Recommend me a pair combo (pad/polish) as I get ready for Spring prepping my car

[Chop]

Hi I am just thinking ahead as I prepare to come out of winter.

I want to give my car a spring paint revival polish when spring arrives.

Although I am not new to this I have not worked on my car for a while. My daily needs some love. I am wondering if my chosen combo should fit my needs well. This car has paint in pretty good shape (~ 2years old ford fusion paint) with only very minor swirls.

I want to see if I can get away with a single step. I have a Meguiar's DA and a couple of 5" polishing disks (DFP5's) and I am looking for something that is easy to wipe and gives me longer times with minimal dust.

So question is should I pair these pads with Ultimate Polish, or D302. Or are Microfiber pads better for this? Is there a better pad/liquid combo for my needs?

Again, goal is 1 step with minimal correction and finished polish, long working times, no dust.

Plan of Action:
Wash
Clay
Polish
Wax

Thanks

[Nick Winn]

Re: Recommend me a pair combo (pad/polish) as I get ready for Spring prepping my car

Hi I am just thinking ahead as I prepare to come out of winter.

I want to give my car a spring paint revival polish when spring arrives.

Although I am not new to this I have not worked on my car for a while. My daily needs some love. I am wondering if my chosen combo should fit my needs well. This car has paint in pretty good shape (~ 2years old ford fusion paint) with only very minor swirls.

I want to see if I can get away with a single step. I have a Meguiar's DA and a couple of 5" polishing disks (DFP5's) and I am looking for something that is easy to wipe and gives me longer times with minimal dust.

So question is should I pair these pads with Ultimate Polish, or D302. Or are Microfiber pads better for this? Is there a better pad/liquid combo for my needs?

Again, goal is 1 step with minimal correction and finished polish, long working times, no dust.

Plan of Action:
Wash
Clay
Polish
Wax

Thanks

Hi Chop,

Ultimate Polish has minimal defect removal. Whether or not Ultimate Polish is going to provide enough defect removal is mainly going to depend on the hardness of the paint & the severity of the defects. If you have Ultimate Polish, you could certainly do a test spot to determine if it's enough. Meguiar's D302 D/A Microfiber Polish has 0 defect removal. It's designed specifically to remove D/A Haze with our D/A Microfiber Finishing Disc, not swirls or scratches.

A next step up in aggressiveness from Ultimate Polish would be our M205 Ultra Finishing Polish.

What color is the car you are working on?

Ok next let's address pad selection. The yellow DFP5 Soft Buff D/A Foam Polishing Discs of ours, which you have, has great ability to remove light to moderate swirls/scratches. Yes, in general, a next step up in aggressive before going to our DFC5 Soft Buff D/A Foam Cutting Disc, would be our DMF5 D/A Microfiber Finishing Disc. This disc, the DMF5, is more aggressive than our DFP5 Soft Buff D/A Foam Polishing Disc.

Another thought is tool technique. When attempting to use a finishing/cleaner polish as a one step, in many cases you are attempting to get as much defect removal out of the combination as your can, while still leaving behind a good enough finish to go straight to wax. I will tell you the amount of defect removal you are able to obtain can be greatly impacted by your tool technique. In general, if you use the tool & your pad/product combination more aggressively, you can get more defect removal, since a polishing pad & cleaner/polish is not necessarily an "aggressive" combination. You are almost trying to forceas much defect removal out of the combination as you can. Now, you may have extremely light swirls, and may not have to work it aggressively at all to get to your desired results, but I thought I would bring this up as food for thought. With this combination, if trying to force as much defect removal out as you can, I tend to slow arm speed, increase pressure quite, slightly increase tool speed to maintain pad rotation (around 4800 - 5000 opm on our MT300), and potentially do more passes per section.

Hope this helps. Feel free to post further questions and we will make sure you are ready to start doing your test spot.

[Chop]

Re: Recommend me a pair combo (pad/polish) as I get ready for Spring prepping my car

This is the color

https://media.ed.edmunds-media.com/ford/fusion-hybrid/2016/oem/2016_ford_fusion-hybrid_sedan_se_fq_oem_4_600x263.jpg

Thanks for the feedback. Based on what I have, it seems like I should try UP with the DFP5. Do a test and then go from there. I tried 205 before and did not like the dusting aspect of it.