Having the entire day to myself yesterday, I decided it was time the ideal time to try polishing my car for the first time. I took everything I have learned from this site and tried to put it to good use. The entire process took about 8 hours and I developed a healthy appreciation of how hard the full time detailers here work. I was really tired at the end of the day, but super stoked with what I had accomplished. I managed to get the swirl marks that had been bothering me out and the paint is now smooth and glossy. For the polish and seal I used: - Griots 6" DA - Mez PF - Orange Lake Country pad - Menz PL The one thing I didn't tackle that needs work are the B-pillars. I wasn't sure if Menzerna PF was the right polish for the task and thought I should ask before going at the plastic.
Joffems -- Looks very nice ! You used great equipment and products, and if the B Pillars are painted plastic, you can certainly use Menzerna PO203S Power Finish to clean them up and make them very clear. This Menzerna compound has a cut of 3.5 out of 5 and a gloss of 3.8 out of 5. It always finishes down nicely for me. If you have any other pads like say a White pad, that would work good but you can still do this if all you have is orange. Just go easy because the Orange pad is more aggressive, and stop often, wipe it clean and see how you are doing. A smaller diameter pad, say a 3" or 4" with the appropriate backing plate work very well on these areas. There is not a lot of paint on painted plastic panels, so you have to just be careful and correct carefully and for not very long, to achieve the desired result. If there is rubber trim on either side of those BPillars, you might want to see about taping the rubber trim off to avoid getting compound between it and the panels and possibly damaging the finish of the rubber. Beautiful job ! Contgratulations ! Dan F
Thanks everyone. Thanks for the advice. I bought a selection of products so I would be prepared including 4" white pads. I will use the 4" whites on the pillars. I will also be sure to tape off the trim. For the rest of the polish I didn't tape anything off. Instead I used Adam's technique of applying a good coat of Super VRT onto the trim first which seemed to work really well.
PF is is perfect on VAG clear.......... wont get 100% with it, but it sure knocks down a ton of light swirls you get from day to day use. I love it, and use it all the time on my VWs