Proper progression through pads and polish

[mrh335]

I have a jet black 2011 BMW M3.

I have a Porter Cable 7424 and use the 5.5" Lake Country CCS pads.

I start with an orange CCS pad and Menzerna Intensive Polish.

2nd step is white CCS pad and Menzerna Intensive Polish

3rd and final step is white CCS pad and Menzerna Final Finish Polish.

Is my second step a waste of time?
How do you check or ensure you have completed enough work with one pad before moving to the next? I sometimes do it by faith or check to ensure the defects are removed. This is fine for the first step, but once the paint looks good, it is hard to understand how much time should be spent with successive pads. I somewhat do it on faith and after the orange pad is used and defects removed, I simply go through the motions with white + IP and white + FF.

Can anyone comment on this technique for the jet black paint?

 

[TTQ B4U]

I'll let others chime in but I'll give you my two cents having worked on a Metallic Black M3 (2013). Jet Black BMW Paint like yours is a big PIA as it's so soft. Very difficult to keep nice. Unless the paint is trashed I would use a very good AIO Like HDSPeed with green pads and call it a day. It will finish out ever bit as good as the Menzerna and cut through the light to moderate swirls just fine too.

To answer your question though, I would remove the second step and go right to the final pad/finish.

 

[AGOatemywallet]

Do a Test Spot

It will answer all of your questions and potentially save you a lot of time and clear coat.


.

 

[custmsprty]

Yes, the second step is redundant. Like AGO said, do some test spots and see what works best.

Chances are with a product like HD Adapt you could get excellent results with a one step and then go straight to the lsp phase. But if you've already invested in the menzerna products then I'd just go two steps.

I've had excellent results with HD Speed with Orange pads, I personally don't feel green pads are aggressive enough, but that's just me.

Here's a 2015 428i I did with HD Speed and finished off with Poxy.

Here's the link to the Show and shine, this might help you out.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/show-n-shine/91677-2015-bmw-435i-meets-hd-speed-hd-poxy.html

Here's a recent one step I did with Adapt after doing a few test spots. Keep in mind I had never used this product until this detail. HD products rock and are so user friendly.


http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...ssan-370-z-griots-g21-hd-adapt-7-hd-poxy.html

So imho 3 must have products in my detail arsenal are HD Adapt, Speed and Poxy. Not much you can't do with those three and that's about $50.00 total for all three in 16oz bottles. And HD products go along way.

I did a jet black 328i a few years ago when I was still using a PC and I did not find the paint to be easily corrected and I was using Menzerna 2500 / 4500. It took 8 or so hours to do that two step with my PC.

 

[mrh335]

Do a Test Spot

It will answer all of your questions and potentially save you a lot of time and clear coat.


.

Dine mote ore than a test spot with this method over the years. Completed two jet black and one metallic black. As I mentioned after the initial scratches are removed I have a hard time seeing improvements after that. Some of the dull reflection goes away as you progress but not sure if the extra step helped with that.

It it is time consuming with at least 8 hours of labor to work through all the steps.