iCrap

Can't tell if serious.

Yeah you can use both. the one i linked will do well for taking out swirls and also acting as a sealant.

xtcnrice

less aggressive compound?

iCrap

i think he means finishing compound.

xtcnrice

For me I'm just gonna do M205 on an orange hydrotech pad (this is a medium pad... not like an orange CCS), and then "finish" by applying Collinite 845 with a crimson hydrotech pad (very mild pad). Wasn't sure there was a "finishing" compound

rawger, how bad are your swirls? Any pics? I guess it's too late for advice on what to get though since the promo is done...

iCrap

There's very fine finishing compounds and finishing glazes and stuff.
That wolfgang stuff works great though, if you don't mind spending the money.

Fucking car wash swirled my car right back up, especially on the back fenders. Gotta start washing the car myself I guess.

I bought some 3M spray on clear bra thingy, gonna try that out also.

rawger

Yeah I actually took some earlier just forgot to upload. And no, it's not to late for advice because I didn't buy anything. LOL. I am so lost I don't know what to buy. I was going to order the pads at the very least, but wasn't sure how many I would need or which ones exactly to get either. My noob level on this is pretty high guys, if you couldn't already tell

Getting some shots is a good start though. Just 2 I took earlier while some sunlight was coming in the garage. I will get more later. But a lot of the car has those light circular looking scratches. It's also very dirty, been raining here just about daily so I haven't washed in a few weeks.

https://i.imgur.com/cVjuEn4.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/jJlD8j1.jpg

iCrap

yikes thats bad. what part of the car is that? It has a crap ton of orange peel also... looks repainted.
looks like one of the doors?
you're gonna want some M105 for sure.

rawger

It's the back of the car near the gas cap. And I have no idea.

If it's supposed to have a texture to it also, I don't feel it being any different from the rest of the paint. Went to go look at it right now

xtcnrice

Yeah I only wash my car myself. Two bucket method with grit guard and mf wash mitt should be fine. The grit guard should ensure that when your mitt starts getting dirty, you can get the dirt off easily before you get more soap from your soap bucket. Scratches from self car washes most commonly come from soaping the car with a dirty mitt. Also, wash from the top of your car and progress your way downwards. Most of the dirty is near the bottom of the car, so it'd be better to get those off after to lessen the chance of scratching your paint. I also prefer not washing in a circular motion... but that's just me.

For me, 1 wash mitt, 2-3 mf drying towels should be enough. I haven't yet, but I plan to use the DA on a very fine pad to apply wax (I've heard this is an absolute life saver... wax took me forever by hand last time).

If you absolutely must, goto a touchless wash, and make sure the wash doesn't have rails on the ground that "guide" your wheels/car into the wash. Touchless will ensure no new swirls are added on by those nasty plastic shits, and railless means less chance for your wheels (if you care about them) to get scratched.

If anyone knows....

xtcnrice

I agree with iCrap, get M105. It has more cut than M205, but it looks like you need it. And are those pics the first pics we've ever seen of your car (other than your old avatar)?! Need more!

iCrap

^^ Yeah I know about the two bucket method, how bad drive through car washes are etc, but I'm so lazy lol and don't wanna go out and wash the car. I guess I really have to though, it's undoing all of my polishing work!

Yeah @rawger take more pics of your car and paint. different areas also for comparison. That panel really does look repainted.. or something. There is a lot of orange peel.

You'll need the M105 for sure, and you can't ONLY use that cause your paint will be a little hazy after you use it... you need a finer compound to use after. M205 should probably be ok.

rawger

Lol, I mean it's like every other TSX, not very special since it's all stock.

Also, I'm looking into having someone just do it for me...

Kinda sucks I basically inherited the car with the paint like that. It's definitely by far the worst from the 3 other cars we have.

rawger

So you can spend 2 days polishing it, but can't take an hour or two to wash it? We have it the other way around buddy lol.

iCrap

Yeah but polishing is a one time (or infrequent thing) and washing is like.. every few days

Why are you going to get somebody else to do it? Didnt you already buy a DA?

xtcnrice

DIY man! This is coming from iCrap too, the guy who admits he's lazy lol

opboarding

ssjoeboe9

Is there an unwritten rule that you always park on the right?

opboarding

Yeah. The garage is pretty much divided in half and all my crap is stored on the right side.

ssjoeboe9

Good choice on the right side!

He will rarely have passengers which means less chance of door dings for you!

Way to think like an engineer Ryan!

iCrap

Are they both the same color? Or is his black?

rawger

Nah, I was going to get one anyways. IDK, I know my paint sucks right now. I've been reading M105 is difficult to work with (gets dusty and dries too fast). What else could I use as a substitute?

Lol, yeah I know. He has experience with it though. I kind of wanted someone to get it up to par for me and there after I could do it myself. I don't know any reputable detailers in my area though.

rawger

I'm lost. Who is that, your roommate?

opboarding

Yeah, my roommate. His is cbp.

iCrap

it's not hard to work with. and btw you will want to do one panel at a time... so the drying time is a non-issue.

Doing my car was the first time i'd used a DA. I just read up on it and then went out and did it.

VR1

IMG_20140718_110234 by simbachinna, on Flickr

iCrap

Where are you?

xtcnrice

VR1 that's awesome!

And yeah, it doesn't seem that hard to polish with a DA. Guys on youtube pretty much show you how it's nearly impossible to fuck up your paint with it. A rotary on the other hand will fuck it up real good in the wrong hands (meant for professional detailers who need to polish quickly, at the cost of some risk/safety). I'd say just do it yourself from scratch (no pun intended). The worse that could happen is you waste some product, some time, and the existing scratches are still there. You'll gain exp though, and you'll know better next time and know how to maintain it in the future if you ever need to (like in the case where iCrap went through an auto car wash). But that's just my opinion, definitely go with what you're more comfortable with.

M105 afaik is great. If you're worried about dusting, get more pads and switch them when it starts to happen. Or, do very few number of panels each day, and at the end of each day clean the pad and air dry it so it'll be available the next time you have time to continue your work. M105 is a more aggressive cut, but from those pics, it definitely looks like you'll need it. M205 is for finer scratches, and as iCrap pointed out there are finishing products too. Enthusiasts on autogeek or other detailing forums pretty much do all 3 stages of the polishing job, which takes a super long ass time (i.e., M105 first, then M205, then something else after... or the equivalent). For your case, do M105 on a moderate pad (like an orange CCS) then either move onto M205 or a finishing compound on a milder pad. I don't think you'll need a 3 stage polish to be happy with your first ever DIY polish. It sounds complicated as fuck at first, but just read a bit and watch a lotta youtube vids. Junkman or whoever on youtube (some black dude) is good at explaining it to noobs. He's slow, but entertaining. He's also the guy that shows you how it's impossible to fuck up your paint using a DA.

Good luck bruh, long post

PS: If you have patience, you should start with a mildest pad/compound, and only work up to a more aggressive combo if it's not working out. But from the pics alone, I can tell you M205 alone isn't going to "cut" it.

Maybe you can try M105 on a milder pad first, and if it doesn't work very well after doing proper technique and verification, move up to M105 on a more aggressive cutting pad. Baby steps!

xtcnrice

op your car looks amazing, especially when she sits next to one with sunk in stockies

rawger

Trrruuu. I think I got a little discouraged, wasn't sure what forum it was, but literally everyone in there was hating on M105 saying Meguairs needs to fix that product and said it was a hassle to work with. I know Junkman was using quick detailer to keep his product alive. Have you used that technique before?

Thanks man, appreciate you taking your time to really elaborate on this post. Good thing you brought up Junkman aka the black dude lol, I had watched Junkman's videos a couple of months ago, but totally forgot about those 5 videos he has were he fully explains how to polish. So I went ahead and saw 4 of them last night, lol, I think his last one is just a summary or something, but I'll check it out too. I do feel more confident that I can do it myself now

I think I will attempt going through a 3 stage polish (105, 205, sealant). I'm also going to try M205 first in a few areas and see if that will hopefully "cut" it . The area where I had taken the pictures may have been some of the worst on my car. For instance, the hood looks nothing near as bad as that. I guess I just need to experiment a bit and see what works! Just need to finalize what all products I need and order them. What do you guys think is a good sealant/wax after using M205, preferably something durable. Also are the 8oz bottle (of M105/M205) going to be enough for product or should I be buying the 16oz at least? From what I've seen, even from Junkman, he was using only 3 pea sized dots per section he would work. And I know you ordered Hydro-techs and bought the 6 pack and I assume 2 of each color they offered. Should I also do the same and use the Cyan for M105, Tangerine for M205 and Crimson for whatever finishing sealant/wax? Those are probably my last few questions (for now ) about this topic.

iCrap

I spray the pad occasionally with quick detailer but its not totally necessary... I can't see why they were bashing m105... unless I have a newer, changed version. It was really easy to use imo.

Also I'm thinking bout wrapping my trunk with my extra CF vinyl. Rice? ... prob rice.

xtcnrice

I've never polished before either , so it's hard to say whether you should get the Hydro Tech pads too. I wanna give them a shot, because a lot of experienced guys say they prefer them over the CCS pads. It won't make a huge difference to be honest. IIRC, the thinner HydroTechs were easier to work with because of how easy it is to bend/shape the pad to the curvature of the panel of your car (for example, our hood has this line on each side of it to make it look more aggressive and less plain... I'm guessing the HydroTech pads should work well in these sort of situations where you have sort of a discontinuity if you will in the panel. But yeah, I ordered the 6 pack which was 2 of each.

For your worst areas, M105 on Cyan --> M205 on Tangerine --> Sealant/Wax on Crimson should be fine. However, you mentioned your hood being in a much better condition. It may not be necessary to do M105 on Cyan, because this might be too aggressive and you'll end up shaving more clear coat than you need to. The key is here is to find the right combo, working from least aggressive to most aggressive (of course if your panel is sore to the eye, you can start somewhere fairly aggressive and continue to work your way up as necessary).

So far I've only applied it by hand, but I'm using Collinite 845 (god that took forever.. never again). Shine was pretty nice on my BWP, considering how white reflects less compared to darker clearcoated colours. This is really up to you... do some research on what's good (there's a shit tonne of products out there lol), and just pick one that sounds good or is on sale or whatever. When you're done your bottle you'll likely try a different one the next time around anyway, so no biggie here.

VR1

Jaipur India

IMG_20140718_125633 by simbachinna, on Flickr

iCrap

im jelly

damaged442

I tried XMT #3 on an orange 5.5' LC CCS, followed by XMT #1 with a white LC CCS. I did not like how they turned out at all on the TSX. The #1 did not finish down like I would have hoped and left a pretty nasty haze.

I cleaned up the haze with XMT360 on the white pad and all that was left was some slight micromarring, which was a huge improvement from what it looked like before. I always wanted to experiment and try the 105/205 to compare.

I topped with Collinite 845. As far as bang for the buck, I don't think I will buy any other brand of wax. I use 476 for the winter as it seems to hold up longer. After using/abusing their stuff for almost 3 years, I'll keep drinking their Kool-Aid all day long.

I won some Blackfire Midnight Sun from Autogeek and it has a very nice shine to it and it makes the CBP pop pretty nicely, but for $40 for 3oz...don't think I'd buy it. Definitely doesn't last as long as the 845.

CBP is a neverending job, that's for sure!

opboarding

I was, mostly. It's hard to tell what the surface of it is like from the picture so I'm not sure if it'll stick well or not. Might as well try it out.

iCrap

the pad is just plastic.. yea ill just try it and see if it works.

EhkoXC

So jealous of all you guys talking about polishing your cars. Been so busy lately my car is filthy, and is probably going to stay that way for a bit...

opboarding

You could do like the rest of the busy people in the world and pay someone to do chores for you.

EhkoXC

I don't trust other people with my car.

xtcnrice

Sounds like a professional detail is going to be a waste of time