First Time - Questions and Product Recommendations

Hi guys. Been buying my car care products from DD for a good 6 years now, although just the basics. My 2003 M3 (Black) needs some TLC - somebody dragging a box across my trunk was the final straw that pushed me to do it myself. She also has a few scratches and blemishes. I snapped a few phone pics, but they didn't come out too well. I can try and take some with the real camera tomorrow if necessary.

After reviewing a lot of forums and YT videos I've settled on getting a Griot Garage 6" DA from Phil and Co. Unfortunately I think that was the easiest part. All the pads and products are very overwhelming, which is where I was hoping to get some recommendations.

I'm planning on trying out a few products from Ammo NYC to include their synthetic Skin as a final sealant. With that in mind I think I need to purchase a compound and polish to accompany the GG6. What I have in my cart right now is:

5" Uber Vented Backing Plate
5.25" Uber MF Pads
6.5" Uber Orange

I was originally leaning towards trying some Menzerna FG400 with an accompanying polish - perhaps SF 4000 or 4500. However, it looks like a lot of other people have had good luck with Meguire's M105.

So my two biggest questions are FG400 v M105, and what's a good accompanying product to follow up with. Are the SF4000/4500 appropriate, or do I need something along the lines of PF2500? Is an Uber Orange soft enough, or do I need a green/blue/black?

 

Superman07 -

Welcome to the Forum !

Congratulations on a very nice car - We need to know what color Black do you have ?

If it is a metallic Black, it will be a harder paint and easier to work with than Jet Black which is a little less hard and sometimes hard to work with for some people.

I have used Meguiars 105 on Jet Black before, but that was years ago when it first came out.. Personally, I have had great success with Sonax Profiline Perfect Finish 4/6..

Certainly the Menzerna compounds work great and were developed in Germany for the Mercedes line, I believe, but they work great on Bimmer paint too...

So, depending on what color Black you have, and exactly how much defects you have AND want to remove, will determine best how to advise you further..

If you can take a few pics like some of the ones you have seen on here, that will always help us help you better..

There are a lot more choices to get to that place you want to get, than ever before... Some go directly to it and some take a longer way around..

So, I assume you have no experience with the Griot's machine, right ??

Dan F

 

I don't have as much experience as most of these guys but I just started out with GG as well and got the fg400 and sonax PF and have two great results to show from it. I would definitely get some softer pads if you are doing two steps probably blue to follow up with and I would plan on it taking two days don't rush it. I started with this:
http://www.detailersdomain.com/Griots-Garage-6-inch-Random-Orbital-Polisher-Plus-Kit-_p_690.html

It comes with the bp you are looking at and a good setup of pads, personally from the two cars I started with would get like 2 yellow pads, 4 greens, and 4 blues, unless you are using your polisher to apply the sealant then I would cut down one the blues or greens to two and get two blacks. Stokdgs and Phil were a great help to me to further help I think we would need pics you may need to wetsand the scratches if they are deep enough.

 

When I use MF pads with FG400 and then Follow up with uber green pad and 4500. If the paint is not soft then you could use the orange pad.

 

Thanks for replies! I tried getting some pictures, but couldn't focus well on the scratches.

It's Jet Black for reference.

I was concerned FG400 would cut too much, but sounds like that isn't the case. Think sticking with what I outlined above is a good plan, but sub blue for orange pads.

 

Thought I'd follow up on this. Weather was finally okay; so I took a stab at addressing my car. I'd had ordered the GG 6", FG 400 and SF 4000; with MF and DD Blue pads.

I limited this to my trunk deck as a tester section. Somebody had dragged a box across it and scratched it up, so it was a good demo section anyway. I'd say results were good, but probably not great. I managed to get most of the scratches out, but have some finer marks left and deeper ones. Do I need a more abrasive compound, need to apply more pressure,use different pads; or use different approach with machine?

For both compound and finish I worked in at 2/3 and the bumped up to around 4/5. Should I stay on lower setting with compound?

Also, am I able to attach pictures?

 

FG400/SF4000 should be a great combo to finish down 95% of paint. The Blue pad however MIGHT not be aggressive enough to take out the micro-marring FG400 will cause, but lets just assume it is.

FG400 on a MF pad: High speed and a good amount of pressure. Basically I would bump the speed up to 6 and put 10-15lbs of pressure on the polisher and do 4 slow passes like that, then bump the speed down to 4-5 and do 2 more "quickish" passes with less pressure. Wipe residue off and inspect, should be free of swirls and whatever else it can remove, you're not going to get out really deep scratches with this. You'll probably have some micro-marring but that should be easily removed with SF-4000.

SF4000 on Blue Final Polishing pad: Speed 5 with 5-7lbs of pressure for about 3 passes, then use the weight of the machine for 2 final passes.