Ultimate polish residue

[Mopar4u]

I'm new to detailing but trying to get some basics down as I now own a pitch black 16' Dodge Challenger. I'm practicing on my black dodge neon. I'm using the meguiars da power system on a corded drill at max rpm 2,800. I'm using the yellow pads (new pad for each trial). I clayed first. After some trial and error I found scratch x and swirl x too aggressive and left a haze. Ultimate compound work good but I found I have to work fairly quick with it before it flashes or work smaller areas. Then I used ultimate polish, seemed to work good, I wiped the remaining polish off after using the da with a fairly cheap Viking micro fiber towel but I noticed there was always an oily reside left no matter how much I wiped, flipped the towel and wiped. I'm not wiping very hard. Do I need a better towel, maybe apply a little more pressure when wiping?

[briarpatch]

Re: Ultimate polish residue

I'm no expert, but to me, inexpensive microfibers have no business anywhere near paint, unless it's in a door jamb. Maybe they were loading up with product and you were never removing all of it. It's also possible you may not have worked the polish long enough. I just made that mistake when polishing my truck, and removal was more difficult because of my technique.

[Selectchoice]

Re: Ultimate polish residue

How large of an area are you working at a time?

[Mopar4u]

Re: Ultimate polish residue

Ahhhhhh
I happened to be working a very small panel with "normal" amounts of polish = too much polish for small area, Right? Newbie mistake. This is why im practicing on an older car.

[Blueline]

Re: Ultimate polish residue

This is one of the issues I had with Ultimate Polish. Either drying or leaving an oily residue. (I use good microfiber towels) I found that if i just left what I could not remove, and just waxed over it with Ultimate Wax, once the wax dried and was removed, everything came off and was nice and shiny with no residue. I am not a fan of Ultimate Polish. Recently I found Meguiar's Cleaner Wax M06. It is just as good, or better, in my opinion as Ultimate Polish, easier to work with, provides a wax base coat, and leaves no residue. Top it with Ultimate Wax and your black Challenger will look as gorgeous as my black Chrysler 300.

[Top Gear]

Re: Ultimate polish residue

...After some trial and error I found scratch x and swirl x too aggressive and left a haze. Ultimate compound work good but I found I have to work fairly quick with it before it flashes or work smaller areas...

This sounds like what we mean when we talk about how a compound "finishes". To me, when I say "haze", I mean a cloudy white patch left over that looks different from the surrounding area, but may be defect-free otherwise. Basically, you've abraded what polish and wax and dirt may have been there, and left a film of product behind that got dried out by the DA or rubbing action. ScratchX is closer to UC, perhaps, but neither it or SwirlX are aggressive - on harder paints. They're good for getting things like fingernail scratches out of a door handle cup by hand where the DA won't reach, or maybe those tiny areas around logos and badges. I'll use ScratchX that way to save that little bit of my far more expensive M101 over time. Even by hand, though, the haze is very noticeable on black, I've found, but if followed by a polish (see below), the haze will go away. As for your compounding in general, you're probably working too large an area (which we all tend to do because it's so much work!). Maybe try a smaller area, and use UC on the pad, the other two by hand for tight spots.

...I wiped the remaining polish off after using the da with a fairly cheap Viking micro fiber towel but I noticed there was always an oily reside left no matter how much I wiped, flipped the towel and wiped.

Maybe not too much product, but not enough time working it. The result of UP and other Meg's polishes should be that you almost don't need a wipe/buff at all, so if you have to keep wiping, you've probably stopped short of working the product fully. Try "jeweling" the finish by turning the speed down, moving your machine slowly and letting off the pressure (I always think of someone polishing a retail floor with one of those slow-moving spinning machines). Once the liquid, which after all is a rich blend of polishing oils, has been fully broken down and worked into the paint, the only thing that could really come off with a buff is a minor bit of excess film. Be prepared for a mirror finish! I think of it as the polished surface should be the final state of how you want the finish to look, except for a wax to cap it off and protect it.

Hope that helps!

[The Guz]

Re: Ultimate polish residue

Ultimate Polish is more oily than M205. If you are having a hard time removing ultimate polish, you are either using too much product or overworking it. How often did you clean your pads? Those small pads tend to load up with product fairly quickly. Clean them on the fly prior to continuing to a new panel.

This thread will give you an idea of which product is more aggressive. As you can see Ultimate Compound is actually more aggressive that those two products.

http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?40514-The-Aggressiveness-Order-of-SMAT-Products-This-might-surprise-you!#0ojQojVZt6KIQWRB.97

You described Ultimate Compound flashing to quickly. Temperature and humidity come into play with polishes. That can make them a little more difficult to work with. How many passes were doing with each product? Heat can become an issue when a pad is loaded with too much product. Thus leading to pad failure but also having less working time with a product. This is why it is recommended to clean the pads frequently.

Also shrink your work area. You should not be working an area larger that shoulder width apart.

[Mopar4u]

Re: Ultimate polish residue

For the ultimate compound it was mid 80's, humid and in my garage. I was doing the ?cross hatch? technique, left, right then up, down, 2800 rpm moving slow. Probably a 30" x 30" area.

For the ultimate polish, same conditions, i can almost guarantee too much product for a small area, 6" x 16".

Im still learning. I do need better towels as well but picking out towels has got my head confused as much as picking out a compound/polish/wax. This detailing stuff isnt as easy as it looks.

[Top Gear]

Re: Ultimate polish residue

Yes, it's very easy to get way overwhelmed. I use the lowly blue, white and brown MF "rags" from Advance Auto for most things, like interior, wiping off compound and polish, wheel touch-ups, and so on, but the celebrated Meg's Supreme Shine "towels" (upscale version of "rag") for the paint, glass, etc, in terms of final finish. The SS towels are too nice and expensive and mail order delayed across the country for most garden variety cleaning, and the cheaper rags are great for dirtier work, and I don't have to care about them. A few of the pro guys here seem to use nothing but SS towels, but then, their customers are paying for them

[The Guz]

Re: Ultimate polish residue

Try working a 12x12 area with both products.

[Mopar4u]

Re: Ultimate polish residue

Would I get different results if I used hex logic pads? Orange pad with the compound and white with the polish?

[The Guz]

Re: Ultimate polish residue

Would I get different results if I used hex logic pads? Orange pad with the compound and white with the polish?

You would get similar results. But if you want to try the DA power system pads are 3" at the backing plate interface side. The bevel out to a 4" face.

[Mopar4u]

Re: Ultimate polish residue

Would i order a 3" or 4" pad?

[The Guz]

Re: Ultimate polish residue

3". Is there a reason you want to change to a different pad?

[Mopar4u]

Re: Ultimate polish residue

Was watching junkman2000 videos and that is what was recommended.