reconditioing the paint on a used car

[tsarte]

I just bought a used '05 white Land Cruiser. It had several small paintchips and some scratches and swirl marks.

I have repaired the paint chips using the Unigrit block 1000 and 2000 but have found that the #2 Fine cut cleaner with my PorterCable orbital polisher barely cleaned the sanding scratches from the 2000 and did not help out with the other scratches. I also noticed that the paint is very rough and dirty.

1. Should I use the 105 to clean the wet sanding marks, other scratches and contaminants?
2. Can I use a 6-6.5in foam pad with the 105 on my Porter-Cable?

Please advice with specific cleaner type and foam pad type. For future paint chip repairs I will use the Unigrit 3000. What polish do I use after that?

Also I am planning on using #20 or #21 for this SUV since I only have time 1-2x a year to clean it all up and protect. Would #20 and/or #21 hold up that long?

thanks
-tony

[Mike Phillips]

Re: reconditioing the paint on a used car

Well first of all, welcome to Meguiar's Online!


Second of all, paint chip repair is hard, not easy, that is making it look like there was never a chip is difficult.

M105 is not formulated for use with a DA Polisher and as such Meguiar's does not have any official recommendations for it's use in this manner. You can use it by hand and it is very effective this way when you put a little passion behind the pad.

Just to note, most of the time you can remove the sanding marks out of the touch-up paint, it's the surrounding clear coat that's harder that you can't get the sanding marks out of when using a DA Polisher.

So try using M105 by hand.

M02 like the name says is a fine cut cleaner, the picture on the front label shows Mike Pennington using a rotary buffer, so while it can be used by hand or with a DA Polisher best results are when it's applied using a rotary buffer.

As for how long any wax will last it depends on how you treat the coat of wax after you apply it. How are you going to wash the car and how often?

Washing will tend to remove a layer of wax through micro-abrasion, that is just the act of pushing some kind of material over the surface doesn't add wax... so what's the opposite of adding?

The coarser or less gentle the material and the person doing the washing can affect how aggressive the washing process is.

[tsarte]

Re: reconditioing the paint on a used car

Hi Mike

Thanks for the reply.

There is no way I can hand polish the entire SUV by hand and can't invest on a rotary either.

So for the equipment I have (PorterCable 7336) and the job (Unigrit 2000 marks, deeper scratches, clean paint), what process, product do you recommend with what pad?

For future chip repairs with a Unigrit 3000, what polish would be good to fix that?

thanks again! I am so eager to get this project going.

-tony

[tsarte]

Re: reconditioing the paint on a used car

Bump for some useful tips and comments from Mike

-Tony

[Mike Phillips]

Re: reconditioing the paint on a used car

Hi Mike

Thanks for the reply.

There is no way I can hand polish the entire SUV by hand and can't invest on a rotary either.

One option would be to go after the worse scratches or the touch-up areas with sanding marks by hand using M105 and and then after rubbing these areas out by hand with M105 go after the rest of the paint with your DA Polisher using a cleaner/polish like M80

You can try the M105 with your DA Polisher over the entire car if you want but doing so knowing that we don't recommend that and can't guarantee your results.

Point being is that your 4 fingers pushing down on a wax pad can exert more pressure and thus more abrading power than the DA Polisher with equal pressure being applied to the entire face of the foam pad.

Make sense?

Then wax and then step back and enjoy the results.

As for sanding in the future, even if you use #3000 grit the DA Polisher removing sanding marks can and will be difficult depending on how hard the paint is and the trend since clear coat finishes became mainstream is harder versus softer.

There are some soft clear coats on the market but...

"Generally speaking, modern clear coat finishes are harder than traditional single stage paints"

Another way of saying that is,

"The paint on a new Mustang is harder than the paint on a 1965 Mustang"

And keep in mind this isn't Meguiar's fault, we don't make paint, we do our best to keep up with the changes made by paint manufactures at the demand by car manufactures whom from what I can tell don't ask their customer's what they want in a paint job.

Modern paints last longer and that's a good thing but a lot of people confuse that with "look good longer" and that's just not reality. The longevity in modern paints on modern cars comes at a cost and that trends towards increased difficulty for you and everyone else that's a do-it-you're or a detailer to quickly easily remove defects out of a car's paint.

That's kind of the big picture explanation of what you and the rest of us are all having to deal with and why you're struggling with your project and in a way why you've found your way to this forum to seek help.

Make sense?