New Paint Job - How to Polish?

[g60corrado91]

Hi Mike,

First post here. I have a 2018 British Racing Green Miata Club. I ended up purchasing the following:

CarPro Iron-X
Griots Garage G9 polisher
Griots BOSS orange correction pad
BLACKFIRE One Step
Sonax Polymer Net Shield
Sonax BSD
Foam pad conditioning brush

The steps I'm planning on taking are:

1. Wash car
2. Decontaminate the car using Iron-X
3. Rinse/wash the car down again
4. Check for any tree sap and if there is any, remove it with isopropyl alcohol
5. Claybar the car (I just have Meguiars clay)
6. Fully dry the car
7. Use the G9 and One Step

This is where my questions begin. My car was painted; ND Miata's do not come factory in BRG. It will have been about 3 months October 15th. I will be pretty light starting off just because it's a dark color and I don't know how strong the body shops paint and clear is. I will start in an inconspicuous area first. I have some experience from my GTI with using a DA buffer and Meguiars products back in 2009 or so, but I believe those were just polishing pads more than anything.

The swirls are very light, but there are some there, most likely from the Mazda dealer having washed it a time or two... I see in your post, you use the BOSS orange correction pads about 8 section passes through, but the swirls in the Miata's paint are not nearly that deep.

1. Would you still recommend I use the orange correction pad, or should I get the BOSS yellow perfection pad?

2. In other posts, you mention on a car with pretty good paint, to use 5-6 pads. What is the point of the conditioning brush if I'm using multiple pads anyhow? i.e. are the pads useless when you swap to the next pad, or is that just because they get all gunked up and you can reuse them after you clean them out? The Miata is about as small as the original Miata with a soft top, so I'm thinking I could probably make do with 4-5 pads.

3. After applying the One Step, can you apply a carnauba finishing wax on top of it AND THEN the Sonax PNS? Or is the carnauba wax redundant in this case?

4. The Sonax PNS can last up to 6 months, obviously depending on how the car is "touched" and washed each time. Is there a process of having to remove it before re-applying it, or do you just apply it back on with a MF towel? I know actual ceramic coating is something that doesn't necessarily wear away at the same rate on a car.

5. Last question. I should be fine doing all this (including the Iron-X) with the paint 3 months old, correct? It does sit outside in a mix of sun and shade, so I feel it is ready for it.

Thank you for your time!

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Hi Mike,

First post here. I have a 2018 British Racing Green Miata Club. I ended up purchasing the following:

CarPro Iron-X
Griots Garage G9 polisher
Griots BOSS orange correction pad
BLACKFIRE One Step
Sonax Polymer Net Shield
Sonax BSD
Foam pad conditioning brush

The steps I'm planning on taking are:

1. Wash car
2. Decontaminate the car using Iron-X
3. Rinse/wash the car down again
4. Check for any tree sap and if there is any, remove it with isopropyl alcohol
5. Claybar the car (I just have Meguiars clay)
6. Fully dry the car
7. Use the G9 and One Step

Good collection of supplies, looks like a good plan.

This is where my questions begin.

My car was painted; ND Miata's do not come factory in BRG. It will have been about 3 months October 15th. I will be pretty light starting off just because it's a dark color and I don't know how strong the body shops paint and clear is. I will start in an inconspicuous area first. I have some experience from my GTI with using a DA buffer and Meguiars products back in 2009 or so, but I believe those were just polishing pads more than anything.

Good plan. What you want to do is called a

Test Spot

Here's two articles I have on this topic,

How To Do a Test Spot

Just wrote this one,

The two reasons WHY you should always do a Test Spot before buffing out any car


And if you watch this video, I show you exactly HOW to do a Test Spot. No other video on YouTube nails it like this one.

The Test Spot is thE more important first step when it comes to machine polishing any car. Anyone that tells you different must be an expert. :laughing:

The swirls are very light, but there are some there, most likely from the Mazda dealer having washed it a time or two... I see in your post, you use the BOSS orange correction pads about 8 section passes through, but the swirls in the Miata's paint are not nearly that deep.

1. Would you still recommend I use the orange correction pad, or should I get the BOSS yellow perfection pad?

Normally I use and recommend, (lead by example), foam polishing pads. I have an article someone that explains why. BUT - when it comes to the BOSS ORANGE foam pads, these are light cutting foam pads, which you could call aggressive foam POLISHING pads. See the twist?

AND - as the foam becomes wet with product it softens, so what starts out as a light foam cutting pad ends up being a normal foam polishing pad. I'm a fan of the Griot's BOSS LIGHT CUTTING ORANGE foam pads. They work well with AIOs.

2. In other posts, you mention on a car with pretty good paint, to use 5-6 pads. What is the point of the conditioning brush if I'm using multiple pads anyhow? i.e. are the pads useless when you swap to the next pad, or is that just because they get all gunked up and you can reuse them after you clean them out? The Miata is about as small as the original Miata with a soft top, so I'm thinking I could probably make do with 4-5 pads.

I can see you read a lot of my how-to information but somewhere along the line you missed the part about how foam pads become wet and saturated with product and at this point they stop doing what they are supposed to be doing,

A foam cutting pad becomes a foam polishing pad, even a foam finish pad when its soggy wet.
A foam polishing pad becomes a foam finishing pad.

When foam becomes wet it becomes dramatically less effective. This means you're wasting your time because the foam is no longer WORKING for you.

To put it another way, clean dry foam pads work best and rotate best. Buff out a couple thousand cars and pay attention to pad rotation and pad effectiveness and add to this how much you value your time and then it will all make sense.

3. After applying the One Step, can you apply a carnauba finishing wax on top of it AND THEN the Sonax PNS? Or is the carnauba wax redundant in this case?

Not just redundant but very redundant and a waste of time, energy and product. Pick one or the other. If you go with PNS, what I tell people is it is a tick sticky for wipe-off. So only apply to small sections at a time, wait about 30 seconds and then wipe off. Very cool product by you'll see, it doesn't wipe off near as EASY as BLACKFIRE One Step.

And when it comes to BF One Step - be sure to let it FULLY dry before wiping it off and then it's super easy to wipe off. If you wipe this product off while it's wet, it's the same thing as applying it, that is you're SMEARING it over the surface, not removing it.

I apply the BF One Step to the ENTIRE car and then wipe off.

4. The Sonax PNS can last up to 6 months, obviously depending on how the car is "touched" and washed each time. Is there a process of having to remove it before re-applying it, or do you just apply it back on with a MF towel? I know actual ceramic coating is something that doesn't necessarily wear away at the same rate on a car.

For a car like yours, if you want it to always look it's best, you know, look cool. I'd recommend doing "something" to it at least every 6 months.

Nothing looks as good as a fresh coat of wax


Assuming the above statement is true, if you want your car to look like it was just waxed, then just wax it. In other words, do something to it often. I think I wrote a brand new article on this topic also,


Maintaining means doing something frequently - Touching the surface

If you want to be lazy, use the BF One Step over the entire car. Let dry and then wipe off. Next, apply the PNS to JUST the horizontal panels. The sides of your car don't take the brunt of the elements like the horizontal surfaces. Then once in a while, simply buzz over the car with BF One Step and do the PNS thing again. This is very fast and easy and because it's fast and easy you're more likely to do it, especially when you see how great the BF is going to work and how easy it is to machine apply and then wipe off.

For what it's worth, this is what I use on my airport car.

5. Last question. I should be fine doing all this (including the Iron-X) with the paint 3 months old, correct? It does sit outside in a mix of sun and shade, so I feel it is ready for it.

Thank you for your time!

I would test the Iron X on the rear of the car and the top of the trunk lid. See if there's any color changing taking place. If so then do the rest of the car from the windows down. If not, skip the rest of the car.

Because the paint is new, if there's not a lot of iron contamination or other chemical pollution in your area, the paint may not be contaminated and any light contamination will come off with the claying and the BF One Step.

I know everyone thinks the color changing or bleeding-effect looks cool, but it's really better to NOT see it. I explain why here,


The Car Insurance Analogy for using an Iron Remover by Mike Phillips

 

[JustJesus]

g60 - you're off to a good start with your tool and supplies!!

The G9 machine looks to be a great tool

So far, the One Step has been good to me. Like Mike said, do the whole car and let it dry. Wipe off was indeed easy.

When I have some more time (when?!?!?) I'll do a write-up on my last job in which I used One Step.

 

[g60corrado91]

Thank you so much Mike!

I will definitely do a test spot first and check out your other how to's and that YouTube video. Don't need to screw up brand new paint!


The general consensus then is that I could get away with using the BOSS orange cutting pad since it is on the 'light' side of cutting and works well with AIOs.

And yes, I did indeed miss the part where the foam pads get wet/saturated and loose their cutting effectiveness. The reason for having many pads is not because the pad is trash, it's just needing to be cleaned again for the next use, but having many clean pads allows you to detail the entire car without having to wait for the saturated pad to dry after cleaning it.

Yeah, I wasn't sure if the carnauba was a waste of time and product, hence why I asked!

I will end up doing exactly what you do with your airport car. I'll do the initial job and then every 5-6 months, I will purchase a yellow BOSS pad and go over it with One Step and then the PNS, unless I have swirls again, then I'll use the orange pads.

Totally makes sense with Iron-X. I'll test a small section of the car first and if I don't see the color bleeding effect, I won't do the whole car. I know that WILL be a thing on my white Mk5 GTI as I run Carbotech XP-8 brake pads that are unbelievably dusty (not to mention it's been a few years since it's seen a polisher and has 158k on it).



This conversation spawned another question I have. The G9 has a 6" backing plate. The Miata is obviously a tiny car. Do you personally prefer to use the 5" backing plate with 5.5" pads? I could see that being easier to get in the tighter areas. I don't really want to invest in a 3" polisher as this isn't a career or side business; this is just to keep my 2 cars decently well kept.

Thanks again!

- Matthew

 

[g60corrado91]

g60 - you're off to a good start with your tool and supplies!!

The G9 machine looks to be a great tool

So far, the One Step has been good to me. Like Mike said, do the whole car and let it dry. Wipe off was indeed easy.

When I have some more time (when?!?!?) I'll do a write-up on my last job in which I used One Step.

I can't wait to get everything!

 

[howardm4]

with the older GG6 buffer, you could simply install a 3" backplate. Not sure if the new G9 allows that. Having a 3" (or less) comes in very handy!

 

[Jayfro]

Everything that Mike said is 100000+% correct, take it to the bank! He and everyone else on AGO saved my tail after I marred the crap out of my car with an inferior abrasive/product and I will always be indebted to them.

The BF One Step and PNS is a great combo, I had it on my car (black acura tlx) for a few months, I ended up changing over to a month or so to Pinnacle Souveran Liquid Wax...just because I wanted to try something different even though I was extremely pleased with PNS and still have it on my wife's car. Be sure to pick up a bottle of Sonax BSD (brilliant shine detailer), it's a very good maintenance detailer.

When it comes to pads, I would recommend having two different styles of pads, one that's aggressive and one that is not as aggressive, sorry im not familiar with the Boss Pads but in the Lake Country world it would be a orange and a white. You always want to start with the least aggressive pad for your test spot, you may be surprised with BF One Steps cutting ability. As for the number of pads, I typically use one for each panel which would result in 8-9 pads, but given the Miata isn't a big car, I'd probably go with around 6....Also to clean your pads on the fly, Mike P has a video showing that you can use a bath towel (not a MF towel), it works very well. Working clean is next to godliness !

Make sure you mark your backing plate with a black marker to make sure your pad is spinning, if it's not and it's very hard to tell if it's rotating or not, doesn't sound like a big deal but it's a HUGE deal....no rotation no correction!

One last thing, if you run into an "issue" before or during your project...STOP and search the forum or post it on the forum, it's better to be delayed a little while than to move forward and have to go back to fix it! I've done this a couple of times to confirm what I was doing or if i had to change something.

Oh...BTW, welcome to AGO where everyone is here to help.

Jay

 

[g60corrado91]

with the older GG6 buffer, you could simply install a 3" backplate. Not sure if the new G9 allows that. Having a 3" (or less) comes in very handy!

Yeah, I did read that. The GG9 only allows a 5" backplate or the included 6" backplate. Attempting to put on a 3" backing on the GG9 voids the warranty per GG directly.

 

[g60corrado91]

Everything that Mike said is 100000+% correct, take it to the bank! He and everyone else on AGO saved my tail after I marred the crap out of my car with an inferior abrasive/product and I will always be indebted to them.

The BF One Step and PNS is a great combo, I had it on my car (black acura tlx) for a few months, I ended up changing over to a month or so to Pinnacle Souveran Liquid Wax...just because I wanted to try something different even though I was extremely pleased with PNS and still have it on my wife's car. Be sure to pick up a bottle of Sonax BSD (brilliant shine detailer), it's a very good maintenance detailer.

When it comes to pads, I would recommend having two different styles of pads, one that's aggressive and one that is not as aggressive, sorry im not familiar with the Boss Pads but in the Lake Country world it would be a orange and a white. You always want to start with the least aggressive pad for your test spot, you may be surprised with BF One Steps cutting ability. As for the number of pads, I typically use one for each panel which would result in 8-9 pads, but given the Miata isn't a big car, I'd probably go with around 6....Also to clean your pads on the fly, Mike P has a video showing that you can use a bath towel (not a MF towel), it works very well. Working clean is next to godliness !

Make sure you mark your backing plate with a black marker to make sure your pad is spinning, if it's not and it's very hard to tell if it's rotating or not, doesn't sound like a big deal but it's a HUGE deal....no rotation no correction!

One last thing, if you run into an "issue" before or during your project...STOP and search the forum or post it on the forum, it's better to be delayed a little while than to move forward and have to go back to fix it! I've done this a couple of times to confirm what I was doing or if i had to change something.

Oh...BTW, welcome to AGO where everyone is here to help.

Jay

Thanks Jay! I did end up picking up Sonax BSD as well for the inevitable birds and what not that us enthusiasts encounter haha.

Yeah, the Griots Garage equivalent of the white pads are their yellow perfection polishing pad (one tier lower than the cutting/aggressive polishing orange pad). I honestly may pick up 5 or 6 yellow pads now and the same for the orange pads, start with a yellow pad and see how it is and if I am not satisfied, then do a test spot with the orange pad.

I did see the black marker method; I will definitely do that, although I'm thinking with the power of the GG6 and GG9, that's less of an issue than it probably is with the Porter Cable.

 

[g60corrado91]

I found the pad cleaning on the fly video.

I’m assuming it’s still best to use a completely clean pad when it comes to minor paint correction though.

 

[g60corrado91]

I never updated this thread. I ended up doing my GTI first just as it is an older car with white paint. With that one, I used just the one 6" pad I had bought and cleaned it often. It had SO much iron build up on it, probably due to running Hawk HPS brake pads and then switching to Carbotech XP8 pads up front.

Anyhow, it came out looking very clean for a car with almost 160k on it. The PNS is definitely a pain in the butt to remove!

I ended up ordering the 5" backing plate for the G9 and 6 5.5" orange BOSS pads for the Miata. I took my time doing it and it turned out really good for my second time! The way the rain beads off of it is almost unreal.

 

[57Rambler]

Looks great, and so does that British Racing Green color !

She's so slick now, you probably get another couple of MPH/KPH on your top end speed. :laughing:

 

[g60corrado91]

Looks great, and so does that British Racing Green color !

She's so slick now, you probably get another couple of MPH/KPH on your top end speed. :laughing:

Thank you! I took that picture at this last weeks Iron Gates Cars and Coffee event. It was a brisk 30 degrees. I had the top down on the way there haha!

Can't wait for spring to get her so I can put on the Ohlins coilovers and my summer setup back on it.

And I agree. Why Mazda didn't make BRG the 30th AE color instead of that orange is beyond me. But I'm not complaining!

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Wow!

Looks freaking amazing!

Great job!


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