Depending on how bad the swirls and paint imperfections are you may or may not be able to get away with just a light cut polish. I only uses light cut polishes on my BO G37. The PO106ff is a great light cut polish. I use it all the time, but George recently introduced me to the PO85RD Polish as a final finishing polish and I had great results. Completely brings the BO to life. In my opinion PO106ff and PO85RD produced similar results (PO106ff may have a bit more abrasiveness) so either should be okay for you. Both will not "micro-mar" so you no additional polishing is typically needed. If you used a medium cut polish first, we would recommend a final finish polish for best results.

After the polish, you can move riht into the sealant (i.e. Menzerna FMJ) or if you wanna add some additional gloss and "hide" any impecfections you couldn't remove with the polish you can add a quick and easy step of glazing with Menzerna FTG. It's a super easy process (goes on quick and removes very easily as well -- I apply by hand). After the glaze, head straight to the sealant and then I like to top the sealant with a carnuba wax.

 

great help.. thank you very much.. I wish we had a rep system around here...

 

Haha.. No worries!

 

OK, I have an 07 Blue Slate G35 sedan. Need some suggestions on what to use to take out like light fine scratches? It's mostly the light kine scratches you can see at night, or in sunlight if you look at a certain angle, and it's in a circular pattern. I used a Flex machine with Menzerna P106FF i think. Forgot what color pad, think it was a white pad? But It took out most of those fine scratches, so I may use that combo again. then I topped it off with 2 coats of Zaino. But i have a few scratches that are a little more deep i guess. can't feel it with the finger nail. but what should i use to get these othe type of scratches out? Diffrent pad? etc....? these you can see a little more than the fine ones. and don't know how i am getting them? I use all micro-fiber towels. but I use a chamois to wipe water off after i wash it? I have a waffle weave Micro, but never used it yet. Should I use that instead of my chamois? I also use the chamois midly wet to wipe my car down of dust from sitting in my garage for a week, Then use Zaino Z6 Quick detailer to wipe of the smudges, as I mostly use my G on weeknds, and don't take it to work.

Would appreciate the tips on what i should do, or what i am doing wrong!?

 

Hey all... I just bought a basic wash kit from DI... you know... bunch of microfiber towels, shampoo, quick detailer, etc...

So my question is - how do I care for the two mits I have? I bought a sheepskin mit and an UTI mit. Do I need to wash them before I use them? Or is a quick rinse ok? Should I wash them after I use them? Or will a quick rinse be sufficient??

 

Blackjack offered some great advice already, but figured I'd throw my .02 in the mix. You always want to start with the least aggressive solution before moving to more aggressive options. PO106FF is a great starting point with a white pad. If you use anything higher than a white pad, then you may have to inspect for micro-marring / haze because of the aggressiveness of the pad. We just got in our green very light cutting pads from Lake Country, which falls between orange and white in terms of aggressiveness, I'd try this after a white pad as you may not induce any marring / haze. Orange pads almost always leave behind some sort of haze or marring that needs to be followed up with a lighter pad / polish combination to remove.

Another thing you'll want to look into is investing in some quality lighting. A good, relatively cheap way to go is to pick up some dual 500w halogen lights from Sear's, Lowe's, Home Depot, etc. This will help expose the imperfections you're trying to correct so you can accurately monitor your results.

A final quick note, if you do plan on polishing with Menzerna, then following up w/ Zaino, I'd suggest wiping the car down with some isopropyl alcohol and water (50/50 mix), to ensure all the polishing oils are removed and Zaino properly bonds to your paint.

Be sure to keep us posted on your results!

One of the biggest problems with chamois is that they are flat, so if you trap dirt underneath them and drag it across your paint, you can end up with some scratches. Switching to the waffle weave drying towel can help minimize adding some of these imperfections. RIDS or random isolated deeper scratches, are on nearly every vehicle and are below the lighter surface swirls. It sounds like you may have to try a more aggressive polish and pad combination. Since you're using the Flex, one step up from the PO106FF should do the trick. You could try using PO106FF with a green pad, it's slightly more aggressive than the white pad, but less aggressive than orange. My next jump I'd make is to try something like Super Intensive Polish with a green or orange pad.

Here are some tips to getting the most out of polishing your paint:
- Run the Flex between speed setting 4 and 6
- Apply around 15 - 20 lbs of pressure when polishing with abrasive polishes
- Move the buffer around 1" per second, yes it's very slow, but worth the wait
- Try to work in smaller sections until you're getting the results you're looking for. I'd recommend 12" x 12" then working up from there.
- Try to pass over each part of your squared working area 6 - 8 times before stopping the buffer and removing the excess product
- Make sure you're using proper lighting (500w dual halogen or better) to expose the imperfections while your polishing

Let us know what you end up using and how things turn out for you.

A quick rinse prior to using them for the first time should be all that is needed. After using each mitt, I like to glide it across a Grit Guard insert a few times. Then I'll take each mitt and run it down with free flowing water. The sheepskin mitt has a leather hoop near the cuff that I use to hang dry. You want to avoid putting them in washers and driers as it can pull out the natural fibers in the sheepskin mitts. Hopefully, if you're washing in small sections, using a 2 bucket system with grit guard inserts, your mitts won't be getting too dirty. If you're using your Ulti-mit for wheels and tires and you want to give it a thorough cleaning, dump some Snappy Clean powder into a bucket and let it sit and this will help clean the foam.

If you have any other questions, let me know.

George

 

Ok George, here's a quick and dumb question.

I bought a couple of red applicator pads with the supernatural, what side do I use? Nippled VS non Nippled

 

Personally, I use the non-nippled side. When applying a wax, you want to use as little product as possible. I find using the nippled side stores excess product, which can be nice at times, but I go for the flatter smooth side. I don't think either way is wrong, to me it just varies how much product is stored on your pad.

Let us know how the Supernatural turns out for you, would love to see some pics.

George

 

what would you recommend for out leather seats?? pretty much to clean and condition

 

Ok, last question before I pull the trigger in a few minutes lol. I've been looking at what other people put they use under the car care threads and I noticed that some use both PO106ff and PO85RD to finish off. Would you reccomend doing so, or is it pretty much like doing the same thing twice. If so, is there one that's better than the other? So far I'm thinking I'm going to need some SIP to get the majority of my swirls and just want to know which would be good to finish it off before the sealant... I appreciate all your help, both Blackjack and George

 

Leather in new cars is typically treated with a coating from the factory, so using deep conditioners usually doesn't give as big of an impact as many hope for. Granted, if your car is a few years old and the leather has aged, it can benefit from the occasional conditioning, but I wouldn't worry too much about it on leather in good condition. On newer leather, I'd try to maintain it regularly with something like Optimum Protectant Plus a cleaner and UV protectant for leather, vinyl and rubber. A great 1 step leather care product with some conditioners, cleaners and UV protectant is Poorboy's Leather Stuff. It also has a pleasant leather scent to it. If you are looking for more of a restoration on neglected leather, then I go for the Leatherique line of products.

PO106FF has some corrective capabilities to it and finishes down quite nicely. PO85RD has almost zero corrective capabilities and is used purely as a gloss enhancer after a polishing session. If you have micro-marring left behind from saying using SIP with an orange pad, using PO85RD will not remove them, where PO106FF can. Typically, I'd use SIP with an orange pad, PO106FF with a white pad and if you are trying to go all out, PO85RD with a black or blue pad for a final finish.

Hope this helps clear things up.

George

 

great!!! thank you sooo much.. I put in my order already... I'll post up some pics when I'm done.. thanks for all the great advice so far

 

Can someone answer a quick question. I am getting ready to polish my car and just washed it with dish soap (only because i am polishing and waxing) Now should I also use a clay bar first or can I go straight to using the polish?The finish is still in pretty good shape and was not that dirty to begin with. Oh and i am using the poorboys polish with sealant if it matters.

 

Ideally, you'd want to clay prior to polishing. Washing with dish soap will help strip off protection, but embedded contamination will still be stuck on the paint and a clay bar is the only real way to remove it. The better you can prep the paint prior to polishing, the better your results will be.

Keep us posted on how things turn out.

George

 

I realized i should probably go ahead and clay so i did. Proabably good that i did. The polish worked out pretty well. Next time I might try something with a little more bite, there's still a few fine scratches that didnt come up all the way, but it still looks much better. I tried out some Zymol original wax i got for the first time and it worked great. Smells amazing too. It was dark by the time i finished (took almost 5 hrs) but i still got a few pics. I'll post them up tomorrow probably. I haven't heard too much about the Zymol is it a pretty good wax? I seemed to like it, worked great and left i nice deep shine and silky smooth finish.