so over the weekend i took a stab at polishing my NBP 07 TSX. i've had it for about 2 years now, and it's always exposed to the elements b/c of streetside parking in NY (apt renter, no garage/covered lot).

thanks to patrick/exceldetail for selling the kit. his customer service and products are always top-notch.

my car has a decent amount of light spiderwebs/scratches probably from the few times i went to the car wash (early mistake before i started handwashing myself). since the UDM experience was new to me, i decided to take it easy and use the white pad and optimum poli-seal.

the car looked great after i worked all the panels and applied a layer of wax, but i noticed that there was still some scratches that were visible, but probably hidden from the nuba in poli-seal.

i guess my question is, what would be the next step to get rid of the remaining scratches? should i make more passes with the white pad and poli-seal? use a different pad (i have orange)? or get a dedicated polish instead?

also, is the red pad just for applying wax/sealant? like a finishing pad? thanks.

 

I think your next step would be to step up to a more aggressive polish. AFAIK, Poli-Seal doesn't have very much correcting capabilities but it wouldn't hurt to try Poli-Seal and an orange pad. I've heard some people actually get pretty decent results with that combo.

You'll also want to make sure your passes are slow enough so that the polish breaks down completely and get maximum correction potential. The red pad is typically used for applying waxes and sealants and have no mechanical/abrasive abilities.

 

I would say step it up to a more aggressive polish. (Isnt that what Denzil said?) Seriously, take it forward a step with an "actual" abrasive polish. Poliseal is great for well maintained vehicles, or already "prepp'd" vehicles.....Great one stepper.

 

cool, thanks for the tips. would the four star scratch remover qualify as a polish that would be more aggressive? i'm sure one of the optimum polishes would fit the bill.

 

Yeah, that should definitely be more aggressive but you also have to put into perspective that your corrective capabilities are dependent on your paint hardness as well as your pad and polish combination.

 

since you already have some optimum products, i would say get the optimum polish and use the orange pad, then follow it up with the white pad and poli seal, then i would get the 4 star upp and use your red or black pad...you can get some serious results on a black car with that set up...make sure you use speed 5-6 when using polish to correct...

 

how would i determine this? with one of those gauges? i know the acura paint is pretty soft to begin with.

this sounds pretty good. but wouldn't the UPP not bond with the paint if poli-seal is used before it? poli-seal has caranuba in it.

 

i had the same question before about the poliseal, and the answer i got from dale(jezzstn) was its not a problem...he actually uses the poliseal as a clean up after polishing, then he uses a meguiars synthetic sealant on top of the poliseal...

 

Well, you can tell when you begin polishing the vehicle.

Actually, it takes quite a few vehicles to detail to find out what paints are soft and which are hard. You can't really outright say that, for example, all Honda/Acura vehicles have soft paint. I mean, generally they do, but not all.

The typical generalization is that most German-made vehicles have hard paint and most Japanese-made vehicles have soft paint. American cars are usually all over this spectrum, LoL.

With regards to the paint thickness gauge, they're only really used to determine how much clearcoat you have to "play with". It gives you a better idea of what areas can be worked in more than others.

AFAIK, Poli-Seal followed by UPP is actually a pretty good combo. I'm not quite sure where you've read that Poli-Seal has carnauba in it but I really don't think it has much, if any. In fact, Poli-Seal is more of an AIO (All-In-One) product and whatever protection it does provide is fairly minimal at best. What I'm trying to say is an AIO can be used as an LSP but you won't find me doing that.

 

cool, glad i can use both products together then. i'll have to get some optimum polish then.

and it sounds like practice probably makes perfect for my polishing approach/technique.

thanks for all the tips!

 

Is this a common combo the upp AFTER polish/poli seal?

 

Sure, no problem! Glad I could be of help.

 

poli seal has nuba in it, it says right on the ingredients carnuba....thats why the question came up....hell you can even smell the carnuba in it....

 

agreed, optimum polish with an orange pad...since you have a udm, dont be affraid to use an orange pad....test it on a severely bad scratched area with good lighting to check your progress and see how long you need to massage and work the polish to get rid of the deep scratches

I use the sonus line, but starting out with sfx2 and a white pad was getting me absolutely nowhere. so i stepped up to sfx1 with an orange pad and am getting almost every defect out

then follow up with a white pad to get rid of the hazing/ micromarring caused by the orange pad