I've done some minor polishing by hand a few times, works great with the correct applicator!! You need a little more time and some elbow grease but it does work
I think doing minor spots by hand is fine. If you were planning to do the whole car...good luck. Machine polishing is already time consuming in general.
I'll be honest unless its something like fingernail scratches under a door handle or a scuff on the paint I don't think you are going to get much correction of swirls and RIDS at all without some sort of polisher whether it be DA or Rotary.
Also agree - might work for small spots, not a great idea to do a whole panel or an entire vehicle. The products made by Menzerna are used by the OEM manufacturers on the Assembly Lines, using high speed air powered rotary buffers, the compounds are probably designed to be used that way, in the way they break down the media, correct, and polish the paint. Not to say their products wont work, but it seems like they wont work as well, to me. About the only product I know of that works by hand really well, is Meguiars 105, a relatively heavy cut compound that corrects well, and polishes down pretty good. It may still need an extra polishing from its sister, Meguiars 205, which thankfully, is way more cooperative to use than Meguairs 105, in a Rotary situation, most of the time. Good luck with this ! Dan F
I disagree with the suggestion that it cant be done. If you can remove minor swirls by hand, you can remove the deeper stuff by hand as well. It will just take longer. Im not sure If some of you know who ScottWax is from Autopia fame, but he use to do corrections by hand. It will take significantly longer, but there is no question that it can be done. Megs 105/205 is a good bet for this... Ive had good results from Menz Intensive Polish and Final Polish II. I forget what the proper names for these are now...
Menz polishes imo are created with machine application in mind. While it can be done with hand, it will be extreme hard work. You will be better off with products made for hand application purpose.
I have found that it can be quicker (and easier) to remove door handles and machine polish as opposed to trying to work by hand if you are going after the scratches under the door handle. I can't really think of too many reasons you would want to use expensive polishing compounds by hand unless there was limited access to the area.
For me the quickest way is to get a cotton towel, some Meguiars 101 (which works really great), or 105 and work it back and forth under the door handle in the door cup, and the marks will be gone, unless the door was used by something with talons.. I have always used 105 and had great results but now that I have 101 it is really better and doesnt have the drying challenge that 105 does.. 101 is also way easier to remove, less dusting.. Dan F
Thanks Dan, I will try that. I have always used a piece of an older foam pad but I had never thought to just use a cotton towel.
