I've got one of those kits which attaches 125mm pads to a drill, can I use that?
If so, what products/pads will I need?
As much as I'd love a Sparrowhawk, I suspect - what with the car being parked at a National Trust property when it got bombed -
there were plenty of them around already.
I'm not familiar with the polishing kit that attaches to a drill but I'd have thought this would be OK to use but
with care as it is likely to perform and behave differently to - and not be as controllable as a DA polisher. If you've not used a machine polisher before, It might be worth getting an old scrap panel to practice on first before using your drill kit on your car, to get a feel for how it behaves.
I'm assuming with this kit, the pad rotates in a circular motion like a rotary machine polisher, rather than a random orbital oscillating motion like a dual action polisher. If so, then I've read that rotary polishing machines are less forgiving in inexperienced hands and generate more heat than a dual action polisher, so it would be important to keep the pad moving over the area being polished at all times rather than holding it in the same place, and don't apply too much pressure, otherwise there could be a risk of removing too much clear coat or heat build-up and burn-through of the clear coat.
I can't remember exactly what products I used to remove the bird poo etching from my car - it was 2-3 years ago. However I cleaned the area thoroughly and clayed it first before polishing. I used a polish for light-moderate imperfections; it may have been Poorboys SSR 2 Super Swirl Remover that I have in my collection (sorry, can't remember!), starting off with a 'low cut' pad. I use Shinemate waffle pads - the white one, which is a low cut finishing pad. I seem to remember that this combination didn't remove all of the etching, so I changed the pad to a Shinemate orange waffle pad, which has more cutting action and this combination worked.
Once removed, I re-applied a couple of coats of wax to add protection.
