Any tips on polishing Smart (the small car) then coating? (Need someone's urgent help)

Tato

Tato

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Greetings,

Have a Smart here in garage for detailing and PBL coating.

I knew it was to come (scheduled it some weeks ago), but now it arrived and I've realized most of this car is made of plastic parts lol!

Sorry, in a hurry and cannot search the whole history behind the car now (maybe later), being it small, owner is looking for a 'fast' workout.

Is this car 'polishable'? By Machine, I mean? I'm to use 3401 or even G220v2 Meguiar's.

What do I need to consider while doing it? I have many polishes, M105, M205, fg400, pf2500, sf4000, perfect finish sonax, d300, etc..

It has some 'metal parts' in black (picture bellow), looks too sensible as well but I'm thinking of M205 and white pad on that.


Please, I need to start polishing this car Now!, that's why I've wrote 'urgent' on thread's title.

(Pictures were taken with Macbook camera, sorry again!)

This picture is to show the plastic (yellow) and what I suspect (!) metal painted parts in black.


Here's a random shot (macbook is not a good size of camera to handle!)



Plastic, !

Car has lots of contaminants that will need a thorough claying coming next. I want to polish it afterwards and coat.

Any tip regarding how to work the best on this car is much appreciable.

Thank you very much in advance,

Kind Regards.
 
My guess is you can polish it like normal considering most car bumpers are plastic.
 
Yep, thank you for that.

Question is 'it feels' a bit different than plastic bumpers, looks like it's 'pigmented yellow plastic' instead of plastic painted in yellow, if you know what I mean.

Maybe I'm overlooking it, but I want to be certain.

Also, would like to hear by someone's experience if it's soft / hard or any other tip to be careful, see, instead of jumping over it with a machine I'm willing to be the most gentle, indeed effective.

I had posted here some time ago how to be prepared for cleaning soft fabric top, and everything went really nice, thanks to our autogeek friends.


For the body, Until now, I've clayed it (lots and lots of contaminants, paint felt tacky), and I've tested PBL cleansing polish by hand, no problem, paint looks really clean.

However, I do have some minor swirls and scratches that it'd be nice if I can get rid of.

Again, thank you very much.

Kind Regards.
 
Try using your finest polish, and a softer pad, working slightly more aggressive to achieve the results you seek. I've personally never worked on one.

When in doubt, test it out?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using AG Online
 
Hi, thank you !

Sure, I'm doing extensive testing here, however, it's always good to learn from other's experience.

At the moment, I've clayed, hand polished with Uber Compound + MF applicator, and then foam hand pad with PBL cleansing polish.

Got rid of all contamination and stains, however the swirls won't come out by hand.

I believe my next test would be machine polishing with a fine polish.

I want some tips regarding PRESSURE and heating, because I don't want melted and cracked plastic, just a Show Car Smart!

More Tips, please!
 
plastic doesn't allow heat to dissipate as fast as metal like doors are generally made of. I think I saw in a YouTube video that w/ plastic painted bumpers use less pressure, slightly faster arm speed. I'm no professional though!
 
Awesome, thank you everyone!

While you're helping me by the other side, I'm doing extensive testing here. This Thread is exactly what I was looking for.

I'm not lazy to do a search (I've done it!), but (just for fun), I encourage you to search Smart ____something____ at google to see that you get ANYTHING but the car!

Again, thank you everyone in advance,

Kind Regards.
 
Tato said:
I'm not lazy to do a search (I've done it!), but (just for fun), I encourage you to search Smart ____something____ at google to see that you get ANYTHING but the car!
Click to expand...
Tato...
Here's a few other "Smart Car" threads:

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/tricks-tips-techniques/45109-smart-car-polishing.html

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...-mike-phillips/32413-smart-car-detailing.html

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/show-n-shine/31256-smart-car-clean-up.html

Bob
 
Don't use too much pressure or you'll go straight through the clear to the floor.


Sorry, I just couldn't resist. Such a funny little car.
 
If its painted then the material doesnt really matter; the effects of polishing are seen in the paint. Just be gentle so you dont indent any panels while polishing. Id tape off everything that isnt painted first though considering how small panels are on this.
 
parttimer said:
This might help:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/show-n-shine/75102-2013-smart-car-detail.html
Click to expand...


Thanks for tracking that write-up down and linking to it here. I was so impressed with Franks write-up, that is the formatting, descriptions and pictures I created a blue clickable link for a title to his thread to make it easier to share. Now anyone can simply use their mouse to highlight the title and then copy and past the link.


2013 Smart Car Detail



:dblthumb2:
 
Thank you everyone for tips,

I've managed to polish half the car using an yellow Hybrid Pad and SF4000, although it looks clean, and very shiny, swirls looks untouchable with the pressure / speed I'm willing to use.

Also, thanks for the joke, I like it!

Again, thank you everyone for chiming in, it was great to account on your advice.

I'm doing well, hope to place some pictures tomorrow.

Kind Regards.
 
Here are some pics to illustrate some progress...

I've managed to get this one when leaving garage tonight,

Polished with 3401 + Yellow Hybrid pad + SF4000
Smart-almost.png


This one is a before / after the soft top,

Before,
soft-top-before.png


After (removed lint with 3M 'lint remover picky roll', washed/cleaned with nonSense APC 20:1, soft bristle brush, rinse, blot dry with MF towel, let dry completely, applied Smartwax Fabric Guard 2 coats (1 hour between them):
soft-top-after.png


(Hey, stop looking at black paint condition, this is to show the soft top! - I've already done a test spot on part of this black details and SF4000 on yellow pad finished ~swirl free, and this black parts are the first thing I'll do tomorrow by the morning).

Then, PBL Cleansing polish on everything then coating.

The most intensive step until now was claying, the car had somewhat of a 'greasy' film stubborned to the paint, so I had to clay inch by inch.

I've used Meguiar's clay and 3M (purple) clay, it took almost 4 hours to clay and remove greasy film of entire car...

The smallest car I've done until now, the most intensive clay step I've done until now.

That's why I generally don't charge by 'size of the car', like customers wish to pay. They do think that a small car means less trouble... this is SO WRONG!

Thanks everyone for helping me, I'm pretty much covered on this one, and you're all responsible for this one (more one!).

Pleasure to count on you,

Kind Regards.
 
Greetings! - Updated Pics Bellow -

Like I've said, every help here was very useful for me. I've managed to detail this car and develop a polishing technique very effective using everything said here (all thread recommendations as well!).

Now I'm sure I am able to help the next one to polish a Smart, count on me.

I must admit claying was the most important single step. This car was damped on a road film that was only fully removed claying (with conventional clay bar) inch by inch.

some more pictures (the after for the picture above), and others,


Almost same angle ;)
smarta2.png


Other side - ( Swirls on glass not removed :( ).
smarta3.png


No before pic, but I guarantee you this place (and the whole car!) was damped on a road film with stubborn brown points that only came out after 5 - 6 clay passes on each! I went all down there, in between all panels, etc...
smarta4.png



Waiting for PBL surface coating...
smarta1.png



Interior was also fully detailed, every spot.

I'll coat it now, then park at enclosed garage for coating cure overnight.

Thanks again for helping me,

Kind Regards.
 
Looking good buddy. What was the process for removal of the swirls?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using AG Online
 
Thank you very much my friend,

I've used Uber Compound on a Tangerine Hydro-Tech pad, then I've re-polished with White Hybrid pad and SF4000, lastly I've done CCS gray/black pad with SF4000 for flawless finish. I don't have (yet) gray/black Hybrid, so I would at least try it if I had one.

I use Flex 3401.

The great lesson I've learned doing this car is that I can be gentle yet effective. I've used mainly speed 4 or 5 with every setup, however I've tried to deal with less pressure (I'm a pressure addict!), and played with speed 2 while finishing, damn that's good!

Also, now I can say how much I like SF4000, using it a lot like today gave me good feeling on this polish.

Ahh, another lesson I've learned is to charge for hour, not for Size of Car lolololol!

Living and learning,

Thank you very much for feedback.


Kind Regards.
 
SYMAWD said:
My guess is you can polish it like normal considering most car bumpers are plastic.
Click to expand...

i know any flat surface can be clayed but i have only buffed plastic once so i know this, it can get swirled out and it cannot be unswirled
 
Mike.Phillips@Autogeek said:
I've worked on all kinds of plastic and some plastics are more easily polished than others but I'm not sure I would make a blanket statement like you're saying.


:dunno:
Click to expand...

I believe this is something that can be stated, some are easier...

I've even thought of using some 'plastic polish' like Meg's PlastX, but I don't have any here and I don't know exactly how it would work on painted plastic like bumpers, since I know they are good on plastic lenses.

I'm agreeing with Mike because in my opinion, all the swirls would come out from the plastic on this car. However, it would be a veeeeery long and exhaustive process (also Costly enough that customer was not interested in doing). That's because all the care you need to take while buffing it, not exerting to much pressure and avoiding heat at any cost.

To do that, I've managed to tackle larger areas at a time, using slower speeds and finer products and pads. This goes to the 'opposite way' of fast and effective correction.

I had to decide what to do with the time and money invested I had in question, so I've polished all the metal painted parts to a swirl free finish using 'conventional methods', removed many scratches (actually paint transfers) by claying the body, and 'pampered' the plastic body with a finer polish and pad, only tackling fine swirls but amplifying the gloss to the maximum level.

My cycle ended when I could see a shiny, crispy and sharp reflection of my polisher working, and that took lots of passes on slow speed.

Finally, for cleaning the paint so well and doing the stated above, me (and client, most important) had a happy ending on this one.

Maybe in the future I would still polish the same car, and I'll be sure that it's still polishable, the way too gentle I went this time.

Again, thank you everyone for help, having AGO by my side made the WHOLE difference.

Kind Regards.
 
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