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Re: polish sequence
Sure, be happy to...
Think about it... if you're working on a daily driver and you're removing swirls and scratches, (that's normal and common), how did the swirls and scratches get into the car in the first place?
Hmm....
How about this... daily drivers see wear & tear because they're daily drivers. Over time they get touched in a way that instills swirls and scratches and most people don't have the time to polish them often, as in every time they see a new, swirl or a new scratch, so they build up.
Thus creating a "Show Car" finish on a daily driver usually isn't the best idea for most people because they won't be able to maintain it, getting the finish to about 80% or 90% of a show car finish is still really GREAT and good enough for most people with a daily driver.
The idea of going through a cars finish and removing each and every deeper scratch is a great idea but it's also beyond most people's skill and ability plus a lot of work that will require a lot of time.
In the context of what the original poster is wanting to do, he's wanting to remove the deeper scratches using his DA Polisher and it's not as simple as just keep buffing more and more and more...
Deep scratches don't come out that way very easily and when they do it means you've removed a lot of paint surrounding the scratches because the pad is 6" to 7" inches wide and it removes paint equally over the entire surface it's worked. So not only do you remove a lot of paint unnecessarily, you will have to invest a lot of time doing this and in most cases it's just not going to work. That's why I posted this,
Been there, done that... at least a couple of times... 
Here's an example of doing intricate sanding to remove the deepest of scratches after the lighter swirls and scratches were removed using a rotary buffer. Most people shouldn't undertake work like this without years of experience and even a few mistakes under their belt. What you're going to see below is a car I prepped one half of for display at the 2002 Bimmerfest to show what can be done with the right products and techniques.
How To Remove Random Isolated Deeper Scratches using the Feather Sanding Technique
Before
Process
First, tape off the car to your comfort level, for myself I'd rather tape trim off than use a toothbrush later on to remove compound or polish residue. Yes, we're all suppose to be so good that we don't splatter but as hard as I try personally, sometimes I get some splatter on hard to clean surfaces like Pebble Textured Black Plastic Trim and it's faster to tape it off then fight the splatter out of the textured surface.
After taping off the car, next use a rotary buffer to compound the major panels, this will remove all the shallow scratches and reveal all the random, deeper isolated scratches. Now you know where they are so you can sand them out instead of compounding, and compounding and compounding the entire finish.
Next, cut small pieces of our Nikken brand Finishing Papers about the size of large postage stamps, this will allow you to sand just on the RIDS
Now carefully, and meticulously sand out all the RIDS, sand till the scratch is gone or to your comfort level. Remember you only have so much clear film-build to work with and also keep in mind that not only does sanding remove clear, but buffing your sanding marks out with a compound is going to remove some clear paint.
This is a risky job and again, most people should never undertake this type of project on someone else's car unless you're willing to buy them a paint job should you make a mistake.
Now simply compound out your sanding marks using a rotary buffer, a cutting pad and a compound. After doing this, the "hard part", finish out with your final polishing using a DA Polisher and then apply your choice of wax.
Here are the results...
Then we placed the car on display at the 2002 Bimmerfest
Afterwards we did the other side and of course the rest of the car.
Completed work...
Removing all the deeper scratches out of a daily driver can be done and you're welcome to do this but my comment was targeted at the original poster and all the people that will read this into the future because it's important to have realistic goals and expectations when it comes to the paint on a daily driver.
It's hard enough to keep a show car finish on a show car, something that's not driven on the street everyday and incredibly difficult to maintain a show car finish on a daily driver if the person that owns and drives the car isn't knowledgeable about proper paint care, isn't skilled at proper paint care and isn't willing or able to always focus on the task at hand and by this I mean every time they work on the paint they make sure that everything that touches the paint is soft and gentle and perfect technique is always used when applying or removing any paint care products.
This took a while to type up... I hope it was enough elaboration...
Think about it... if you're working on a daily driver and you're removing swirls and scratches, (that's normal and common), how did the swirls and scratches get into the car in the first place?
Hmm....
How about this... daily drivers see wear & tear because they're daily drivers. Over time they get touched in a way that instills swirls and scratches and most people don't have the time to polish them often, as in every time they see a new, swirl or a new scratch, so they build up.
Thus creating a "Show Car" finish on a daily driver usually isn't the best idea for most people because they won't be able to maintain it, getting the finish to about 80% or 90% of a show car finish is still really GREAT and good enough for most people with a daily driver.
The idea of going through a cars finish and removing each and every deeper scratch is a great idea but it's also beyond most people's skill and ability plus a lot of work that will require a lot of time.
In the context of what the original poster is wanting to do, he's wanting to remove the deeper scratches using his DA Polisher and it's not as simple as just keep buffing more and more and more...
Deep scratches don't come out that way very easily and when they do it means you've removed a lot of paint surrounding the scratches because the pad is 6" to 7" inches wide and it removes paint equally over the entire surface it's worked. So not only do you remove a lot of paint unnecessarily, you will have to invest a lot of time doing this and in most cases it's just not going to work. That's why I posted this,
Originally posted by Mike Phillips
View Post
RIDS = Random Isolated Deeper Scratches
If after buffing the paint out with M80 you find RIDS, it can actually be faster to work these out using M105 by hand because you can exert more pressure with a couple of fingers working M105 against just the scratch than to apply M83 with a 6" to 7" foam buffing pad as the machine process will spread your pressure out over a greater area when you're just trying to focus on a very small area.
Make sense?
Deeper scratches are harder to remove and take longer plus you'll have to remove more clear off your car.
If after buffing the paint out with M80 you find RIDS, it can actually be faster to work these out using M105 by hand because you can exert more pressure with a couple of fingers working M105 against just the scratch than to apply M83 with a 6" to 7" foam buffing pad as the machine process will spread your pressure out over a greater area when you're just trying to focus on a very small area.
Make sense?
Deeper scratches are harder to remove and take longer plus you'll have to remove more clear off your car.
Here's an example of doing intricate sanding to remove the deepest of scratches after the lighter swirls and scratches were removed using a rotary buffer. Most people shouldn't undertake work like this without years of experience and even a few mistakes under their belt. What you're going to see below is a car I prepped one half of for display at the 2002 Bimmerfest to show what can be done with the right products and techniques.
How To Remove Random Isolated Deeper Scratches using the Feather Sanding Technique
Before
Process
First, tape off the car to your comfort level, for myself I'd rather tape trim off than use a toothbrush later on to remove compound or polish residue. Yes, we're all suppose to be so good that we don't splatter but as hard as I try personally, sometimes I get some splatter on hard to clean surfaces like Pebble Textured Black Plastic Trim and it's faster to tape it off then fight the splatter out of the textured surface.
After taping off the car, next use a rotary buffer to compound the major panels, this will remove all the shallow scratches and reveal all the random, deeper isolated scratches. Now you know where they are so you can sand them out instead of compounding, and compounding and compounding the entire finish.
Next, cut small pieces of our Nikken brand Finishing Papers about the size of large postage stamps, this will allow you to sand just on the RIDS
Now carefully, and meticulously sand out all the RIDS, sand till the scratch is gone or to your comfort level. Remember you only have so much clear film-build to work with and also keep in mind that not only does sanding remove clear, but buffing your sanding marks out with a compound is going to remove some clear paint.
This is a risky job and again, most people should never undertake this type of project on someone else's car unless you're willing to buy them a paint job should you make a mistake.
Now simply compound out your sanding marks using a rotary buffer, a cutting pad and a compound. After doing this, the "hard part", finish out with your final polishing using a DA Polisher and then apply your choice of wax.
Here are the results...
Then we placed the car on display at the 2002 Bimmerfest
Afterwards we did the other side and of course the rest of the car.
Completed work...
Removing all the deeper scratches out of a daily driver can be done and you're welcome to do this but my comment was targeted at the original poster and all the people that will read this into the future because it's important to have realistic goals and expectations when it comes to the paint on a daily driver.
It's hard enough to keep a show car finish on a show car, something that's not driven on the street everyday and incredibly difficult to maintain a show car finish on a daily driver if the person that owns and drives the car isn't knowledgeable about proper paint care, isn't skilled at proper paint care and isn't willing or able to always focus on the task at hand and by this I mean every time they work on the paint they make sure that everything that touches the paint is soft and gentle and perfect technique is always used when applying or removing any paint care products.
This took a while to type up... I hope it was enough elaboration...
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