ChaiLatte

I've always wanted to polish/detail cars as a hobby, and I finally pulled the trigger and purchased a PC 7424XP kit from Autogeek with 5 6.5 CCS pads (2 Orange, 2 White, 1 Grey, and 2 Red's thrown in for FREEEeee!!).

I've been researching products non-stop and decided on just picking up one of Meguire's new AIO waxes (White Wax & Black Wax). You only get around 8oz of the stuff but so far I've done half my 1999 TL and still have 60% left. According to Meg's they have that Super Micro Abrasive polish in them everyone raves about. The Black Wax has more polish and less cleaner and the White is vice-versa (I went with Black because I needed the polish more than the cleaner).


Anyway I got to work and washed/clayed the car and starting polishing with both the white and orange pads. I thought my polisher was broken at first because of how loud it was (I ended up wearing ear-plugs) and how much it vibrated. But then my hands went numb and everything was ok

With the orange pad on 5 to 6 I was able to get even heavier swirls off with 5-6 passes (followed by 1-2 light passes on 3 or 4). I don't know if it's ok to pair such a light AIO with an Orange pad but everything seemed fine and it left a great finish so I didn't follow up with the white pad , though that could just be the wax making it so smooth.

Excuse my noob pictures please, I only had a cell-phone light. This is a side of my rear bumper I polished and the other side was clayed but not polished. Better pictures are coming soon.




This being a 14 year old abused car, there are still plenty of RIDS, especially on the trunk were my mother kept putting her purse when she owned it. But overall I'm happy with the results so far.

Quick questions. How often should I replace the pads? I'm halfway done with my car and the white is fraying a bit in the middle and the orange looks ok.

Also, I'm cleaning the pads once every couple panels with the XMT spray and rinse, and use my nails to scratch out any excess wax between panels. Is this alright?

Another thing, I'm applying my Black Wax in 3 dime sized squirts on the pad, but after 4 or so passes there doesn't seem to be any more wax on the panel to polish with. Should I add more, or just keep going?

I'll post more pics when I'm done, but until then any critique of my method is more than welcomed. By the way, I was curious as to what site has the cheapest prices on pads and products, as Autogeek seems a little pricey, what's your favorite place to shop for detailing supplies?

EDIT: One more question, I'm running out of Mothers' Quick Detailer to use as clay lube, can I just use extra soap-y water like I've heard?

Jesstzn

I think your a little off on the polish reasons ... the black one is for darker cars because the fillers in it are dark colored to help "hide" imperfections . The white fillers are more transparent to fill in on lighter paints.

You might want to wipe a panel or area down with rubbing alcohol to see if you actually did correction or just filled it in.

ChaiLatte

Well this is what a Meg's rep said about it

"Well, if there is anything in here that you might consider a "filler" it would be the polishing oils. But it's not really designed to simply fill any more so than any other wax you leave on the paint. Remember, any time you apply anything to the paint that you intentionally leave some behind (sort of the definition of a wax or sealant) there is the chance for it to fill to some level. This product does contain some SMAT abrasives, but not to the level the White Wax does. It does have a much higher polish load than the White Wax does since dark colors benefit from that more. So the major difference between this and the White Wax is that this has more polish in it, White Wax has more SMAT abrasives."
http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums...6634-Black-Wax


Though looking back I don't know why I thought the Black Wax has more abrasives. What's the difference between polish and the abrasives then?
And apparently according to the rep there are no dyes in the Wax at all and it could theoretically be used on all paints.

Jesstzn

What's the difference between polish and the abrasives then? Nothing , polishes have abrasives .. unless your being confused by their Polishing oils terminology.

achenator

Megs 105, 205- plus a good sealant. FTW

ChaiLatte

K thanks for clearing that up. I think I overloaded everyone with my questions. Its just that I have so much more to learn. My car seemed to take forever just for an application of one AIO. I don't know how people can do a wash, a polish with 105&205 (which was my original plan) and apply wax in one day. It took me about 5-7 hours over the course of four days to wash, clay, and wax. Maybe i'm doing too many passes or going too slow?