How many passes? How much time?

[Al D]

Just got my flex and tried it out tonight. Used M205 with a yellow ccs pad.
The car is a still slightly shiny 10 year old gold toyota camry paint.
The cars owner won't do much if any upkeep. It's just a practice car for me, so I didn't bother with a clay bar.
So I spent about a hour with the M105 on the hood, roof and trunk. Then about 20 minutes using Chem Guys EZ glaze on 1/2 the hood, roof and trunk (to see the difference between glaze and no glaze.)
Although the car looks better than it did, the difference was very little. Hardly noticeable.
How much time do I need to sped polishing before I see a bigger difference?

 

[Y2KSVT]

It depends on your technique and the products/tools you're using. I would think M205 and a yellow pad is a fairly uncommon mix, as the yellow pads are about as harsh as you can get with CCS pads, and M205 is a finishing polish. If the swirls and scratches are really bad, then you might go with M105 and the yellow, but maybe try M105 with an orange pad, first. Depending on how that finishes out, and assuming you've removed most of the swirls and scratches, then move on to M205 and a white pad to polish out any remaining swirls or micro marring you might get from the more aggressive step.

Make sure you've watched some of Mike Phillips' videos on section passes. You'll probably want to do 2-4 section passes with a decent amount of pressure, and then 1 or 2 more passes with just the weight of the machine. This may not be possible while working with M105 as it dries out pretty quickly.

Regardless, I'd stick with a test spot until you've narrowed down a process that works for you, and for the car you're working on. Once you get it down, repeat those steps over the rest of the car.

Do you have any pictures of the Toyota? Maybe some before and after shots, or pictures of untouched paint vs. what you've done so far? There are a lot of people WAY more versed in this than me, but I'm giving you my thoughts as I'm still a beginner, and just recently went through this with my car.

Mark

 

[Al D]

Thanks for the input.
The scratches are hardly noticeable, so I probably don't need the 205.
I started with the 105 and a white pad. When it didn't do much, I went to the yellow.
I'll try a few more passes tomorrow and see if it makes a difference.
Thanks,
Al

 

[08krewkab]

Change your pads around.... the white is not cutting with the 105... use the yellow with the 105 first...then use the white with the 205 second