Help with product choice in New Zealand

[u102768]

Hi, I recently acquired one of those cheapish dual handle, dual action polishers that come with a couple of bonnets and am looking to improve the finish on my 11 year old Jaguar XJR.

The paint finish is clear over base (metallic mid red) and it has faint swirl marks all over it along with a nasty bird poop stain in the middle of the bonnet.

There appears to be a real mix of Meguiar products available here in little old New Zealand and as some of them don't match the products being discussed on this board they may be older products. I am therefore looking for advice as to which are the best options to buy for a swirl remover and polish. The options are:

I assume these are from the professional range:
Swirl Remover 2 #9
Medium Cut cleaner #1
Final Cut #2
Show Car Glaze #7

And these are the consumer range:
ColourX
Deep Crystal System Cleaner/Polish/Wax
Scratch X2.0

My other dumb question is that the DA came with two bonnets, one short pile and one longer pile. Which is the applicator and which is the polisher as it doesn't say which is which in the instructions!

TIA

[smurf]

Re: Help with product choice in New Zealand

Hi there What part of Kiwi land are you in ???
I live in Cambridge, almost all of the products that we talk about here on MOL are available through Meguiar's Auckland

[u102768]

Re: Help with product choice in New Zealand

Hi there What part of Kiwi land are you in ???
I live in Cambridge, almost all of the products that we talk about here on MOL are available through Meguiar's Auckland

Hi , Christchurch. Super Cheap Auto seems to have the more complete range here. Repco just has the Deep Crystal System and some of the NXT range.

Super Cheap Auto only have one or two of some of the products which makes me think they are end of line and I would rather buy 'new technology'.

[u102768]

Re: Help with product choice in New Zealand

Can anybody help with my questions?

[smurf]

Re: Help with product choice in New Zealand

Hi , Christchurch. Super Cheap Auto seems to have the more complete range here. Repco just has the Deep Crystal System and some of the NXT range.

Super Cheap Auto only have one or two of some of the products which makes me think they are end of line and I would rather buy 'new technology'.

Hi there

If you contact Melissa at Meguiars.co.nz she would be more than happy to help you out with all the products you need .
If you go to the websight there is a 0800 toll free number there to ring

Found it Freephone: 0800-227-422

[u102768]

Re: Help with product choice in New Zealand

Hi there

If you contact Melissa at Meguiars.co.nz she would be more than happy to help you out with all the products you need .
If you go to the websight there is a 0800 toll free number there to ring

Found it Freephone: 0800-227-422

Thanks very much for that. Do you have any recommendations as to which specific products I should go for?

[Murr1525]

Re: Help with product choice in New Zealand

Those old bufers may not be strong enough to help you....

You might end up having to use ScratchX 2.0 by hand.

What it Means to Remove a Scratch

How To Remove Swirls By Hand

How To Remove a Bird Dropping Etching by Hand using M105 Ultra Cut Compound

How to correctly apply ScratchX to remove swirls and scratches

Rotary vs. PC vs. Regular Orbital Buffer

[ClearlyCoated]

Re: Help with product choice in New Zealand

This may help you decide which available Megs chemicals to buy and what you will need to apply them.

Product, Pad and Speed settings for the Porter Cable Dual Action Polisher

Keep in mind that not all of the newer Megs products are listed in this link. Also, pad references are to the previous generation of DA pads. To correlate Meguiars newest pad offerings: 7006 = 7207, 8006 = 8207, 9006 = 9207.

Most of the products that can be applied by DA may also be applied by hand. Rotary applied means just that, intended for circular drive rotaries only.

[u102768]

Re: Help with product choice in New Zealand

Thanks to all for your input. Whilst out wandering at lunchtime earlier in the week I passed a paint shop and noticed through the window that they had a large range of Meguiar's products so I went in and had a look.

I went back today and had a long chat with one of the owners and he talked me in to buying Swirl Remover 2 and Yellow Wax. It wasn't what I was planning to buy but he has used them both with good results so I will use them and see how I go.

I may buy some Scratch Remover 2.0 for the bird poop too.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Help with product choice in New Zealand

Hi, I recently acquired one of those cheapish dual handle, dual action polishers that come with a couple of bonnets and am looking to improve the finish on my 11 year old Jaguar XJR.

Looks kind of like this?

Machine Photos - DA Polishers - Rotary Buffers - Traditional Orbital Buffers

Sealy Orbital Polisher
or this WEN Orbital Polisher

The paint finish is clear over base (metallic mid red) and it has faint swirl marks all over it along with a nasty bird poop stain in the middle of the bonnet.

Traditional Orbital Buffers like the two in the pictures above are now called "Wax Spreaders", because that's all they're really good for, that is spreading out a coating of wax.

There's a HUGE difference in removing swirls, which means removing some paint, and spreading out a coating of wax. It all has to do with paint hardness and the tools' ability or actually inability to remove paint.

See these articles,

What it means to remove a scratch out of anything...
Rotary vs DA Polisher vs Traditional Orbital Buffer
Rotary Buffers versus Random Orbital Polishers
Please explain Pros/Cons between Rotary and Orbital Buffers
Polishable & Polishability - Paint Hardness or Softness
What is the meaning of soft paint?
Paint Workability - The Hardness or Softness of your car's paint
Cobweb Swirls vs Rotary Buffer Swirls


See my notes in bold below...

I am therefore looking for advice as to which are the best options to buy for a swirl remover and polish. The options are:

I assume these are from the professional range:

Swirl Remover 2 #9
Our most gentle cleaner/polish, not aggressive enough for what you're trying to do especially with a TOB (Traditional Orbital Buffer).

Medium Cut cleaner #1
For use with a Rotary Buffer ONLY! (see the back label)

Final Cut #2
Read the back label, if it say it can be used with a DA Polisher then you can try this product, it's about as aggressive as M83 Dual Action Cleaner Polish but the problem you have is your TOB doesn't work well to remove paint.

Show Car Glaze #7
Non-abrasive, this product won't remove swirls, it's not suppose to.

And these are the consumer range:
ColourX
Strong cleaner/wax, can remove light swirls but again, the type of buffer you have doesn't offer the power or ability to remove a little paint which is how your remove swirls. Explained here.

Deep Crystal System Cleaner/Polish/Wax
The paint cleaner in the Deep Crystal System can remove light swirls but again, the problem if the tool you're using is ineffective for removing swirls/removing paint.

Scratch X2.0
This is your best bet as it is more aggressive than everything else you've listed. You could buy this and use it with the wool bonnet that came with your buffer and do a TEST SPOT

TEST SPOT

How to do a Test Spot

Before going over the entire car, see if you can make just one small section look good, that is apply the product you're planning on using over the entire car to just one small section about a foot squared or so. Work it in and then wipe it off, then apply the polish, work it in but not as much as the compound because now you're not trying to remove paint, just spread the product out, then immediately wipe it off, then apply the wax and let it fully dry and then wipe it off.

Now inspect our results. Make sure you can make one small section look GREAT before going over then entire car. If you can't make one small section look GREAT you won't be able to make the entire car look GREAT.

Make sense?

It should look like this,




And if you're having any problems, the post back here after the test section and we'll help you tweak your technique to insure you get it right.

My other dumb question is that the DA came with two bonnets, one short pile and one longer pile. Which is the applicator and which is the polisher as it doesn't say which is which in the instructions!

TIA

Usually the longer thread bonnet would be the cleaning or swirl and scratch removing bonnet and the short thread could be used for applying a wax. For the most part it doesn't matter because the problem isn't with the bonnets, it's with the design of the too.

These types of tools can remove oxidation and that's why they were popular from the 1950 up to the 1980's but when the industry switched over to clear coat paints the hardness of the paint changed and rendered these tools useless for remove swirls and scratches out of clear coat paints.

You will be more effective to work by hand with ScratchX 2.0 and remove swirls than you will with the tool. See the threads in this link as the discuss in detail the topic of exert.

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/tags.php?tag=exert


Part of the problem is the face of the bonnet on your tool is usually large enough that by the time you start applying some downward pressure to the tool it's still spread out over such a large area that it won't remove small particles of paint.

Can you measure the diameter of the face of the bonnet/pad on your buffer?

You can definitely give this buffer you have a try and please, please, please if you get it to work, that is if you can get it to remove all the swirls over your entire car then share that back here because there's a lot of these buffers in the world and everyone wants them to do the kind of work our G110 can do, but to date they've been relegated to the job title of "Wax Spreader".

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Help with product choice in New Zealand

I went back today and had a long chat with one of the owners and he talked me in to buying Swirl Remover 2

Wash and dry the car
Clay the paint if you feel bumps on the horizontal surface with your clean hand.

Now place a piece of blue painters tape to a section of the hood and only buff on one side of the tape line with the M09 Swirl Remover 2.0 and your orbital buffer. Place enough product on the face of the bonnet to buff a section about a foot squared or so for at least a minute.

Then wipe off the residue and compare the side you worked on with the control side and see if you see a difference and then if it looks good continue, if you're not seeing much difference in the amount of swirls removed then try the same experiment with the ScratchX 2.0

What you want to do is prove to yourself that your system or approach is working before you go over the entire car and testing with a control area separated with some blue painter's tape will make it easier for your eyes to see any changes.

We do this at all our Saturday classes so the 20 to 30 people there can all easily see the differences. You'll also want to move the car into the sun when inspecting your results because the sun will show the swirls easily to your eyes where garage lighting usually won't. Or get a Swirl Finder Light like this one,



Example: Pictures & Comments from April 25th's Saturday Open Class!




Applying Ultimate Compound and SwirlX by hand...




Using the Brinkman Swirl Finder to check our results...



Time to compare working by hand to working by machine...



Nothing like hands-on training to flatten out the learning curve...







Arther is opening a detail shop in the Philippines!







Inspecting the results under the sunny California sky...

[smurf]

Re: Help with product choice in New Zealand

I have a better idea ,come for a ride to Cambridge and we can both polish it out

Check this thread out 1996 Jaguar

[u102768]

Hi Mike

Thanks very much for taking the time to reply.

Looks kind of like this?

Kind of:

TEST SPOT

How to do a Test Spot

Before going over the entire car, see if you can make just one small section look good, that is apply the product you're planning on using over the entire car to just one small section about a foot squared or so. Work it in and then wipe it off, then apply the polish, work it in but not as much as the compound because now you're not trying to remove paint, just spread the product out, then immediately wipe it off, then apply the wax and let it fully dry and then wipe it off.

Now inspect our results. Make sure you can make one small section look GREAT before going over then entire car. If you can't make one small section look GREAT you won't be able to make the entire car look GREAT.

Make sense?

Yup, thanks. I will give it a go.

And if you're having any problems, the post back here after the test section and we'll help you tweak your technique to insure you get it right.

Thanks, will do.

Usually the longer thread bonnet would be the cleaning or swirl and scratch removing bonnet and the short thread could be used for applying a wax. For the most part it doesn't matter because the problem isn't with the bonnets, it's with the design of the too.

Thanks for clarifying that.

You will be more effective to work by hand with ScratchX 2.0 and remove swirls than you will with the tool. See the threads in this link as the discuss in detail the topic of exert.

I bought some ScratchX 2.0 today so will try the Swirl Remover 2 first then give that a go if I am not happy.

Can you measure the diameter of the face of the bonnet/pad on your buffer?

The box says 240mm diameter.

I have a better idea ,come for a ride to Cambridge and we can both polish it out

Check this thread out 1996 Jaguar

That is what I am trying to achieve! If my car ends up looking like that I will be very happy! I suspect it would be cheaper to fly you and your tools down that drive all the way to Cambridge!

Judging by your thread my car is at a better starting point. It doesn't look too bad after a quick wash and polish but the swirls can be seen again after a few washes.