Help required on nature of pads

[TheMac]

Hi everyone
I am going to attempt a detail of a black Audi A5 next week which has a load of swirls in its paintwork. I have purchased Megs 101 polish which I intend to use with the Megs MF cutting pads. Rather than use the MF system I am intending to 'step down' the paintwork with a water based finishing polish which I bought some time ago.
I would be grateful for any advice on the colour and nature of polishing pads required for the finishing stage of this two part exercise.

[J4o2el7]

Do your test spots to see what will work best, the 101 might work good, the d300 might work well too. See what product reacts best. Black cars love polishing oils, ultimate polish, or maybe m205 either will make the paint look great! Then sealant and or wax of your choice. Just have to see what works best on the paint. Post before and afters! Good luck.

[TheMac]

Re: Help required on nature of pads

Thanks for the post. Is there any chance of getting some information as to the type of polishing pads which would be needed to 'step down' marring or haze caused by using the 101?

[Murr1525]

With Meguiars pads, you could go with the foam polishing or foam finishing to be milder.

As mentioned, just need to test a spot to see how easily any marring is removed.

[TheMac]

Re: Help required on nature of pads

Thanks for that.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Help required on nature of pads

It's darn near impossible to say "use this pad with this product to remove the haze that the other products will create when working on this paint". There are just way too many variables here. If the paint in question is quite hard, you might find that M101 on a microfiber pad actually finishes beautifully in and of itself, and very little secondary polishing is needed. If, on the other hand, the paint is rather soft, M101 on a microfiber pad may be so extremely aggressive that the paint will haze very badly and you'll struggle to remove that haze even with a variety of secondary polishes and pads. To make matters even more confusing, we've worked on black Audi paint that was very hard, but also on black Audi paint that was fairly soft.

Honestly, we wouldn't even just dive right in and make M101 on microfiber an immediate go to without doing a test spot first. As has been mentioned, D300 may be more than sufficient to correct the paint, and it's going to create almost no dust at all while M101 can be quite dusty with microfiber on a DA.

[TheMac]

Re: Help required on nature of pads

Thanks. I will try a test spot this morning with a couple of my existing products to try to gauge just how hard the clear coat is.

[TheMac]

Re: Help required on nature of pads

The car has now been clay barred. I checked the hardness of the clear coat by using my existing Xpert products with the Megs MF pads. The product was able to shift the spider webs in the paint fairly easily but not a significant number of other scratches. The Megs 101 arrived by post shortly after and I used it on the basis that the clear coat was likely to be extremely hard.
With a bit of effort first stage correction of the paint is now complete, virtually all scratches are gone as far as I can see and the panel wipe and interior leather treatment have been applied . There is no marring nor haze in the paint.
To-morrow I intend to refine the finish by applying a combination of the Xpert 1500 Ultra together with jewelling polish and then if I get time I will machine coat the car with the micro finish in preparation for the Glare Pro Polish sealer.
The car looks breath taking already but that is just black! I did not have access to a camera for the before shots but I will try to lay my hands on one before I give the car back.
Thanks for all the help to date.

[TheMac]

Re: Help required on nature of pads

The car is now finished. The last time I posted was at night and the paintwork looked scratch free. The next morning and in daylight a number of scores became apparent especially around the back bumper which had been against the garage door and which had not been well lit. I spent a good half hour looking round the car and marking any imperfections with sticky tape before spending the rest of the morning machining them out.
It had been my intention to finish down the paint after using the 101. Nevertheless, having seen the mar and haze free high gloss finish following the use of Megs 101 there seemed little reason to pursue this approach. I used the Glare micro finish to prep and clarify the paint for the Glare Pro polish sealer.
The Audi clear coat must be like flint as some sections required in excess of ten to twelve passes, some with a good bit of elbow grease, in order to eliminate all the imperfections. I was fairly discriminating in this with the scratch free areas attracting a much milder approach.
Ignoring a few stone chips which I was not in a position to do much about, the final result was virtually flawless paintwork. The complete exercise took approx 25 hours.
I certainly will not have any reservations using 101 on my own Audi which has a similar hard coat. I have attached a few pictures. I must say I am really impressed with the 101.[IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG]

[TheMac]

Re: Help required on nature of pads

Re the pictures. All were taken in a garage and are not particularly well lit. The car is an automatic and I am reluctant to learn how to drive it with a doorway of approx. 11/2 inch clearance on both sides.

[J4o2el7]

Looks great!