Author Topic: good polish for swirl removal on a mk2?  (Read 3291 times)

Offline kdiz

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good polish for swirl removal on a mk2?
« on: 26 September 2010, 20:29 »
Hey guys,
I like to think I know a fair bit about detailing but currently am having issues with swirl removal on my mk2 golf, first few passes i removed about 40% of swirls, but a few more passes after, it literally made little to no impact.

I think I need to try out a harder polish, currently I use:
Meguiar's G220
The red cutting pad
Menzerna Power Finish

Iv seen a lot of tutorials on how to use the polishing machine and even taught friends how to do it and they had great results on softer paint new cars.

Any ideas what would be a good polish to cut easier to save me doing so many passes, at this rate i will never get the car done.

Cheers

Offline Guy

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Re: good polish for swirl removal on a mk2?
« Reply #1 on: 26 September 2010, 20:32 »
how big is your set size?

Offline kdiz

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Re: good polish for swirl removal on a mk2?
« Reply #2 on: 26 September 2010, 20:39 »
how big is your set size?

how'd you mean, pad size? I got the standard 7" pads.

If you mean what else is in my detailing kit, quite a lot, I got all the usual stuff. Spent about £280 on waxamomo after researching on detailing world.

Offline Guy

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Re: good polish for swirl removal on a mk2?
« Reply #3 on: 26 September 2010, 20:40 »
how big is your set size?

how'd you mean, pad size? I got the standard 7" pads.

If you mean what else is in my detailing kit, quite a lot, I got all the usual stuff. Spent about £280 on waxamomo after researching on detailing world.

nope... how big is that area that you work on when you are polishing... and how much polish do you use?

Offline kdiz

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Re: good polish for swirl removal on a mk2?
« Reply #4 on: 26 September 2010, 20:49 »
how big is your set size?

how'd you mean, pad size? I got the standard 7" pads.

If you mean what else is in my detailing kit, quite a lot, I got all the usual stuff. Spent about £280 on waxamomo after researching on detailing world.

nope... how big is that area that you work on when you are polishing... and how much polish do you use?

Oh haha sorry, I generally work on a smaller area, Iv tried 1/2 a bonet and 1/4 of a bonet during differernt attempts.

The polish i usually put a cross of it (+) on the pad, i put enough on there to easily cover the area i am working on without being too OTT. I generally dab it evenly on the area before turning it on to stop it flying off everywhere obviously. Then i use it on a slow speed until it's like a glaze acrross the entire area i am working on. Then i turn the speed up higher and focus on a small area for a short period of time to stop the paint getting too hot, then move to the next bit until i have done the whole area a few times, then wack it back to the slower speed to remove a lot of the polish, then remove what remains by hand with a polishing cloth.

The method i use is working but iv done like 5 or so passes so far and lets just say i am a long way from being done, i know a lot of the remaining swirls can still come out as each pass i do, i notice they are less than before.

Can you recomend a good polish and or pad for slightly deeper cutting. I got a lot of panels untouched so I would like to do them like 2 passes tops to get majority of swirls removed.

Offline Guy

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Re: good polish for swirl removal on a mk2?
« Reply #5 on: 26 September 2010, 21:10 »
how big is your set size?

how'd you mean, pad size? I got the standard 7" pads.

If you mean what else is in my detailing kit, quite a lot, I got all the usual stuff. Spent about £280 on waxamomo after researching on detailing world.

nope... how big is that area that you work on when you are polishing... and how much polish do you use?

Oh haha sorry, I generally work on a smaller area, Iv tried 1/2 a bonet and 1/4 of a bonet during differernt attempts.

The polish i usually put a cross of it (+) on the pad, i put enough on there to easily cover the area i am working on without being too OTT. I generally dab it evenly on the area before turning it on to stop it flying off everywhere obviously. Then i use it on a slow speed until it's like a glaze acrross the entire area i am working on. Then i turn the speed up higher and focus on a small area for a short period of time to stop the paint getting too hot, then move to the next bit until i have done the whole area a few times, then wack it back to the slower speed to remove a lot of the polish, then remove what remains by hand with a polishing cloth.

The method i use is working but iv done like 5 or so passes so far and lets just say i am a long way from being done, i know a lot of the remaining swirls can still come out as each pass i do, i notice they are less than before.

Can you recomend a good polish and or pad for slightly deeper cutting. I got a lot of panels untouched so I would like to do them like 2 passes tops to get majority of swirls removed.

polishing with a DA does take a long time... I probably wouldn't be using quite so much polish... I only use a few dabs per set

sets should be about 12" square or so... the larger the set the less chance you have to 'work' the polish

i use 3m polishes and pads and love them

http://www.elitecarcare.co.uk/3m-perfect-it-iii-triple-polish-set-with-150mm-pads.php

Offline kdiz

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Re: good polish for swirl removal on a mk2?
« Reply #6 on: 26 September 2010, 21:53 »
polishing with a DA does take a long time... I probably wouldn't be using quite so much polish... I only use a few dabs per set

sets should be about 12" square or so... the larger the set the less chance you have to 'work' the polish

i use 3m polishes and pads and love them

http://www.elitecarcare.co.uk/3m-perfect-it-iii-triple-polish-set-with-150mm-pads.php


Nice, will the pads that come with that [3M Perfect-it III Compounding Pad 150mm] fit the default backing plate of the G220 ?

Think I will buy the cutting pad and cutting polish they do then just use my other pads / polish for finishing.

Offline waxamomo

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Re: good polish for swirl removal on a mk2?
« Reply #7 on: 29 September 2010, 21:45 »
Yep pads will fit fine on the G220.

Guy has given top advice, just make your working area a little smaller to work the polish more. What speed are you using the G220 at?

Offline JasonPD

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Re: good polish for swirl removal on a mk2?
« Reply #8 on: 02 October 2010, 18:07 »
It also depends on how bad the paint is on your car.  Being quite old and having suffered from abuse and several repainted panels, I was unable to polish my current MK2 to a standard I was totally happy with.  I have wetsanded 3 or 4 panels and used a rotary with menz polishes so it has no swirls but plenty of random scratches remain.

As the others have said, use a small amount of polish and smaller work areas to achieve the best results.  You could try Power Gloss but it didn't work too well on my MK2.

Good luck polishing up your old girl  :cool: