1. Should I go for UC or the 105?
Either or. The M105 is a tick more aggressive but for all practical reasons here's the deal, you're going to pour some out and rub it over the paint and either one is going to get the job done. With good technique both will work. The M105 technically would remove more paint faster and thus do the job faster but we're not talking about saving days or weeks worth of time we're talking about a few minutes.
In the time I typed the above I could have removed the stain left by the bird dropping with either product.
2.Christopher suggested 350gsm MF but I can't seem to find something like that on autogeek.com....could you please pin point me exactly to the product?
That's just a little too deep for me and I can get as deep as anyone and in most cases even deeper. I don't like to but I've been doing this
typing out exact words and explaining
the art of polishing paint for a few years now.
I would do what I've always and has worked fine for almost three decades and that's grabbed whatever's closest to my hand as long as it's clean.
In fact, if you look at the pictures I've already posted, it shows my hand removing sanding marks BY HAND using a simple microfiber applicator pad we sell on the AG store here....
Of course, the above pictures were to teach and show how to work by hand and that is by pressing firmly and moving your hand at light speed as the majority of people I've met in my life FAIL at removing defects by hand because they move their hand very slowly and don't press down firmly. Thus they don't remove any paint.
Except for the example shown above, the rest of the car was completely done by machine including the machine wet sanding and buffing and even waxing and this was done when the Meguiar's Unigrit Finishing Discs were first introduced. My guess is this is the first full write-up ever shared on how to do what's called damp sanding.
Damp-Sanding Tools, Tips and Techniques by Mike Phillips
A thin coat of M21 Synthetic Sealant drying
After carefully wiping off M21 by hand using clean, soft microfiber towels
A few beauty shots outside...
Here's the facts jack...
In order of aggressiveness when working by hand,
Most aggressive = Terry cloth. If you use terry cloth just make sure it's quality and 100% cotton. Back when I taught people how to work by hand I would take Martex towels, and cut out section about 6" by 3" and fold them in half to give me a was of terry cloth about 3" square as this will fit across my four finger tips which is how you use your "hand" to rub out defects. You don't actually use your hand you use your finger tips.
Medium Aggressive = Microfiber anything. Autogeek sells microfiber applicator pads and if I'm going to use microfiber I use the ones they sell here, I don't really know or care what the GMS is all I know is microfiber is less aggressive than terry cloth and I want it to be clean. If it's not clean that would mean it's dirty. If it's dirty that means there must be some type of "dirt particulate" on the microfiber and if there is an you rub tis over the paint you will put scratches INTO the paint at the same time you're trying to remove scratches.
That's what I call working backwards and you always want to be working forwards in the paint polishing process.
So if you're going to use microfiber get a microfiber applicator pad or just use a section of a microfiber towel or if you like cut up a microfiber towel to make a wad of towel to hold and press against with your fingers.
Least aggressive - Any type of foam applicator pad. Foam offers a uniform textured surface completely OPPOSITE of a fiber type material which offers a NON-uniform texture, that is multiple fibers.
Individual fibers of either microfiber or cotton are a type of abrasive and these fibers will make any compound or polish abrasive more aggressive. Foam will make the abrading action less aggressive.
This is at least one of the reasons the Meguiar's Microfiber DA Correction System uses microfiber pads instead of foam pads to create a defect removal and polishing system that can switch the archaic detailing industry hell bent on always using rotary buffer which leave holograms over to dual action polishers. It's because the fibers are needed to work with the D300 to cut or abrade the paint to REMOVE some paint in order to level the surface and thus create the visual appearance of defect now removed.
Of course it's much faster to do this with a wool pad on a rotary buffer but rotary buffers in the detail industry leaves holograms in the paint and other negative results.
Point being, foam is less aggressive than any type of fiber type applicator pad.
Lets dig a little deeper....
If fiber type materials are more aggressive than foam type materials, then when you use a fiber type material by hand OR MACHINE you increase the ability of the process to remove paint faster but you also increase the potential to leave a new type of scratch behind from the fibers themselves.
That's why you should NEVER finish out using a wool or fiber pad on a rotary buffer, not even a "finishing" or "polishing" wool buffing pad because each one of the fibers will leave a cut in the paint.
For this same reason, when "you" go to remove the bird stain etching using either terry cloth or microfiber because you will be able to remove paint faster, you might also leave some marring behind. In this case, the word marring is a fluffy way to say toweling scratches.
Do you panic? No. You simply re-apply the same product that you used to remove the bird stain etching a second time only for this second time you switch to FOAM. The foam applicator pad, because it offers a uniform surface texture instead of individual fibers will work with the abrasives to remove the toweling scratches and shampoo the surface over to be more flat.
Then you can repeat the process using foam and a less aggressive product like polish, (M205 or Ultimate Polish), to refine the results from the compounding step and then apply some type of wax, sealant or coat the paint to seal it.
Does the above all make sense?
Then just to add, this is why I've always said that while the Meguiar's Microfiber DA Correction System is a great system, heck I teach it in all my detailing boot camp classes, generally speaking, a foam pad will always have a better chance of finishing out nicer on a WIDER SPECTRUM of PAINT TYPES than any type of fiber pad due to the uniform surface texture versus individual fibers surface.
Make sense?
I get asked a lot why I tend to use foam pads a lot more often than I use any companies microfiber pads and one of the reason why is because I tend to do mostly show car detailing, not production detailing. I know a quality foam pad will finish out better more consistently on a wide spectrum of paint types and because a lot of the cars I work on have custom paint, that is NOT factory paint that's another way of saying I work on a lot of different types of paint systems.
A paint system is not only the brand of paint being sprayed by the type of paint within the brand and then there's all types of factors that can and will affect the specific type of paint by the painter mixing it, spraying it and drying it.
And that my friend is why I always tell people to so a TEST SPOT on every car they work on if they have never worked on that specific car in the past and that's because until you do some testing you don't now how the paint is going to react to your,
- Pads
- Products
- Tools
- Technique
But I digress....
3. Also after the compound is done, will that part of the car be dull and need a polish?
Not dull, at least not normally with products like M105 and Ultimate Compound. These two products use some very amazing and hi-tech abrasive technology and that's why the really were "Game Changers" when they were introduced.
It's because they are super aggressive but finish out like a fine cut polish.
That said, in my opinion if you have high standards for finish quality then you should follow an aggressive step with a less aggressive step because polishing paint is an art form, not a grinding process.
Finishing with ONLY a compound will never look as good as finishing with a compound and a polish on the only true test of any product or process and that's black paint.
Because MOST cars are basecoat/clearcoat this means you're never really working on a "colored paint" but instead working on clear paint, what this means practically is that if what you're doing isn't making black paint LOOK GREAT it isn't making ANY COLOR look great it's just on lighter colored cars you're eyes cannot see the true results.
So each person can decide what their standards are for finish quality as some people just don't care that much about creating a show car finish on a white car and I understand that. Even I have done one-step compound jobs to light colored cars and let the wax/sealant/coating take the achieved results to a higher level instead of following the compound with a dedicated polishing step.
Since you're working on a black metallic finish I would recommend following the compounding step with a dedicated polishing step using foam and a fine cut polish. But that's just me....
4. Basically after I remove the etching I want to treat the whole car so next thing to do is go for the swirls. What products should I use for the swirls?
Thanks
I use a lot of Pinnacle Advanced Swirl Remover and Pinnacle Finishing Polish on the cars I work on and they tend to always come out looking great. I worked with Wayne Carini and the guys at his shop and now they use Pinnacle Swirl Remover and Pinnacle Advanced Finishing Polish on all the cars that come out of his shop and they always look great.
Meguiar's makes great compounds, and the M205 and Ultimate Polish also work well. So pick your poison and go with it.
