My eXtreme Garage Makeover plus some detailing work
- Thread starter Tato
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Tato
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- Nov 27, 2013
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Thank you for kind words, I'm happy you liked.
Thank you very much for comment and questions.
Whenever I'm performing any polishing I rely in a selected range of polishes and pads. For the polishes I choose from (lighter to heavier cut) SF4500, SF4000, FF3000, PF2500, FG400 and SHC300, all by Menzerna.
I have some others from other brands but used only Menzerna at the cars shown in this thread.
Those polishes I pair with Lake Country Hybrid Pads (5" and 6.5" - mainly Orange, White and Black/Gray), rarely wool and rarely LC Microfiber for Rotary (thicker ones).
Everything is powered by 2 units Flex 3401 with 4" plate and another with 5.5" plate.
Uses:
SF4500 and SF4000 I use mainly in two ways: 1. as a single step with white or black pads for softer paints / 2. if their cut is not enough I can use an aggressive product first (FG400 or SHC300) and follow with SF4000 or SF4500 for refinement / finish (as they are intended).
FF3000 and PF2500 I will put to work much more as 1-step where it fits than for intermediate polishing, but occasionally these products can be the 'cutting product' and I'll follow with SF4000 or SF4500 as needed.
Rarely I may use PF2500 as an intermediate step between FG400/300 and SF4000, being it (theoretically, please) FG400 at wool or orange pad, then PF2500 at orange or white pad, finally SF4000 at white or black pad.
FG400 can be used as one step on medium to hard paints paired with orange or white pad but it's mostly always used as first cutting step followed by SF4000. SHC300 is mostly always used as cutting product only and needs to be followed by intermediate and/or finishing polishes (FG400 / PF2500 and SF4000 / SF4500) to get a finish worth selling your customer.
What will I use? Well, depends on what the test spot tells me. I recommend starting using a fine approach like black or white pad and SF4000 and see what happens (quantity of cut with a fine product, and observe paint finishing potential). From there you will 'tweak' products, pads, tool speed, arm speed, pressure, passes, etc, till you get results you want.
I recommend you to take a look at "Smack's Technique thread" that demonstrates a solid way for using Flex 3401, LC Hybrid Pads and Menzerna polishes.
Although Smack Technique is awesome and definitively the whole basis of my work, I won't recommend you to stick with any technique or reproduce any technique without 'knowing exactly what you're doing'. That said, keep my words and keep looking at Smack's technique but don't forget to develop and improve 'Your Way', or the best way things may work for you.
Important variables to all this also includes time available and $$$ being paid, sometimes you will not be able to perform all steps needed for 95%+ correction and flawless finish, that's when you can workaround one-steps or fast two-steps (400/4000, etc).
For the cars shown at first page of this thread, I've used mainly (but not exclusively):
Land Rover in Black: 1 step with SF4000 was enough to cut and finish, Smack's technique (added to my own way), 5-6 passes, speed 5. However, I did it mostly in 'fast 2 steps' instead of one single-step, in this case it was two series of SF4000 with white pad. Why?
Well, finding 1-step approach that will 'solve your problem (cut and finish LSP ready) ' is a very good thing, however one-steps may lead you to inconsistent results majorly when you perform them fast. Repeating the approach was done in this case to guarantee full 1-step 'coverage' and even finish.
Black BMW: This paint was one of the most finicky I've always dealt. It was truly hard paint, however it was very tricky to finish.
FG400 was not enough to cut through without too much polisher speed, too slow arm speed, too much pressure, etc. When this happens I prefer stepping up a little on product / pad but use much less 'brute force' to work. That's when I decided SHC300, a product that will cut mostly anything but don't have as good finishing potential as FG400 (sure, there are exceptions). This was one exception, being the paint so hard, SHC300 cut through but also left very little haze for the finishing step.
Following SHC300 with SF4000 (white polishing pad) was enough to achieve results shown.
White Peugeot: SF4000 and white pad alone was almost enough to get a good one-step however, again, some 'brute force' was also involved.
I had 2 (many, but basically 2) options then: FF3000 or PF2500. I've tested both and decided for FF3000 at white pad (it matched this paint well). On hood and other tricky parts I went the FG400 / SF4000 route, final results were the same of 1-step but more cut for the first polishing step.
Black Peugeot: SF4000 and white pad (first used) gave me a very good finishing potential but was not being able to get rid of defects. Since paint 'told me' at the test spot it was going to be hard and very time consuming to get rid of defects my second try was much heavier, SHC300 and orange pad.
Defects were going away now very easily, but the finish provided by SHC300 in this paint was going to give me a lot of more work to finish then (2 steps at least, like following SHC300 with PF2500 and then SF4000). This occurred because to refine SHC300 in this paint SF4000 was now needing many passes to refine the coarser approach. I was needing mostly 2 hits of SF4000 to get there.
With that in mind I did a third test spot now lowering a bit the compound to FG400. 'Bingo' (lol), decent cut in a good timeframe, and much better finishing than SHC300 (in this paint). With that in mind I could work everything basically in 2 steps, FG400 and SF4000.
At the hood (most neglected) I decided SHC300 (few passes like doing a 'pre-polish' approach) followed by FG400 / SF4000 I was using at the rest of the car. Worked like a charm.
Please, let me know if I could answer your question and if you need further help, don't hesitate contacting me. Hope that helps.
Thanks for the comment, glad to hear from you.
Kind Regards.
Mp0wer
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- Mar 15, 2013
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Hey Tato
Thanks for explaining your products and technique you used for each car, I really appreciate it. All the cars came out awesome, my favorite being the BMW hood with those beautiful white clouds reflecting off that wet paint :xyxthumbs:
I also checked out mikes Smacks Technique Thread...great information
Thanks for explaining your products and technique you used for each car, I really appreciate it. All the cars came out awesome, my favorite being the BMW hood with those beautiful white clouds reflecting off that wet paint :xyxthumbs:
I also checked out mikes Smacks Technique Thread...great information