyone at home wants me to do this with their car.

Unfortunately, their paint isn't quite as new and I can't get the swirlmarks / small scratches out. I've used both ScratchX and the 3-step system (both meguiars)where both products claim to remove them. Well to be honest they seem to do nothing at all!
Since the new Civic is very prone to this I hope to get some tips from fellow paint enthousiasts.


I'm guessing it can't be done manually and I need a machine? I hope you won't say, rub harder, my hand still hurts

[illegalhunter]

To do a really pro job you will need a Porta Cable

[Jeroen1000]

Originally Posted by illegalhunter

To do a really pro job you will need a Porta Cable

I'll settle with a good improvement instead of rubbing all day and seeing...a nice shiny car with lots of swirls.

Most posts/topics I find on the net indicate the use of a 'rotary' or an 'eccentric' machine. Could you elaborate on Porta Cable? More specific: what is dual action polishing?

[ADE Type S]

its basically a machine that is powered and you have different pads and polish combinations for different paint, how bad the paint is to start off with how much paint depth you have on the car in all areas and weither your using it on metal or plastic parts of the car. the "dual action" bit is that it spins round but also in a slight oval shape too from what i can recall, and a porter cable is one of the most popular and widley used hand held machines, there are others on the market such as the rotary and also meguiars have not long released their own version the G220 i think in the UK.

[Jeroen1000]

Originally Posted by ADE Type S

its basically a machine that is powered and you have different pads and polish combinations for different paint, how bad the paint is to start off with how much paint depth you have on the car in all areas and weither your using it on metal or plastic parts of the car. the "dual action" bit is that it spins round but also in a slight oval shape too from what i can recall, and a porter cable is one of the most popular and widley used hand held machines, there are others on the market such as the rotary and also meguiars have not long released their own version the G220 i think in the UK.

Thank you, I've just discoverd their site with tons of information. Rotary should be avoided in my case as it isn't idiot proof. A very good site is Polished Bliss - Car Care Products - Car Care Advice - Detailing Services (most likely this has been posted before but it helped me a lot). For beginners like me: Use the above website with the Meguiars site and you will be on your way!

Supposedly meguiars have released 'the ultimate detailing machine' which is very similar to the Porta, but should be better.

I'll be trying such a machine next month when the next paycheque arrives. I hope I have better luck getting some results this time as I dare not use a rotary machine!

edit: I'm still slightly confused. I thought it was either rotary or eccentric the G220 from Meguiars is somewhere in between? Or does it support both modes?

[The Phantom]

Just spent £80 at Polished Bliss on Poorboys gear and buffer pads. Have to say that their how to guides are excellent.

I have a random orbit buffer/sander attachment for my compressor so I though I'd give it a go on my small fleet; leaving the Civ til last as it's the newest and easiest to mess up being black.

Really looking forward to the weekend to start on my orange MGB and my GF's Red Clio.

I bought some of the 'Poorboys Polish with Carnuba- Blue' to cut the light swirls out of the paint. Looks like a quite low strength cutting agent so should work pretty well on the NHB (I hope).

[AndyC]

Autopia is another good site for this kind of thing or Detailing World. The Ultimate Detailing Machine seems to be getting good reviews too. Similar to the Porter Cable.