First time machine polishing - Product recommendations?

D

David Puddy

New member
Aug 17, 2021
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Hi all:

I've decided to try my hand at machine polishing on a recently acquired 2008 Toyota 4Runner (color is Galactic Gray Mica) and was hoping to get some feedback/recommendations on products and processes.

The truck has mild to moderate swirls throughout and some more noticeable scratches (but none deep enough to catch a finger nail) around the door handles and some fairly heavy scratches under the handles (I assume from finger nails, jewelry or keys). I'm planning to use a Griot's G9 DA with 5.5" Lake Country flat foam pads on a 5" backing plate (I bought 6 orange and 6 white to start) but haven't decided what polish and/or compound to use and with what pads. I'm not looking for show car results - I'd be happy with a 90% correction and restoring some gloss and depth to the paint.

Based on prior research, the 4Runner probably has fairly soft paint, so I was thinking of starting with Sonax Perfect Finish on a white pad. If the results were good I would stop there and proceed to a LSP. If swirls and scratches remained, I could try the Perfect Finish on the orange pads. Does that sound like an OK approach?

I also plan to wet sand the hood (it was repainted and has a bunch of dirt inclusions) and part of the roof (clear coat has some etching, probably from bird droppings). If I were to wet sand with 2000, 3000 and 5000 grit, would the DA/orange pad/Perfect Finish be enough to get the scratches out, or should I plan to start with a cutting compound? I don't mind buying a second product, as I suspect the scratches under the door handles will need something with more cut than the SPF. If I need a compound, would Cutmax work?

Thanks in advance for any insight.

Dave
 
Griots G9 with their supporting pads and polishes are a good start. The issue is no one can give you a pad and polish combination that guaranteed to give you great results on your car. We don't know how your paint is going to react.

You need to do a test(s) spot on the car. And a second test spot on the hood being it was repainted and expected to react different than the rest of the car. Maybe more than one test is required for different pad and polish combinations to get your process for that car figured out.

Always do the lest aggressive method to get results you want. Does the hood really need wet sanded? You might be surprised the results a high quality abrasive technology can achieve.

Do you currently have any polishes?
 
Consider the Jescar Line.

Micro Polish = Ultra fine finishing
Medium Polish = Cuts like a compound, finishes like a polish
Correcting Compound = Under promises and over delivers in cut and finish

This has been the most versatile, user friendly set of tools I currently have. At the shop we do everything from high end super cars to daily drivers.

I also use a lot of 3D One. It's similar to Jescar Medium, but has less cut, and sometimes will leave a on ultra fine haze on the paint, which the Jescar Medium does not.

I've used Sonax PF, and It's currently for sale. I find it dusts too much for my liking, and the finish isn't anything I can't get from other polishes. I do really like their Cut and Finish, and Ultimate Cut.

I like to have the three levels of cut, because of the flexibility.

If I were going to try and get it with just one bottle, it would be Jescar or Menzerna Medium..
 
I realize there's no guarantees but there's also literally hundreds of forum posts where people recommend pads and abrasives based on the same criteria (i.e., type of paint, type and extent of defects and expectations) - I'm just asking if my plan sounds OK or if it's misguided in some way. In any event, I will of course do a test section and always work from least to most aggressive.

As for the hood, I'm 99.9% sure it needs to be wet sanded. I guess I'm not opposed to other options, but I also don't want to take off some of the clear coat with compound only to have to immediately take off more by wet sanding.

I haven't bought any compound or polish yet. I'm not aware of any professional quality detail supply shops near me, so I'll likely need to order everything online and wanted to ask here before buying anything.
 
dlc95 said:
Consider the Jescar Line.

Micro Polish = Ultra fine finishing
Medium Polish = Cuts like a compound, finishes like a polish
Correcting Compound = Under promises and over delivers in cut and finish

This has been the most versatile, user friendly set of tools I currently have. At the shop we do everything from high end super cars to daily drivers.

I also use a lot of 3D One. It's similar to Jescar Medium, but has less cut, and sometimes will leave a on ultra fine haze on the paint, which the Jescar Medium does not.

I've used Sonax PF, and It's currently for sale. I find it dusts too much for my liking, and the finish isn't anything I can't get from other polishes. I do really like their Cut and Finish, and Ultimate Cut.

I like to have the three levels of cut, because of the flexibility.

If I were going to try and get it with just one bottle, it would be Jescar or Menzerna Medium..
Click to expand...

Thanks, this is very helpful.

Assuming my clear coat is "typical" for Toyotas and I wanted to try the Jescar line, what pads would you recommend for which products? I'm open to a multi step process, but I also don't have unlimited time so I'd probably prefer to limit it to 2 steps versus 3.
 
Look into Sonax Cut Max and EX 04-06. Both user friendly and no dusting.
 
David Puddy said:
I realize there's no guarantees but there's also literally hundreds of forum posts where people recommend pads and abrasives based on the same criteria (i.e., type of paint, type and extent of defects and expectations) - I'm just asking if my plan sounds OK or if it's misguided in some way. In any event, I will of course do a test section and always work from least to most aggressive.

As for the hood, I'm 99.9% sure it needs to be wet sanded. I guess I'm not opposed to other options, but I also don't want to take off some of the clear coat with compound only to have to immediately take off more by wet sanding.

I haven't bought any compound or polish yet. I'm not aware of any professional quality detail supply shops near me, so I'll likely need to order everything online and wanted to ask here before buying anything.
Click to expand...

With adding the test spot, your plan is sound. I keep Sonax Cutmax, Ex 04-06 on hand.
 
Thanks for all the advice so far.

Another question: I'm thinking I also want to get a 3" backing pad and some pads for certain hard-to-reach areas like the A-pillars, door frames, wheel well flares, and front bumper cover. How many should I get? Would 3 cutting and 3 polishing typically be enough to do those areas?
 
David Puddy said:
Thanks, this is very helpful.

Assuming my clear coat is "typical" for Toyotas and I wanted to try the Jescar line, what pads would you recommend for which products? I'm open to a multi step process, but I also don't have unlimited time so I'd probably prefer to limit it to 2 steps versus 3.
Click to expand...

I'd say you're pretty well set up with the orange and white Lake Country pads.

I use anything from Buff and Shine Uro-Fiber to cut, and Uro-Tec yellow to polish / finish. Ibalso have white pads for the more finicky paints.

I also use the old school green and blue Buff and Shine to a defect removal and polishing respectively. The Jescar seems to work great with a wide variety of pads. Lake Country Hydrotech are a strong favorite for me too.

At the shop we have some Americana Global pads made by Lake Country, and Adams old waffle pads. The Jescar seems to work well on all of them.

I'd start with what you have, and maybe pick up some black ones for final finishing.
 
David Puddy said:
Why is that? I've seen other references to this and also that the G6 polisher doesn't come with the same warning.
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The body of the G9 is different than the G6 was. The way the head of the machine is it's very user unfriendly to try a 3" pad. Somewhere on here I put up pictures of my G9 with a bunch of the different backing plates (don't remember if I did all of them, but for sure you can see the 3" backing plate with a regular thick Griot's pad as well as a thin 3" boss pad.

You technically could do it, but I wouldn't recommend it.

I'll try and find that thread and post a link so you can see.
 
So basically the body of the tool itself shrouds the pad - I assume this makes it difficult to see what you're doing in addition to making the tool unstable.

What's your view on a 3" setup being OK (although still far from good) for vertical surfaces only? The obvious solution is to have a second polisher dedicated to 3" pads but I'm not sure I could justify that given my expected (infrequent) use case. Is the alternative to polish by hand?
 
Personally, I just wouldn't bother.

I think you'll be surprised how much you'll be able to accomplish with the larger pad setup. Then just hit the tight spots by hand.

Alternately, if you wanted to stick to correction via machine for tight spaces, Griot's makes a little $10 adapter that you put in your drill, then you can put a backing plate on it (I'd go 2" or 3"). I use mine all the time to use a carpet brush on my drill. Yes, for 2" polishing you're losing random orbit, but you're also doing small areas where it's not going to catch your eye on the off chance you do leave any hologramming. Your pad speed on such a small pad is slow enough that unless you go hog wild I don't think you need to worry about burning paint either.

If you do pick up a smaller machine, I've been very happy with my G8.

Edit - Side note, I've been impressed by how well the G9 works with thick 6.5" pads for correcting on complex surfaces. I run into much less stalling set up like that than I do if I'm trying to use a 5.5" thin pad. In my opinion, needing a 5.5" thin pad to get any correction out of a free spinning random orbital is outdated - true for an old PC, or even the GG6, but the G9 with it's HP and digital speed controller has been really impressive for correction to me.
 
David Puddy said:
So basically the body of the tool itself shrouds the pad - I assume this makes it difficult to see what you're doing in addition to making the tool unstable.

What's your view on a 3" setup being OK (although still far from good) for vertical surfaces only? The obvious solution is to have a second polisher dedicated to 3" pads but I'm not sure I could justify that given my expected (infrequent) use case. Is the alternative to polish by hand?
Click to expand...

The reason GG does not recommend the 3" plate/pads for the G9 is because 99% of people are idiots, and would bash the company, and the G9 the second something went wrong.

If you are familiar with power tools, and you know how to be careful, then of course you could use the 3" set up. It's not ideal, but certainly possible.


As for your OP Dave: You are on the right track for a good start.

Great machine, great pads, and can't go wrong with Sonax. Everyone has to start somewhere, and you'll have a good start with the products you mentioned.

The only way to know what is "better" is to start with one combo, then try others in the future. :props:
 
PaulMys said:
The reason GG does not recommend the 3" plate/pads for the G9 is because 99% of people are idiots, and would bash the company, and the G9 the second something went wrong.

If you are familiar with power tools, and you know how to be careful, then of course you could use the 3" set up. It's not ideal, but certainly possible.


As for your OP Dave: You are on the right track for a good start.

Great machine, great pads, and can't go wrong with Sonax. Everyone has to start somewhere, and you'll have a good start with the products you mentioned.

The only way to know what is "better" is to start with one combo, then try others in the future. :props:
Click to expand...

What I been told from Griots about 3” pads on the g9 was that the longer throw and counter weight would make it vibrate to much.

I think that sounds right but also they would sell less g8’s


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
The Guz said:
Look into Sonax Cut Max and EX 04-06. Both user friendly and no dusting.
Click to expand...

I ended up buying these after reading/watching a number of reviews. I also bought the CarPro CQuartz Lite coating to use as my LSP based on a review you posted a while back - the ease of application sold me.:props:

Thanks again for all the helpful advice. I probably won't have time to do anything for another week or so, but I'll be sure to let you guys know how it turns out.
 
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