Using M80 witha G110

[Larry Brigleb]

Hi all – I’m new to the forum. I recently purchased a G110 and a number of other Meguiar’s products including the Smooth Clay Kit, M80, M09, M03 and NXT 2.0 Liquid Wax. I had previously used the Clay Kit, ScratchX and NXT 2.0 Paste Wax (all applied by hand) with great results, but I had no experience with a DA polisher so I also purchased the Mike Phillips DVD “How-To Use the PC for Showcar Results” which was touted elsewhere on this forum as the best $25 a newbie could spend – a recommendation with which I fully concur.

My first attempt with the G110 was a 10 year old silver Acura Integra owned by my sister (what can I say – she believes in me). Except for a few areas with deep scratches, the paint was in reasonable condition – no oxidation, but lots of surface swirls and scratches. I washed, clayed and masked the car and then applied the M80 followed by the M03 and the NXT Liquid Wax (all with the G110). While a few scratches remain, both she and I are extremely pleased with the final result.

I do, however, have a question regarding the application of M80. In Mike’s DVD, he recommends making several overlapping passes to work the product in, but not allowing it to become dry. This seemed to work initially, but I soon found that the product was dry after very few passes, and I frequently had to use QD to help remove caked on product.

I called Meguiar’s Customer Care. They suggested that I may not be applying enough product to each section, so I tried applying more. That helped a bit, but it continued to dry much faster than shown in Mike’s DVD.

A few other points that may be relevant are:

I frequently cleaned the pad using the on-the-fly technique.

I was working in a well ventilated garage in Northern California – low humidity with an outside temperature around 95.

The M80 I was using came in a 12 oz sample bottle purchased from ASD.

The M03 seemed to stay moist longer than the M80, but it too seemed to dry out sooner than I expected.

Any suggestions as to what I was doing wrong will be greatly appreciated.

[Murr1525]

Re: Using M80 witha G110

Were you using the speeds recommended on the DVD?

[Larry Brigleb]

Re: Using M80 witha G110

Yes - Speed set at 5.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Using M80 witha G110

Both M80 and M03 are very wet products, it's one thing that you found the M80 to dry up quickly but to find out that M03 is drying up quickly when it's formulated to be applied by machine, then that tells us that the problems you're encountering are very likely to be humidity and temperature related.

Here's one thing you can do... shrink the size of your work area down.

The Meguiar's Supreme Shine Microfiber measures 16" by 22" and if you find your paint is fairly polishable then you can work an area about this size when removing swirls. If you find it's difficult to remove swirls out of your car's paint because the paint isn't very polishable or perhaps the swirls are deep, then you want to shrink the size of your work area down to about half of our microfiber polishing cloth, that is about 16" square or smaller. The average microfiber on the market is 16" by 16" so you would want to work an area about this size.

By working a smaller size you help to keep the product wet longer so you can work it longer.

Not what most people want to do as most people want to work as large an area as possible and get the job done as fast as possible but when you're having problems sometimes there's only so may fixes you can implement and shrinking the size of your work area down is a first good option.

Give that a try and then report back with how it goes... and check this thread too...

How to apply product to the face of your foam buffing pads

[Andy M.]

Re: Using M80 witha G110

How large of an area were you working at a time? I tend to work smaller, like a 2' x 2' area. Sometimes it is best to shrink down the area.

Andy

[Larry Brigleb]

Re: Using M80 with a G110

Both M80 and M03 are very wet products, it's one thing that you found the M80 to dry up quickly but to find out that M03 is drying up quickly when it's formulated to be applied by machine, then that tells us that the problems you're encountering are very likely to be humidity and temperature related.

Here's one thing you can do... shrink the size of your work area down.

The Meguiar's Supreme Shine Microfiber measures 16" by 22" and if you find your paint is fairly polishable then you can work an area about this size when removing swirls. If you find it's difficult to remove swirls out of your car's paint because the paint isn't very polishable or perhaps the swirls are deep, then you want to shrink the size of your work area down to about half of our microfiber polishing cloth, that is about 16" square or smaller. The average microfiber on the market is 16" by 16" so you would want to work an area about this size.

By working a smaller size you help to keep the product wet longer so you can work it longer.

Not what most people want to do as most people want to work as large an area as possible and get the job done as fast as possible but when you're having problems sometimes there's only so may fixes you can implement and shrinking the size of your work area down is a first good option.

Give that a try and then report back with how it goes... and check this thread too...

How to apply product to the face of your foam buffing pads

Thanks Mike. I tried to post this reply before, but it didn't show up in the thread so I'm trying it this way. Hopefully it not a repeat.

Before starting, I used a 16” x 16” microfiber to visually section off the hood and tried to keep that image in mind as I worked on the rest of the car. For me, however, that was easier to do on horizontal surfaces than on vertical surfaces so I may well have been working larger areas.

I checked out the link on applying product to the face of the pad. When applying the M80, I started with the hood and used the circular method to apply at least as much product as shown in the first photo to each section of the hood. At that point, the product seemed to remain moist for 3 to 4 complete passes before it would start to dry. After completing the hood, I began using smaller amounts of product per section and that’s when the problem became pronounced. After calling Customer Care, I reverted to larger amounts per section, but continued to have the problem.

I’ll be doing my wife’s car next week (temperatures are expected to be hotter), but will likely be using M09 instead of M80 since her car is a 2005, spends most of its time in the garage and has very few and superficial swirl marks. I’ll follow it with M03 and the NXT Liquid Wax and let you know how it goes. In the meantime, I would be grateful if you could answer two related questions.

First, at no point when using M80 did my pad become truly saturated (i.e., product did not ooze from the pad when applying pressure as was the case when applying NXT Paste Wax with a hand applicator). In fact, there were portions at the edge that did not even seem to get really damp. Are these indications that I was not using enough product?

Second, prior to starting with the M80, I placed a black mark on the back of the pad (as you did in the DVD) to help judge the amount of pressure and ensure the pad was rotating. As the product started to dry and/or cake, it seemed to take very little pressure (other than the weight of the machine) to stop the rotational motion. In fact, there were times when the black mark seemed to be rotating in a counterclockwise direction. Is the G110 designed to rotate in both directions or should it always be going clockwise to properly do its job?

Again, many thanks for your help.