Hi,

 

Thought I'd take my mind off my suspension woes and upload a couple of pics of the quick paint correction test I did at the weekend. Unfortunately the pics were taken on my phone so they aren't of the highest quality.

 

I decided to test on the nose panel, as you can see from the pic, there's a ridiculous amount of swirling in the paint, it's dull and the metallic flake in the paint barely shows through:

 

 

The panel is clean and free of wax and any other products.

 

I have an orbital polisher along with a selection of Menzerna pads and polishing compounds. After 1 hit on half the panel, this was the result (the linear light rays are the result of my crappy camera, not holograms or anything) :

 

 

At this point, there's no wax or filler on the paint to hide anything, needless to say I was very impressed with the results!

 

This is the finished panel, again, still no wax applied and the linear light rays are due to my crappy camera:

 

 

After this I applied some Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection, and job done!

 

Now just for the rest of the car...

WOW fantastic job!!! :bow:

 

I bet you can't wait to crack on with the rest!!! Takes forever lol

Nice work! I had my paintwork detailed and corrected after I had my repaint. Brings the paintwork to a higher level.

WOW fantastic job!!! :bow:

 

I bet you can't wait to crack on with the rest!!! Takes forever lol

 

That panel actually only took around 5 mins to do, which is why I was especially happy :dance: The time of year means the temperature in my garage seems to be ideal for working with the compounds.

 

Last summer I tackled my BMW 530i on a roasting day in direct sunlight - now that was a nightmare!

Fuz - Should I be as worried as I am about machine polishing my zed? Is it easy to do? What is the best pad for an all over 'buff'?

Thats fantastic mate!!!!!

 

very impressed with that.

So what kit compounds etc and where did you get them that you used?

Fuz - Should I be as worried as I am about machine polishing my zed? Is it easy to do? What is the best pad for an all over 'buff'?

 

Not at all mate if you're careful. Start off with a low-abrasive compound and pad and work your way up. The cars are old and it's impossible to know how much clearcoat is left on it before you start hitting paint without a paint thickness guage. For that reason, I would completely avoid any areas that have been resprayed. The paint won't have been baked at as high a temperature as the original paint, so will be nowhere near as hard so the risk of causing damage is much higher.

 

As for ease, yeah it's pretty easy, there's very good guides on detailing your car over at http://www.polishedbliss.co.uk, and it's worth having a look at a few videos on youtube first to get an idea of how to work.

 

What machine are you using to polish your car? As a complete newbie, an orbital polisher\sander is recommended as it limits the amount of damage you can inflict! Rotary polishers are generally left to the more experienced guys.

 

Thats fantastic mate!!!!!

 

very impressed with that.

So what kit compounds etc and where did you get them that you used?

 

I'm heading out to the garage in an hour or so, and I'll get you a complete list of what I've got.

 

This is only the second car I've done, so I'm a complete noob to this too, but I've done a fair bit of reading up on it, so feel free to ask away, but don't take my response as gospel :)

Right, this is what I've got:

 

Silverline Rotary Polisher

Menzerna Compounding Pad (White)

Menzerna Polishing Pad (Orange)

Menzerna Finishing Pad (Yellow)

Menzerna 250ml Sampler Kit (Details Here)

 

The orange pad, with a medium-cut polish works very well. TBH, the white pad is too abrasive and requires finishing to remove marring, and the yellow pad isn't needed if you have an orange one. Put simply, the orange one is the only one you really need.

 

The silverline polisher is very cheap, but does have enough grunt to break down the compounds with the above pads as they're only 5" diameter, which matches the plate on the polisher.

Looking very good.

 

It looks amazing when you do it to a black car :cool: