'00 Grand Prix GTP

[Kendra]

This is my personal vehicle and it was in the possession of a friend of mine for a couple months. He was being nice when he washed my car, but I'm very particular about even ME touching it. So I had to resist cringing when I heard it'd been washed twice. My friend is trying to get better about detailing/washing, so he's learning and fortunately a majority of the "damage" was correctable. It also hadn't been detailed properly since early May since I acquired a severe injury from my other sport, horses

I used a 7424xp with M205 on an orange waffle pad. I did not acquire a 100% correction or even a 95% correction for that matter, but it looked better than it did and that was the objective.

Washed with a Dawn/Citrus mix
Zaino RED clay bar
M205 (2-3 passes)
Finalized with Meguiar's Carnauba wax (3 coats)


These haven't been altered by any means, no change of brightness, you're seeing the images as they were taken. May I also remind ya'll how much I hate black?





You can see where most of the pressure was directed and where I skimped

Again, the next two show where I focused more on and where I tended to "feather" over and not direct on the first/second pass.



Hood before:

Hood After:


Needless to say another round of correction will be needed. I'm sure I could acquire it in a single run with a Rotary, but I don't trust myself enough yet buy one let alone use.

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: '00 Grand Prix GTP

Huge improvement. Looks a lot better.

Wise choice to stay away from the rotary, until you become more proficient at it. Go to your local junk yard. Get a practice hood. It will speed up your skill level with the rotary.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: '00 Grand Prix GTP

You obviously made some excellent progress but no doubt there's still some room for improvement. We must say, though, that your liquid/pad combination is a bit unusual. M205 is a pretty fine finishing polish so it doesn't provide a lot of cut. The orange pad you're using (assuming you do mean a Lake Country pad) is pretty aggressive, falling somewhere between our yellow polishing pad and burgundy cutting pad. And that's where we see a bit of an odd match up - that's a very aggressive pad for a finishing polish.

We do like the idea of you staying away from the rotary for now, but given what you've accomplished with the combo you used, might we suggest this:

Do your full correction with Ultimate Compound and that same orange pad. It should remove all the swirls and water spots pretty easily, but it may micro mar or haze the paint in the process. Don't worry about, because you've got M205 in your arsenal already! Switch to a softer pad, either our black finishing pad (W9207) or a Lake County green or black pad and slow the speed of the tool down to 3. Ease up a bit on the pressure, but not as light as when applying a wax, and work a 3' x 3' area for a good long time. M205 will stay wet for a crazy amount of time, as you probably know, and it can do wonders for improving clarity and depth in the finish. It should speed through any hazing caused by your more aggressive correction step (if, in fact, there is any to begin with) and leave the paint looking incredible.

May I also remind ya'll how much I hate black?

You may change your mind after doing the above process.

[Kendra]

Re: '00 Grand Prix GTP

You obviously made some excellent progress but no doubt there's still some room for improvement. We must say, though, that your liquid/pad combination is a bit unusual. M205 is a pretty fine finishing polish so it doesn't provide a lot of cut. The orange pad you're using (assuming you do mean a Lake Country pad) is pretty aggressive, falling somewhere between our yellow polishing pad and burgundy cutting pad. And that's where we see a bit of an odd match up - that's a very aggressive pad for a finishing polish.

We do like the idea of you staying away from the rotary for now, but given what you've accomplished with the combo you used, might we suggest this:

Do your full correction with Ultimate Compound and that same orange pad. It should remove all the swirls and water spots pretty easily, but it may micro mar or haze the paint in the process. Don't worry about, because you've got M205 in your arsenal already! Switch to a softer pad, either our black finishing pad (W9207) or a Lake County green or black pad and slow the speed of the tool down to 3. Ease up a bit on the pressure, but not as light as when applying a wax, and work a 3' x 3' area for a good long time. M205 will stay wet for a crazy amount of time, as you probably know, and it can do wonders for improving clarity and depth in the finish. It should speed through any hazing caused by your more aggressive correction step (if, in fact, there is any to begin with) and leave the paint looking incredible.



You may change your mind after doing the above process.

Thank you for the guidance, I can't recall where I got my process from and I feel it must have been from another forum. I will give what you have a try as I noticed sometimes my process does not work as well as I think it should and what you have enlightened me with may very well be the reason I lack the results I expect.

I intend on working on the rest of the car when the weather warms up, upon doing so I will come and and let you know how it goes. Thanks again so very much

[Golden]

Re: '00 Grand Prix GTP

I agree with Michael Stoops, try Ultimate Compound. I achieved this result with a single pass on a yellow Meg's pad: