OK.
I would start with the Hitachi SP18VA rotary and use, depending on the result I got, Jescar heavy cut or Menzerna 400 or Wizards Mystic Cut with either the foamed wool pad from Lake Country or the Twisted wool pad depending on how deep the scratches on the paint are and how much correction is available. I'd do everything I could reach with pad then I'd hand polish using one of those products and Webril wipes to get the areas I couldn't get with the machine. That's not very much. I don't leave a lot of dust, but I'd dust the car.
From there, I'd use the Makita PO5000C and the new Lake Country orange pad and I'd try the Jescar micro finishing by itself and if it cut the swirls I'd just continue with that. If it didn't get them fast enough, I'd try again with one of my starting polishes. If the orange pad was too aggressive I'd switch to white.
In order to get the best finish possible with the Makita and foam pad, I'd run the product on each section until the shine really came through then, I'd wipe off the residue, and run over the section again with just the worn out polish on my pad - as long as I'm leaving a haze, I'm not marring so, good to go. I'd wipe that off to check with my headlight and if it was working up to par, that's the last time I'd wipe that second pass off.
Once I know the finish is right, by taking the last pass of residue off, and checking I'd go ahead and go over the whole car. Polish, wipe, polish move on. Then, I'd use Power Lock on a grout sponge to seal the car. Of course, if I were going to use one of the other sealers, I'd have to clean the surface with something first, but I've found that power lock will take the residue off nicely and because it coats whatever is on the paint as it removes it, the gloss is better than if I wipe clean first then power lock. I'd leave it on the car while I did everything else then take it off at the very end. The longer I leave that on the car the better it comes off - I put it on really thin anyway.
Assuming I got a really good nights sleep the night before and coffee and food was available I'd guess from experience somewhere around 6 - 7 hours then an hour cleaning jams, windows etc. It might be less depending on the paint and it could be more depending on what level the car had to be at the end. A show car needs a lot more work in areas no one cares about or sees outside the show. It's also stupidly time consuming.
Ed Terwilliger has seen my work and seen me work.
RSW
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