Couple of questions about my Process

Being white, you'll probably want to get at it good with the clay bar, or a nanoskin foam pad for your PC. The nanoskin mitts work good for general paint decontamination, but on white vehicles, they tend to get little rail or brake dust spots on them that you can see if you look close. They are little orange/rust colored spots that are tough to get out and I haven't had much luck with the nanoskin mitts for them. It takes a lot of meticulous clay barring repeatedly over them. I just did my buddy's '16 Ram dually and even being brand new, had quite a bit. But once you get them all out, and keep up with the paint, a nanoskin mitt is much easier and faster to use than a clay bar.

I would say you probably didn't need a compound right away either. A polish would be of more use to you.

If you plan to polish or compound I would highly recommend getting a 5" backing plate and use 5.5" pads instead. I've found that was able to obtain more correcting, more control and easier to navigate around corners, emblems, etc. Plus 5.5" pads are generally cheaper. Never start with a compound, always start with something much less harsh, you may even find a light correcting AIO to be more suited for your needs. The amount of perfection you want and the results only depends in the eyes of the owner, yourself.

Definitely get some products to properly wash the vehicle to keep marring down to a minimum and requiring less polishing. There are so many excellent waterless and rinseless wash products available.

First, welcome to the forum and thank you for your business...

Dago52 said:

Hello all, new to the forum and I place my order for some products today. I just purchased a new to me 2015 Ram 1500 that is white. I recently just washed it and used SD until I was able to get my order placed.

I have a PC polisher that I use on my boat so I plan to incorporate that into my vehicle detailing.

Below are the products I purchased based on the forums and a quick call to AG customer service.

I plan to wash, clay, McKee's then 845.

McKee's 37 Fast Compound

3 Qty 6.5 Inch Lake Country Hydro-Tech Foam pads

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Just a couple of comments because I want you to be successful.

First the McKee's Fast Compound will finish down like a polish. While I would follow it with a less aggressive product and either a foam polishing or foam finishing pad you don't have to since you're working on white paint.

ANY aggressive compound with an aggressive foam pad will tend to leave some amount of haze or dull spots on black paint. It's still going to be there on white paint it's just that your eyes can't see it.

So you can get away with it. Kind of depends on your expectations for quality. That's why I said I would do a follow up polish because my expectations are high even for white paint.

But others in the detail world don't have these high of expectations or simply don't understand that clearcoat paints are scratch sensitive and aggressive compounds and aggressive pads leave haze behind.

Guys that hang out on this forum and read understand.

If you want to do a secondary polishing step for more perfect results after the compounding step then "yes" get the McKee's Fast Polish. This will EASILY perfect the paint and prep it for the wax.

You could also get the McKee's Jeweling wax and this will remove the haze and also leave the paint protected.

You could stop after the jeweling wax or you could top it with the Collinite.

6.5" foam pads are both big (diameter) and thick and these pads don't tend to rotate well when they become wet with product. I use and show 5.5" THIN pads for tools like the PC because thin pads and smaller diameter pads rotate much better and this mean you will be a lot more effective and faster at removing swirls and scratches.

So start out with these larger pads because they are very safe to learn with but in the future switch over to thin pads. IN fact I just wrote two articles on this topic here,



5.5" SUPER THIN FOAM PAD OPTIONS for your Dual Action Polisher

Size comparison

Before these thin pads were introduced pretty much all foam pads were thick no matter what the diameter. To give you a point of reference, in the pictures below I have placed each of the three brands of thin foam pads next to three traditional size foam buffing pads.


In this picture on the left are three Lake Country 5.5" ThinPro foam pads and on the right are three traditional foam pads.




5” Backing Plates Options for Dual Action Polishers



5” Backing Plates



Click the link below and read this article, mark your backing plate like I show in the picture. Then when buffing, watch to make sure the pad is rotating. If you don't see the black mark on the backing plate spinning around then you're either holding the tool in a way that the pad is NOT flat to the surface or the pad has become saturated with product or you're pushing down to hard.

Video: Mark your backing plate to make it easy to see pad rotation


And also click this link and read this article,



DA Polisher Trouble Shooting Guide

Dago52 said:

I am wondering if I should have ordered a polish instead of the McKee's

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McKee's Fast Cut Compound is 5 star all the way. I wouldn't use it on high dollar paint jobs if it used crap for abrasive technology. You want this product in your arsenal but you should add a few more products so you can pick and choose what to use depending upon the condition of the paint.

If you want to round out youarsenalel simply get the McKee's Fast Polish and the McKee's Jeweling Wax. These are all tonotchch products.


Click this link and check out what we did with McKee's 37 compound and jeweling wax. We also used thin foam pads.



1955 Chevy Bel Air with a $15,000.00 Custom Paint Job - How to remove water spots

Dago52 said:

Mike, thanks for the detailed reply. I am looking forward to learning more about detailing and appreciate your info and videos.

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That's how we roll around here... a good forum is supposed to be helpful... :xyxthumbs:

Dago52 said:

I tried to get the McKee's switch with a fast polish, but my order has already been packaged for shipping today. I will look to add the additional products you recommended.

Thanks again

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Sounds good... you'll love the Fast polish. It has an endless buffing cycle and easy wipe off.