Does this look like a solid plan any tips or suggestions

-Rinse
-Wash; 2 bucket
-Rinse
-Move to garage
-Clay
-Dry
-Optimum Compound on Orange Pad
-Optimum Polish on White Pad
-Optimum Poliseal on Red Pad
-Four Star Ultimate Paint Protection.

 

Try a section with the Polish and Orange first. Guage results, then move to the Compound if need be.....Rest looks solid, before an afters are mandatory........
You can use the Poliseal with the white as well.....

 

looks like a great plan, but if you dont need the compound and orange pad, then dont use it....what condition is your paint....

 

Always try least aggressive first on a test area to see what pads/polish you need.


No sense in making work by having to polish out haze made by the Compound.

Usually I just spot polish with the compound to correct scrathes etc.

 

how do i know whats to agressive and whats not enough. do i move up in agessivness if i need to make more then one pass.

and if i use polish on orange pad first can i then put commpound on the same pad

 

are you saying use polish first before compound?

 

With your products and pads:
From least aggressive to most aggressive:

1. White pad/Opt Polish
2. Orange pad/Opt Polish
3. White pad/Compound
4. Orange pad/Compound

If your not sure what you need, start with least aggressive. I rarely encounter anything that doesnt require the Orange Erasure. Theres always the 4" Erasures which provide a little more concentrated work area.

 

So do you finish the area you are working on with different pad/product or do you finish the car and then use another pad & product.

 

can i apply more then one product on a pad

assuming i put a more aggressive product on the pad

 

your not supposed to cross contaminate the products and pads....stick with same pad and product...get more pads....

 

I wouldnt have a problem going from Optimum Polish, to Optimum Compound.....I do it all the time.
Theres probably a lot of stuff I do that may not be approved here....lol

 

That's going from less aggressive to more aggressive. I can see that but not vice versa.........

 

I do the same as you .. Polish to Compound but not the other way .. And only with Optimum .. other brands or brands mixed I don't think I'd try outside of say Menzerna.

 

True in most cases but with optimum polishes you can mix and match .. but should go less agressive on a pad.

 

thanks for all the help. just waiting for the products to come in now.

 

What color are you working with?

Like the others have said, you want to test a bit with the least aggressive and work your way up as necessary. You might also find that you only need to go aggressive in certain areas of the vehicle. Just because you have a few bad areas that may need orange/OC, it doesn't mean that you need to use that same combination on the rest of the car.

My advice is to be patient. Once you do this for a while, you'll get a feel for what combinations you need to use in which situations. If you're new to machine polishing, I'd highly recommend that you start with a mild combination to get used to how it all works before stepping up...even if you're not fully correcting the finish.