First time with a DA: great results????

magna_power

magna_power

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Hi guys, I recently got my DA polisher (it's a concours 900, Australian brand, basically a porter cable) and finally got to use it today!!!! I got with it a menzerna pack and some 6.5 CSS pads.

Menzerna pack is:
PG1000
PF2500
SF4500
SW-PROTECT (I'm keen to get some powerlock or WGPS 3.0)

Pads are:
Orange
White
Grey
Blue

So here is how the boot started (car is a 1998 mitsubishi magna, daily driver that is parked outside, next to AND under trees) (Picture 1, wasn't sure how to embed them in the thread, any help....)

I starrted with the least aggressive method (might post up all the pics later but you'll just get 4 for now) and determined that I needed everything to be "happy" with the final result. So here is what it looked like after orange pad with PG1000. I didn't have all of the compound off before I took the photo but you get the idea, you can still see some very small swirls, I believe from the compound itself (Picture 2).

So after that I used the grey pad with SF4500 and then topped it used the Blue pad with SW_PROTECT and ended up with this (Picture 3)

As you can see some marks still on the finish that wont really go away, maybe more time and more passes would help some of them, but like I said, daily driver that is 15 years old, can't ask for the world on my first shot ;)

Finally, for those who take their after shots and have the scenery in focus, shame on you ;) That's cheating!!! you want the paint in focus! Anyway, here is how it looks with the scenery in focus on my car (Picture 4). As you can see not focusing on the paint blurs out all the bad bits that are left hahaha

Any comments are welcome!!!!
 
That looks really good for your first time! I would be impressed if I were you. Especially being a 15 year old daily driver.
 
Thanks, I've been caring for my car with turtle wax stuff for the past 10ish years, so I've known about keeping it clean blah blah blah, but I was doing it all wrong!!!!! Sponge with 1 bucket, or car wash, thick layers of wax, so taht it lasted better (my ignorance!!!!). But yeah, this made me feel pretty good, great starrt to the weekend (it's Saturday here in Australia).

Also should mention, gave the car a wash with the two bucket method (no real point with the swirls, but need to get into the habbit). Then I clayed the boot with mothers clay kit.

The rest of the car will follow, in time.... Until then I have one nice looking boot hahaha!
 
Hey, great job mate!
It sounds like you are happy with the products you got?
Keep up the good work...
 
Hey neat, yeah happy with the products, thanks for your advice on those (and to BobbyG for his advice!).
 
magna_power said:
thick layers of wax, so that it lasted better
Click to expand...

Yeah, if that wasn't the Catch 22 of my youth...you put it on thick so it would last a long time, and it was so difficult to get off and got in so many nooks and crannies...that you didn't want to do it again for a long time...so you put it on really thick again so it would last a long time...etc. etc. etc.

Oh, BTW--great results, it's so cool to polish up your paint for the first time!
 
It's sort of funny but we all started out in the very same spot. Out first cars were generally older with a ton of surface defects and typically a wash and wax was it.

Once the opportunity presented itself we discovered that we had just scratched the surface in detailing.....Pun intended! :laughing:

With a little direction, a few new products and a dual action polisher we quickly discovered how nice our finishes could look!!

I think you did an outstanding job and the photos are proof positive.....:props:

Practice builds experience and knowledge.....:dblthumb2:
 
Yeah, the thicker the better approach got me too. Goes to show you're never too old to learn.

Nice work, by the way.
 
Thanks guys, positive words always go a long way, so I really appreciate it! The menzerna products were easy to use, only thing I stuffed up majorly was not changing the speed of the polisher for waxing, that resulted in a lot of dusting!!!!
 
I think it looks very good, especially for your first correction!!! :xyxthumbs:
 
Now I jsut need to repeat the process for the entire car! I really don'thave enough pads, so it'll be a couple of panels each weekend i think.
 
Im curious, how did you get the camera to focus on the reflection and not the paint?
I see what you mean about cheating, very effective!
 
It's easy to capture the reflection, it's hard to capture the paint. Think of the surface of your paint as a mirror. If you take a photo of you standing in front of the mirror then you (the reflection) is in focus. This is what happens when taking photos of your paint, that is why so many people struggle to capture the swirls in their paint. The are two ways (that I know of) to overcome this:

1. Put something on your paint (I've seen mike suggest a small piece of clay) and focus on that, then you know you've focused on the paint.

2. Use manual focus if you have a DSLR.

Hope that info helps
 
Nice work, magna_power. :xyxthumbs:

I've seen people use their finger or a small piece of tape to focus. Another trick I found that works is:
1) Put your finger down on the surface
2) Push the shutter release half-way to lock the focus...it's that half-click you feel that makes the camera beep to let you know it's focused
3) Remove your finger while still holding the shutter release
4) Push the shutter release all the way down to snap your picture
 
Yeah the half push of the button trick is always helpful ;)

Thanks also for the comments guys :)
 
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