addysdaddy
New member
- Jun 13, 2012
- 980
- 0
Products used:
Equipment
Flex 3401
LC 5" Hybrid blue & white pads
PC7424 XP for nanoskin application
Paint
Chemical Guys Citrus Gloss & Wash
P21S TAW
Autoglym Wheel Cleaner
Tuff shine tire cleaner
PERL for tire dressing &vinyl trim
Nanoskin w/Glide lube
Wolfgang clay bar
KAIO
Wolfgang Total Swirl Remover
Menzerna FG-400
Menzerna SF-4000
WG DGLS
Interior
1Z cockpit cleaner
Ultima Interior Shampoo
Pinnacle Leather Conditioner
Optimum Metal Polish
Pinnacle APC diluted 4/1 to clean carpets & thresholds
Objective: Get the best possible outcome using a one step process.
Approach: Once washed, decon, nanoskin/clayed and wipe down with KAIO I began testing product and pad combinations. My first attempt was SF-4000 w/white hybrid which did a decent job considering it's a mild polish but I wanted something more effective in getting out the swirls. But...I had "heard" that Jaguar paint was soft so I took the least aggressive approach first. Next up was WG TSR with a white hybrid which was a big improvement (about 75%-80% effective ) , which conveniently left the paint LSP ready. There were a couple severe areas that needed more help so I tried FG-400 w/white pad. Good but not great and surprisingly not significantly better than TSR. Moving up the ladder, FG-400 with a blue hybrid however did about 95%+ of the job but left the paint hazy and in need of a second step (SF-4000) in order to achieve the gloss that I was looking for. But...doing the entire car as a two step was out of the question so I decided I would use the Menzerna 1-2 punch on selected bad areas and go with the TSR and white pad as my overall one step approach.
After completing the one step, I went back to the driver's side rear quarter panel and the hood and re-polished using the Menzerna two step mentioned above. Once all the buffing was completed, took the car back to the curb and re-washed with a strong concentration of the CG Gloss & Wash to remove the dust off the paint. Since I didn't want to chance scratching the paint, only used the foam gun to apply the soap - no wash media. Personally I like doing a second wash after polishing to rinse off all the dust and debris. Had a perfectly clean surface to apply my LSP-and would strongly suggest giving this second wash a try if it's not already part of your routine. Speaking of which, the CG wash & gloss is fantastic at 1 oz per gallon (per the instructions on the label) as a cleaning agent, though my "go to" car shampoo is still Ultima Paint Guard Wash. Applied 3x coats of WG DGLS waiting 45 minutes -1 hr between applications. From start to finish, the project took 22 hours.
Black paint is of course totally unforgiving but a great color to hone your skills. You will find out very quickly what works and what doesn't. Developed a love/hate relationship with my Brinkmann Swirl Finder which is substantially friendlier on white paint. The hardest part of the entire project honestly was being satisfied with a 75% correction though if you don't use the inspection light and stand about 3-5 feet away. the Jaguar looked great.
Technique & Product Comments: FG-400 dusted somewhat (not unexpected for a compound) though very fine unlike M105 which seems to leave behind bigger "clumps" of spent product and more of it IME. That said, I think M105 is a great product and part of my arsenal. I could easily see when the product went transparent and therefore knew when to stop which turned out to be around 6 section passes. To try and minimize micro marring when using SF-4000, I ran the Flex at speed 5 for the first three passes and dialed it down to speed 3 for the final three or four passes. (thanks Nick, that was a great tip) With WG-TSR, I did three section passes at speed 6 and three passes at speed 3.
SF-4000 was a new product to me which turned out to be a huge wow. (again a shout out to Nick) As with the FG-400, you could easily tell when the product turned translucent and therefore spent. Both Menzerna products wiped off with no effort. My two cars are white and silver which makes seeing all of this next to impossible - one of the nice things about working on flat black paint. Used the Mike Philips clean your pad on the fly technique after every section pass. Once an entire panel was complete, used the compressor and blew the dust off both the pad & paint ala KBM. Primed the pad initially and made sure I only used 3 pea sized drops of product for each complete section pass. I've had to learn the hard way that less is more when it comes to product usage. Below are the before and after shots.
Before 2011 Jaguar XJ
http://addysdaddy.zenfolio.com/img/s2/v70/p1417415100-4.jpg
Product & pad evaluation shot
After shots
http://addysdaddy.zenfolio.com/img/s2/v71/p1417415476-4.jpg
Equipment
Flex 3401
LC 5" Hybrid blue & white pads
PC7424 XP for nanoskin application
Paint
Chemical Guys Citrus Gloss & Wash
P21S TAW
Autoglym Wheel Cleaner
Tuff shine tire cleaner
PERL for tire dressing &vinyl trim
Nanoskin w/Glide lube
Wolfgang clay bar
KAIO
Wolfgang Total Swirl Remover
Menzerna FG-400
Menzerna SF-4000
WG DGLS
Interior
1Z cockpit cleaner
Ultima Interior Shampoo
Pinnacle Leather Conditioner
Optimum Metal Polish
Pinnacle APC diluted 4/1 to clean carpets & thresholds
Objective: Get the best possible outcome using a one step process.
Approach: Once washed, decon, nanoskin/clayed and wipe down with KAIO I began testing product and pad combinations. My first attempt was SF-4000 w/white hybrid which did a decent job considering it's a mild polish but I wanted something more effective in getting out the swirls. But...I had "heard" that Jaguar paint was soft so I took the least aggressive approach first. Next up was WG TSR with a white hybrid which was a big improvement (about 75%-80% effective ) , which conveniently left the paint LSP ready. There were a couple severe areas that needed more help so I tried FG-400 w/white pad. Good but not great and surprisingly not significantly better than TSR. Moving up the ladder, FG-400 with a blue hybrid however did about 95%+ of the job but left the paint hazy and in need of a second step (SF-4000) in order to achieve the gloss that I was looking for. But...doing the entire car as a two step was out of the question so I decided I would use the Menzerna 1-2 punch on selected bad areas and go with the TSR and white pad as my overall one step approach.
After completing the one step, I went back to the driver's side rear quarter panel and the hood and re-polished using the Menzerna two step mentioned above. Once all the buffing was completed, took the car back to the curb and re-washed with a strong concentration of the CG Gloss & Wash to remove the dust off the paint. Since I didn't want to chance scratching the paint, only used the foam gun to apply the soap - no wash media. Personally I like doing a second wash after polishing to rinse off all the dust and debris. Had a perfectly clean surface to apply my LSP-and would strongly suggest giving this second wash a try if it's not already part of your routine. Speaking of which, the CG wash & gloss is fantastic at 1 oz per gallon (per the instructions on the label) as a cleaning agent, though my "go to" car shampoo is still Ultima Paint Guard Wash. Applied 3x coats of WG DGLS waiting 45 minutes -1 hr between applications. From start to finish, the project took 22 hours.
Black paint is of course totally unforgiving but a great color to hone your skills. You will find out very quickly what works and what doesn't. Developed a love/hate relationship with my Brinkmann Swirl Finder which is substantially friendlier on white paint. The hardest part of the entire project honestly was being satisfied with a 75% correction though if you don't use the inspection light and stand about 3-5 feet away. the Jaguar looked great.
Technique & Product Comments: FG-400 dusted somewhat (not unexpected for a compound) though very fine unlike M105 which seems to leave behind bigger "clumps" of spent product and more of it IME. That said, I think M105 is a great product and part of my arsenal. I could easily see when the product went transparent and therefore knew when to stop which turned out to be around 6 section passes. To try and minimize micro marring when using SF-4000, I ran the Flex at speed 5 for the first three passes and dialed it down to speed 3 for the final three or four passes. (thanks Nick, that was a great tip) With WG-TSR, I did three section passes at speed 6 and three passes at speed 3.
SF-4000 was a new product to me which turned out to be a huge wow. (again a shout out to Nick) As with the FG-400, you could easily tell when the product turned translucent and therefore spent. Both Menzerna products wiped off with no effort. My two cars are white and silver which makes seeing all of this next to impossible - one of the nice things about working on flat black paint. Used the Mike Philips clean your pad on the fly technique after every section pass. Once an entire panel was complete, used the compressor and blew the dust off both the pad & paint ala KBM. Primed the pad initially and made sure I only used 3 pea sized drops of product for each complete section pass. I've had to learn the hard way that less is more when it comes to product usage. Below are the before and after shots.
Before 2011 Jaguar XJ
http://addysdaddy.zenfolio.com/img/s2/v70/p1417415100-4.jpg
Product & pad evaluation shot
After shots
http://addysdaddy.zenfolio.com/img/s2/v71/p1417415476-4.jpg
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