Hey Folks, Well, I took a couple of days to complete my first detail. It was certainly an education. I have a 2011 335i base model in Deep Sea Blue Metallic. It's a daily driver covering about 75 miles a day. So even with good washing techniques, it sees a good bit of wear-n-tear including rock chips and Texas sun exposure. About 2 weeks go, I did a round of machine work with a Meguiars microfiber pads and their DA Finishing Wax. This helped me a sense of how the machine feels and the workflow. I'm glad I did this. It helped me get a feel for how long it would take and what kind of room I would need. Here's what I used: My standard 2 bucket wash kit Detailed Image Fine clay bar Griots Garage DA polisher Mequiars DA 5" microfiber correction kit Subbed Meguiars DA Polish for the Finishing Wax Meguiars 3" backing plate and discs Menzerna Powerlock Sealant (applied by hand) Chemical Guys Silk Shine tire dressing (not pictured - sealant was still curing) A slew microfiber towels from Meguiars, Chemical Guys, and Detailed Image So, the car look pretty good prewash. As an AIO, Finishing Wax is ok: But a wash to strip the wax reveals a different story: I've got some work to do! I started off at 1pm on Thursday. Taping trim off was the biggest pain. For me, that's probably the worst part of polishing. First up was the Griots Garage polisher with Megiuars Correction Compound and 5.5" Cutting disc Initial results look good: Nicely reflection. The Meguiars 5.5" Finishing discs do not stick very well. When cleaning one outside the garage, it flew off the polisher. Thank God it didn't hit my face. I have no idea where it went. Fortunately, I had ordered an extra set. Something I learned the first time I used the polisher and discs was that our car has some small nooks and crannies. That's why I ordered the smaller backing plate and discs. Well, things were even worse with the 3" discs. One of the Finishing discs came apart during the Polish phase. The foam came apart from the felt. I went to get the other one but it was already separated. That really screwed my plan. And during the Correction Compound phase, the 3" backing plate came off (I probably didn't tighten it enough). So, I scrapped that plan and did my best with the larger pads. The results were impacted by being unable to completed the smaller areas with the smaller pads. I did not get as much correction as I had hoped. There are still some scratches and swirls. I would peg it at ~80%. Ok for a first time out. But I was hoping for better. Also, Menzerna Powerlock smells terrible. It reminds me of shoe polish. The results, however, are great. I would recommend it. I don't know that I can recommend the Meguiars DA kit. The discs don't stick very well. The results are good but the discs don't inspire much confidence. I saw a video where they talked about having reformulated the hook and loop material. I don't know that my discs are among the newer ones. I'm going to call them. Ok, the results:
Nice work! im surprised those pads came apart like that... maybe the 3" pads cant handle a higher speed? although this is the first ive read about these pads separating.
You def up'd the shine another notch up! Looks like you need to order more pads to have on stand by... Limny
That may well be. Then again, they may have been defective. Here's a pic and the one of the left was not even used but was already separated.
The GG6 has a lot of torque and will tear up 3"/smaller pads easily. If your pads are coming off or breaking you are probably building up to much heat. You need to use a slower speed setting for the smaller pads and less pressure. Source: I tore up a few the first few times I used the 3" backing plate on my GG6
