BDoggPrelude
New member
- May 25, 2015
- 36
- 0
First off, I've always taken decent care of my vehicles. Wake up early to hand wash before the sun is beating down at least every other week. Try to clay bar 2-3 times per year. Wax probably 2 times every 3 months. I had always used over the counter products that can be bought at local auto stores. Recently I started looking into getting a DA polisher and getting a little more serious about things. I did a decent amount of research and ended up getting some more professional stuff:
-Porter Cable 7424xp
-Lake Country 5" backing plate and 5.5" CCS pads
-Meguiar's M105, M205 and M21
So this is my wife's 2007 Acura TL. To say that she doesn't take care of the paint whatsoever would be an understatement. It gets taken care of when I do it myself. Honestly, I work a lot and I really don't have time to detail 2 cars every week. She also does not avoid parking in high foot traffic areas, under trees, etc. So, the paint was pretty bad. Swirl marks, tree sap, water spots...you name it. I didn't really get a bunch of before pictures other than before I did the headlight restoration. I also didn't get any really good after shots because it has rained literally every single day in Denver for a month now. I finished it up pretty late at night and it rained the majority of the following day.
Like I said, this was my first time ever machine polishing a car. The entire process from wash to finish took me almost 14 hours. Lol. For the compound and polish I did 16x16 sections with 2 horizontal and 2 vertical passes with a 50% overlap on a 5.5" pad. I was going to finish it up with a coat of wax when it was all done but it was late and I was spent.
Here are a couple of before pictures:
After using Meguiar's Perfect Clarity headlight restoration kit:
After wash and clay bar:
After compound:
After compound, polish and sealant:
-Porter Cable 7424xp
-Lake Country 5" backing plate and 5.5" CCS pads
-Meguiar's M105, M205 and M21
So this is my wife's 2007 Acura TL. To say that she doesn't take care of the paint whatsoever would be an understatement. It gets taken care of when I do it myself. Honestly, I work a lot and I really don't have time to detail 2 cars every week. She also does not avoid parking in high foot traffic areas, under trees, etc. So, the paint was pretty bad. Swirl marks, tree sap, water spots...you name it. I didn't really get a bunch of before pictures other than before I did the headlight restoration. I also didn't get any really good after shots because it has rained literally every single day in Denver for a month now. I finished it up pretty late at night and it rained the majority of the following day.
Like I said, this was my first time ever machine polishing a car. The entire process from wash to finish took me almost 14 hours. Lol. For the compound and polish I did 16x16 sections with 2 horizontal and 2 vertical passes with a 50% overlap on a 5.5" pad. I was going to finish it up with a coat of wax when it was all done but it was late and I was spent.
Here are a couple of before pictures:
After using Meguiar's Perfect Clarity headlight restoration kit:
After wash and clay bar:
After compound:
After compound, polish and sealant:
