First; :welcome: to AGO!
Holy JESUS!!!
How in the world did the paint get THAT bad in 3 weeks?
The car is only 3 weeks old...although I did run it through the car wash twice.
Looks like you need to change car washes!
You mentioned you will be using the Flex, or is it you plan on buying the Flex? :dunno:
Certainly a great tool to have, (although lately guys have been kicking it to the curb for the RUPES).
OTOH, you can likely do anything you need with the GG6 and save a ton-o-money for pads while doing it.
I don't agree with the statement that 205 won't help with your paint. Being a SMAT product it'll work harder from start to finish than the same grit in a DAT polish, (being as DAT starts wearing down the instant you start to use it). That being said, 205 IS NOT going to have enough cut to remove the problems you have. Neither will ANY polish. It's hard to call those craters 'swirls', that looks deep enough to plant corn in! :laughing:
I cannot speak to working with the Flex, so I'll reserve that part for those that have. If there have NEVER been anything else said that one should listen to here (on AG) it would be DO YOUR TEST SPOT!
Take that one idea and do this.... :bash: knock it DEEP into your inner psyche.
Speaking from a GG persepective, looking at your photos I'd start with M101 or D300.
I worked on a Lexus last weekend that wasn't quite that bad, but it was pretty freaking bad. I pulled out M205, Ultimate Compound, M101 and D300. Keep in mind that when doing a test spot you don't want to do th efull correction, but just TEST with the same amount of section passes, same speed, pad, etc. in order to figure out your 'starting' spot. Later you can adjust the amount of section passes to get the finish you desire.I always start on speed 4½ to speed 5, with 4 section passes on about a 16" square area.
Anyhow, taped of several test spots and tried the 205 with white then orange and yellow pads. Wasn't really doing what I needed.
Then did UC with orange & yellow, better but not good enough.
Did D300 with a Megs MF cutting pad, and the correction is almost as good as 101 but it is a LOT smoother, (like it has fillers in it). :dunno: I had just picked up the D300 kit and only have 2 cutting pads so I chose not to do the entire car with it.
Picking up more pads Monday so I'll be freaking ready next time.
Next was 101 with orange then yellow. Was thinking we could finish it down with the orange pad, and likely could have but it'd taken more time. (
Flex can cut that time down though) Moved to the same 4 passes with the yellow and even the owners eyes lit up, looking pretty good now.
Bottom line is.... try several pads to figure out what is going to work. Also, you will need half a dozen (
at least) of your main pads. Compounding not only gets pads dirty, but it heats them up. Even when they are not 'full' they will start to hold a lot of heat and the centers will start collapsing. It's possible to do a "clean on the fly" then pull one off and let it cool without throwing it in cleaner, but you cannot compound an entire car with 2~3 pads.
(Speaking of CCS, Flat etc.) Yellow, orange, white you'll need a lot of. The softer they get, the less you'll need but
whatever you do, buy a lot of pads. Nothing is worse than having to wash and wait on pads to dry while trying to finish a car!
The MF pads and D300 with the finishing wax is a great system, fantastic 2-step that I see using quite a bit. Also 101 can be used with the MF pads and really lay down some cut, but it will show micro-marring (especially on black). Not a problem though as you'll always be moving to polishing anyhow. That's where the D300 really shines, literally! (IT SHINES!!!)
With black paint, new user, I dunno though. I'd probably stay with foam pads for now. Get the least cut you can stand, with a measured number of section passes and go from there.
BTW, looking forward to seeing the recovery pics there when you get it done.:xyxthumbs:
