jr001
Registered User
Hi Folks,
I was aked by Alan (ALDO 286) if I would pop along and do some swirl removal on his Audi. Into the bargain, Alan wanted to watch the goings-on and try his hand on the Rotary. He had bought a new Makita 9227 with the intention of maintaining his hard-paint car. Alan thought the PC was not up to the job, having tried to do some correction a wee while ago. Having spoke to Alan about how he went about the PC job, it was apparent that technique and time were the key issues. Once that was sorted Alan fired away with many pertinent questions.
One thing Alan wanted to find out about about was the different grades of scratches that are comonly found in paint. When he found out what were random deeper scratches, Alan breathed a sigh of relief as he said that if he had set about the car with a rotary, then he would probably have kept going until those scratches came out. This was all part of a good day of learning for Alan. I was only too happy to help with the bit of experience that I have gained over the months.
Central to the learning was to appreciate that it is learning to use and control the machine and its speeds in order to work the polish particles into removing the swirls. It's not about brute force or very fast passes.
Anyway, onto business.
Alans gave the car a strip and cleanse wash first thing this morning using Meguiar's Safe Degreaser and Shampoo PLus mix. I got started on the bonnet at 10 am and found that 3.02 was the way forward. I got to use Alan's new Makita with its 3M backing plate. I used my own Megs 6.5 in polishing pads in conjunction with this combo. My first real go with the Mak and I have to say that it was magic. Smoother, quieter and able to maintain a constant speed without having my finger on the button all the time made for a more relaxed machining experience. Will need to get one soon.
Some pics then. Most of the 'After' pics show the lovely colours of metallic flakes in the paint comeing to life. In fact one of Alan's neighbours was walking along the street and commented on how blue his 'black' car was today!!!
Front wing Lower Before
After
Passenger Front Before
After
NS Rear Wing Upper Before
After
Some Random Pics
Polished Rear Light Cluster
Machined Side
Still-To-Do-Side
Some Wet and Glossy Bonnet Pics
Some Other General Afters
Alan joined in half-way through with the other rotary and made a very good showing on his first attempt under guidance. We both agreed that the roof would need to be done again. It was difficult to persuade Alan to paractise on a spare panel! But he has a firm grounding in power tool usage and he did show a healthy respect for the tool. He tested for heat build up during his polishing and accepted some pointers while machining like keeping the pad flat on the panel and watching the polish. He proceeded at his own risk, and he was happy with that.
All in all, we got through this big car in one long day. I machined from about 10am untill about 2pm and then Alan joined in. All machining waSs finished at 6pm. All of these pictures show the car still to be HD Cleansed and have the Carbon wax applied. After showing Alan how to do the HD and waxing, I left to treat myself to a rather nice Chinese meal - Beef Curry and prawn crackers actually.
I'd like to thank Alan for letting me work on such a beauty of a car nd Jacqui for the cups of tea and biscuits. Oh, and also to the dogs for being of the non-biting variety.
Thanks,
JOHN:thumb:
I was aked by Alan (ALDO 286) if I would pop along and do some swirl removal on his Audi. Into the bargain, Alan wanted to watch the goings-on and try his hand on the Rotary. He had bought a new Makita 9227 with the intention of maintaining his hard-paint car. Alan thought the PC was not up to the job, having tried to do some correction a wee while ago. Having spoke to Alan about how he went about the PC job, it was apparent that technique and time were the key issues. Once that was sorted Alan fired away with many pertinent questions.
One thing Alan wanted to find out about about was the different grades of scratches that are comonly found in paint. When he found out what were random deeper scratches, Alan breathed a sigh of relief as he said that if he had set about the car with a rotary, then he would probably have kept going until those scratches came out. This was all part of a good day of learning for Alan. I was only too happy to help with the bit of experience that I have gained over the months.
Central to the learning was to appreciate that it is learning to use and control the machine and its speeds in order to work the polish particles into removing the swirls. It's not about brute force or very fast passes.
Anyway, onto business.
Alans gave the car a strip and cleanse wash first thing this morning using Meguiar's Safe Degreaser and Shampoo PLus mix. I got started on the bonnet at 10 am and found that 3.02 was the way forward. I got to use Alan's new Makita with its 3M backing plate. I used my own Megs 6.5 in polishing pads in conjunction with this combo. My first real go with the Mak and I have to say that it was magic. Smoother, quieter and able to maintain a constant speed without having my finger on the button all the time made for a more relaxed machining experience. Will need to get one soon.
Some pics then. Most of the 'After' pics show the lovely colours of metallic flakes in the paint comeing to life. In fact one of Alan's neighbours was walking along the street and commented on how blue his 'black' car was today!!!
Front wing Lower Before
After
Passenger Front Before
After
NS Rear Wing Upper Before
After
Some Random Pics
Polished Rear Light Cluster
Machined Side
Still-To-Do-Side
Some Wet and Glossy Bonnet Pics
Some Other General Afters
Alan joined in half-way through with the other rotary and made a very good showing on his first attempt under guidance. We both agreed that the roof would need to be done again. It was difficult to persuade Alan to paractise on a spare panel! But he has a firm grounding in power tool usage and he did show a healthy respect for the tool. He tested for heat build up during his polishing and accepted some pointers while machining like keeping the pad flat on the panel and watching the polish. He proceeded at his own risk, and he was happy with that.
All in all, we got through this big car in one long day. I machined from about 10am untill about 2pm and then Alan joined in. All machining waSs finished at 6pm. All of these pictures show the car still to be HD Cleansed and have the Carbon wax applied. After showing Alan how to do the HD and waxing, I left to treat myself to a rather nice Chinese meal - Beef Curry and prawn crackers actually.
I'd like to thank Alan for letting me work on such a beauty of a car nd Jacqui for the cups of tea and biscuits. Oh, and also to the dogs for being of the non-biting variety.
Thanks,
JOHN:thumb:
