Nissan X-Trail - First Detail w/ Machine

[sherwin]

I just got my hands on a Bosch random orbital machine.. tried it out on this Nissan X-Trail. This SUV is in pretty bad shape, tonnes of scratches and swirls, never gets washed for months, etc.
Its done about 88,000 miles in less than 2 years.

Took me about 12 hours to complete
Here was what was done to it:

NXT Wash
Clay
Safe Degreaser 4:1 on rims and tyres
#83 w/ 8006 - 2 passes
#80 w/ 8006
#21 by hand - 2 coats
#16 over 21
Hyper Dressing 3:1 on tyres
PlastX - headlamps
Autosol on metal parts


I felt the results could have been much better as the ROB + #83 is limited to what it can do.

Sorry I did not take any before pics except for while it was being washed.

Before




After #21


After #16

[Mike Phillips]

Results look good to me! Sometimes you have to use what you have and make the best of it which it sounds like this is what you've done. Polishing by machine always produces better results over polishing by hand especially when ti comes to removing defects from a clear coat finish.

By the way,

* How do you like the M21
* How do you like the M16
* How do you like the combination of M16 over M21


Thanks!

[sherwin]

#21 is currently tops in my list.. one of the easiest to apply and buff off.
I first tried this on a silver car and it just made the paint "pop", which is hard to achieve on such light colors.

Anyway this is my first time using #16, I bought it months ago when I heard it was going to be discontinued and only recently decided to try it out.

I applied #16 12 hours apart after application of #21.. it made the paint look even better, more reflective and added depth. As many have mentioned here, the key to easy #16 application is to apply it very thin and evenly.