1992 Jeep Cherokee

[Nica]

This was me just playing around with my Metabo rotary, pad combinations and XMT #3. I just wanted to see how fast the rotary was and of course the learning curve…I’m still new to the rotary and I’m trying to practice as much as I can and my Jeep is the perfect vehicle to practice on, the pictures will illustrate why I use the Jeep lol.

On to the process:

Wash​

I washed my Volvo using Pinnacle Shampoo and had some left over so I decided to wash the hood of the Jeep and break out the Metabo rotary. Weather was great today 11…slush town lol..oh but tomorrow it goes back to it’s norm…snow and -3 ish lol.

Clay​

I had the Meg’s clay bar (white one) and so I didn’t want to use my Pinnacle clay I thought I’d use the Meg’s. The Meg’s clay bar doesn’t have much bite but it had to do.

Polish​

I used Edge 2K green with XMT #3 and then Edge 2K orange pad with XMT #1 and both with the Metabo rotary. Must say the rotary is much faster, XMT seemed to break down fast. One thing I did wrong though is I took to large of an area. You will see in the pictures how I split the entire hood up and I should have split it down further just for my self but I just wanted to see the limits of the rotary and the polish. The rotary and the PC are the same when it comes to surface area to polish, stick to the 2 x 2 lol..I knew better but I thought I’d try to stretch it and well it didn’t work out.

Glaze​

Since I like the Glaze so much I thought why not use it, this I applied by hand. I wanted to try to use the rotary but I just couldn’t see me doing it with the rotary so I just did it by hand. Nice and think, let it sit till it hazed and then removed by hand with a MF towel. I really like the Glaze and the smell too.

Wax​

Since the color is white I used the Liquid Souveran, now I used this same wax on my Lexus and I was really pleased with it and on white it makes the white look like milk. Gives a nice wet look…you’ll see what I mean.

Well on to the pictures:

Before and during the process.

The poor thing has never been pampered and it really shows.

Me claying the hood.

I wanted to tape the areas just to help my self and I wanted to test the polish and the Metabo rotary. I know, the size of the panels are big but just goffing around lol..

The tools to tackle the hood.

Now I think I may have over done it with the polish but it seemed to work okay for me for one area....on the rest of the panels I used less polish and it did good too. So not sure which is right for now...just trial and error for me for now.

Did the two panels on the right side on this picture and the reflection is really showing.

Half of the hood completed...not to shaby for an old beater.

Again completed half the hood and there is the pad to show how it looks. Oh almost forgot, that's my
helper holding the Metabo...what would I do with out my helper.

 

[ltoman]

woah, finally! awesome, nica! keep them coming!
btw, don't you want to take off your watch for that?

lauren

 

[Nica]

After pictures

There were some scratches that I couldn't remove and I was okay with it in addition, I had to leave some micromarring...I was getting cold and I was running out of sun light lol.

Okay not all went well, I was goofing off and I didn't pay attention. I don't have a paint gauge and it looks like the edge of the hood was thin and here is the result. Now I didn't burn through the paint but I made it thin and therefore, you can see that dark line and that's just the paint thining at that particular area...um...the rest is good lol. Moral of the story is that rotary can damage....but we all knew that..lol. Well no harm no foul, this is just the beater any way.

I felt bad that I only washed the hood and the rest was full of mud so I decided to wash the rest of the vehicle and this is what the hood looked like...I'm pleased.

For the grand final, here she is...see told you rust every where but I love it, the engine will probably out last the body hahahaha and I'll drive it till it calls it quits.

So hope you enjoy, let me know what you think and if you got any pointers please...please...share.

 

[orngez]

great job...the hood looks a hundred times better...and looks like you got a chance to learn the downside of the rotary as well...i use the rotary just on big panels of a car...hood...trunk...roof...and doors...the "ridges" and curved panels get the pc...its good to own both ...a few tips...while you are still learning to use the rotary a good way to test if their is a chance to "burn" paint is to go over the area like you would but with the machine turned off...if the sides of the pad bump into anything...tape that area off...the sides of a rotary pad will often cause the most paint burning issues...its also a good chance to see how you are going to have to angle your machine to stay parallel to the surface you are working on...if at anytime you hear the machine bog down and try to electronically compensate you are doing something wrong...either pressing to hard or you are no longer parallel to the surface....if you feel heat radiating back at you is also another sign you are either polishing to fast or with too much pressure...a little heat is good...but to much and your paint will finish foggy and will never come out...i could go on and on with tips but these are the few basics that I wish someone had told me...luckily like you I had a "beater" to practice on...oh yah...and if the pad cant sit full flat on an area...dont polish it...the edges of the pad will probably burn the paint before you get any real correcting done...the outer edge of the pad is spinning the fastest so dont try to polish by trying to angle the edge of the pad into a sharp turn/curve/groove...something like that you can get away with on a pc..but on a rotary you will see paint bubble...

 

[Nica]

woah, finally! awesome, nica! keep them coming!
btw, don't you want to take off your watch for that?

lauren

Yea I should have, if anything I was going to damage my watch lol...teasing. I forgot but I'm sure if I was doing the Volvo or the Lexus the watch rings and all would be off lol.

great job...the hood looks a hundred times better...and looks like you got a chance to learn the downside of the rotary as well...i use the rotary just on big panels of a car...hood...trunk...roof...and doors...the "ridges" and curved panels get the pc...its good to own both ...a few tips...while you are still learning to use the rotary a good way to test if their is a chance to "burn" paint is to go over the area like you would but with the machine turned off...if the sides of the pad bump into anything...tape that area off...the sides of a rotary pad will often cause the most paint burning issues...its also a good chance to see how you are going to have to angle your machine to stay parallel to the surface you are working on...if at anytime you hear the machine bog down and try to electronically compensate you are doing something wrong...either pressing to hard or you are no longer parallel to the surface....if you feel heat radiating back at you is also another sign you are either polishing to fast or with too much pressure...a little heat is good...but to much and your paint will finish foggy and will never come out...i could go on and on with tips but these are the few basics that I wish someone had told me...luckily like you I had a "beater" to practice on...oh yah...and if the pad cant sit full flat on an area...dont polish it...the edges of the pad will probably burn the paint before you get any real correcting done...the outer edge of the pad is spinning the fastest so dont try to polish by trying to angle the edge of the pad into a sharp turn/curve/groove...something like that you can get away with on a pc..but on a rotary you will see paint bubble...

I had to edit this...man that is some sweet information...thanks buddy...wow..I got a long way to go...I hope the Jeep can take it hahahaha....well I cant possible make it worse..crossing fingers lol.

Yea, I got the PC but I wanted to see the Metabo in it's full power...hahaha funny because I only got it to 1500 (dial 3 me thinks). The rotary is a great tool, just have to know how to work her...oh yea I named my rotary Lola! Lola and I had fun today and can't wait to get the Cyclo...I need a name for my Cyclo now...hahahaha...to funny but hey if I didn't have fun why would I do it hahahaha. Next time I post something and I use it don't go wondering who is Lola this Nica is refering to hahaha.

 

[AUdakota]

so you gotta PC, a metabo, and a cyclo.

When is the festool coming?

 

[orngez]

also...when polishing with the rotary you should move toward an edge...dont start at one..so like the edge of your hood its better to move from side to side (passenger to driver side) than from front to back....the reason for this is when you finally reach the edge of your hood you do not want to be running a rotary along the same path as the edge of the hood...like stated earlier the outer edge of the pad is what is spinning the fastest...and now that spinning edge is running along the thinnest part of your paint.....what i usually do in rotary polishing is similar to painting a wall...i "cut in" the edges and curves first with either the pc if they are really tight spot..or I set the rotary to its slowest speed and take care of those areas first...now that the edges are done I do the rest of the big flat area without worrying about getting close to the edges because they are already done...

 

[sparkie]

Nica, thank you showing your work in progress, I do appreciate you doing this. That's what it takes playing around with the rotary to get it down. Something I need to with mine. You really turn that hood around. Awesome write up. Keep us updated on your Jeep's progress. By the way what speeds were you running on your rotary.

 

[Gary Sword]

Nice job Nica! It looks like a good vehicle to practice your rotary skill on.

Are you trying to be a tape artist?

 

[Nica]

orngez - Those are some really good tips, please if you got more keep them coming. I'm taking all your sharing wth me and I'm transfering to a word document and printing it off, thank you.

sparkie - I was mostly using (I think) 1,000 rpms (dial 2) but when I almost burnt through the paint I was using about 1,500 rmp (dial 3 ish). Just wanted to fool around and that I did. Overal it's still hard to burn through the paint if your carefull and I can totally understand why people say lower speeds is better. But it's good to know how fast you can burn through the cc and the paint.

Gary - lol..yea I went a little over board with the taping but I having fun and well just thought I'd continue doing the hood lol.

AUdakota - I know I got to many toys but a friend from work is going to purchase my PC so I needed to replace it and decided ont he Cyclo. Next tool that's on it's way here is the paint gauge EGT-II..very nice paint gauge.

 

[nick19]

Looks great! :applause: How'd the Metabo perform?


One thing Nica, a little too much product. Two quarter sized dots on the pad is about all you need.

 

[Nuke33]

u did have your work cut out for you haha

 

[Nica]

Nick,

The Metabo works great, it's a kick ass machine. I really like the soft start, this helps on the splatter. Now as for the polish, yea I think I used to much on the picture but I wanted to try what Toto was talking about..the priming the pad. Well I thought it was like that, the thing with just putting to dots like you say is that it's not enough polish. The thing with the rotary is that you need more product/polish to keep the pad from drying up on you...well that's what I've noticed. I tried it both ways, one area with just like you suggested and the other way just like how you saw the picture. I found that the one with using lots of products works good, just because there is not dusting and keeps the pad from drying up.

Well like I said I'm just experimenting with the rotary, for now I'm going with trial and error and I'm hoping members will share there knowledge on the rotary and I'll take any info I can get.

But the Metabo is well worth the price my friend, feels like a glove on your hands...every curve of the Metabo is where it's supposed to be. Really nice, when you get yours you will understand.

 

[nick19]

Nick,

The Metabo works great, it's a kick ass machine. I really like the soft start, this helps on the splatter. Now as for the polish, yea I think I used to much on the picture but I wanted to try what Toto was talking about..the priming the pad. Well I thought it was like that, the thing with just putting to dots like you say is that it's not enough polish. The thing with the rotary is that you need more product/polish to keep the pad from drying up on you...well that's what I've noticed. I tried it both ways, one area with just like you suggested and the other way just like how you saw the picture. I found that the one with using lots of products works good, just because there is not dusting and keeps the pad from drying up.

Well like I said I'm just experimenting with the rotary, for now I'm going with trial and error and I'm hoping members will share there knowledge on the rotary and I'll take any info I can get.

But the Metabo is well worth the price my friend, feels like a glove on your hands...every curve of the Metabo is where it's supposed to be. Really nice, when you get yours you will understand.

Yeah, you probably can add a little more than a quarter.. I don't have very much experience with a rotary, just from what Mike Phillips taught us. I have a lot of reading to do when I can FINALLY get my hands on a Metabo.

 

[orngez]

on the rotary in never hurts to use a little extra polish..dry buffing is very unforgiving on a rotary compared to a pc...NEVER dry buff with a rotary..always follow procedure and properly spread out product on the surface you are working on...on plastic parts and tight areas the slower/est setting is what I often use...another tip...I often see when people new to the rotary use slower speeds they tend to press down harder...at slower speeds its easier to want to focus on the work surface rather than the presure you are applying as the rotary doesnt feel as "dangerous" at a slower speed...at slower speeds it is harder to "float" the pad across the surface...so just be mindfull to focus on the pad....as far as speed is concerned..i would never really see a reason to go past setting 3...i would encourage you to stay at speed 2 or lower...it may take a little longer to correct the paint..but as I'm sure you saw with the rotary that would equate into maybe an extra 15 seconds

 

[supercharged]

What an amazing difference! Great job!

 

[Nica]

Yeah, you probably can add a little more than a quarter.. I don't have very much experience with a rotary, just from what Mike Phillips taught us. I have a lot of reading to do when I can FINALLY get my hands on a Metabo.

Hey nick,

I just found out that when using a rotary you need polish with oils such as Optimum. I met up with CalgaryDetail today and he shared lots of information with me and he gave a sample of Optimum and yes with Optimum I can use what you recommended (quarter amount of polish). I just felt that with XMT it was drying up to fast. I don't know if XMT was made for a rotary...but then a gain what do I know I'm just getting my feet wet with the rotary.

orngez, I totally agree with you about the settings. I too, don't see a need to go past dial number 3.

Thank you all for the feed back.

 

[Truls]

A rotary brakes down a polish way faster than a DA, meguiars MG series got some good Products for rotary.

Great work for a "first timer" and its great to have a car to do test runs on.

How was that rotary to hold? mine wants to "run" away, and its often hard to keep stable on the car.

 

[ltoman]

Wow, Nica, you're the man! i don't think i will EVER attempt to use one of those! great job. it is nice to see your tape did not get in the way!
gopsh you weren't kidding about rust spots everywhere. Can't you fix them somehow?

 

[Surfer]

Beater is right, look at that last pic, he's making the Lex jealous. Yeh Jeeps inline 6 is robust, that truck will fall apart before the engine does lol. Nice job for 1st time with rotary...now go practice on the Lex