just finished the 1st step today, took me 7 hours to do the whole car, using ccs orange pad and menzerna sip. bare with me, this is my first ever time polishing a car.

this weekend will do 2nd step with ccs white pad and menzerna sip, then ccs blue pad and menzerna nano.

 

all the little white dots is just dust, not rock chips or scratches.

 

nice! you'll find now that you've put the intial work in with the orange pad, and once you refine it, keeping it nice will be easy from here on out.

what are you going to seal it with?

 

ive been on ag for a while now and asked the same question.

today i got done doing the sip with white pad, and got a good start with nano and a blue pad. i asked about using a glaze or sealant before the nattys blue and they were saying just go straight to carnuba.

 

here are some pictures after sip with white pad, took about 7 hours as well. with this step i also did the bumpers, didnt do the bumpers with sip and orange because i felt they did not need it. they were just sprayed about 3 months ago.

there was no sun to be found in oregon friday so no sun pictures. but i was looking throughout the car with a led flashlight and there are a few spots that i went over twice. overall very happy. i just wanted the water spots and swirls out.

 

and some more after sip/white pad. i suck at taking pictures

 

awesome!

doesn't it feel great! looks wonderful dude.

oh, when i asked about sealing, that's what i meant, like what final treatment- wax, synthetic sealant, etc.

 

i see. yeah just a layer of nattys blue. thank you for the comments. got a good start with nano and a blue pad, but got midterms coming up so wont be able to get back to it for about two weeks.

 

doh, oh, i misunderstood your last post, hehe. i understand now ; )

yeah, no need for a glaze since you really refined the finish and you have nothing to hide. def go right to the wax after polishing, although, for the future, i'd look into using a super durable synth sealant to seal it, like optimum opti-seal. you can then leave it like that, or top with the wax you mentioned.

i like to seal because it is so much more durable than any wax. some people prefer the look of whatever wax on whatever finish as opposed to the gloss of the sealant, and this can be achieved with topping the sealant like i mentioned.

 

i understand. cant wait to see the finished product.

i think i maybe swing over to lowes and get some of those superior bilt grout sponges and my next order im getting some onr. is this a good choice for car washing?

thank you for the all the help

 

Looks good.

 

thank you sir

 

Great choice if you want to swirl the sh*t out of your paint.......

If it were me, I'd go with a lambskin wool mitt. With sponges, the dirt stays on the surface...and you end up dragging it across the paint. It doesn't happen like that with the mitts.

I use lambskin on the paint and a cotton terry mitt on my wheels. Don't ever use anything on your paint that you've used on your wheels/wheelwells/undercarriage.

Just go to Wal Mart (or somewhere like that) and pick out the plushest lambswool mitts you can find. Get 2 of them. Also, learn how to wash your car properly (2 buckets -- 1 for clean water and one for dirty water). That's the single best thing you can do to KEEP your car looking nice.

 

congrats, my first time really using a PC took me something like 30 total hours.

i did something like 8 passes over the whole car, essentially meaning i detailed 2.5 cars haha

 

Wow man looks great especially for your first time. Did you do anything other than the paint like wheels/interior/etc?

 

hhmmm, everyone over on autogeek.net uses that lowes grout sponge with no problems. i will look into it more. the sheepskin wool mitt at the walmarts near me just suck, so thin. maybe ill order one online somewhere.

i have about 14 hours into it with two steps, now i am going to do the last step of menzerna super finish (nano) and a blue pad.

the interior is practically perfect. this is a drag race car only, its seen rain for two minutes of its life.

i did hit the wheels with sip and an orange pad yesterday though and they turned out a lot better. just gotta go over them with nano and a white pad now.

thank you for all the comments

 

just stick with your original plan. you can get a pretty accurate picture for what works by surveying opinions on AG and Autopia, like you did with the grout sponge. The only problem is that sometimes alot of those people get their info from people within the forum and it becomes a trend based on popularity, as opposed to if it actually works better than something else. That is why I tend to pay attention to the pro detailers, who are turning out high end work. some are a little TOO particular, to the point that they make things more complicated than need be, however I typically survey a small group of users like this and from that i can deduce exactly what works without wasting alot of money with trial and error. That is of course if i am looking to improve on something. sometimes what you use is what you use and you like it no matter what ; )

 

yeah as far as washes go, i cant decide between poorboys super slick and suds or onr and like mentioned was planning on using a grout sponge/cobra bone pad/schmitt/the new lake country foam pad/sheepskin wool mitt.

what do you recommend to use?

 

ONR seems to have a great following, but it's expensive.

personally, i use duragloss #902 OR optimum "regular" car shampoo in the big size if it's on sale (not ONR)

both are extremely great values, the duragloss moreso because of the cheaper price, and both do not degrade any protection you apply, which can be a problem with mass market shampoos, especially if you wash often.

they are EXTREMELY concentrated, so you really need very little to do the job.

as far as what to use with washing...autogeek sells these somewhat cheesy microfiber chenille mitts; i use them. i say they are cheesy because they don't seem like they are built overly well, but they are decent, seem to last well, and don't marr the paint, especially when used with a good slick soap. to me they are exactly the same, except color, as the ones sold at Advance auto. even the pattern on the wrist part is the same. but, AG is cheaper in price, especially when they run a BOGO. like someone above said, i have ones for specific duties. i have one for duty on well edges, wheels, tires, etc...and i use one exclusively for the rest of the car.

talk to presidential detail about what he uses, he might have some good input. he's on this forum and all of the detailing ones as well.

 

i have one of those microchenille mitts but i bought mine from harbor freight because i seen it was a couple bucks. didnt know how it compared to the cobra though

 

well, i'm sure if you know about cobra, you've seen the info about different grades of MF. like, what i mean is advance auto or walmart MF vs. boutique MF like cobra. the thing is, i think cobra can get away with using whatever some of the other companies use (i'm sure they are made in the same place in china, all of these mitts) and not worry because when using a nice lubricious soap, the chenille does a very nice job of babying the finish.

i wouldn't buff polish off the car with that quality of mitt, but i certainly have no problem washing the car with it.

 

i see what you mean. cant wait to get it all finished up with nano and the blue pad

 

just getting ready to put in my second order:
dg 902 car wash
lake country blue sponge (some of the guys are swearing by this)
lambswool mitt
3 pack of 5.5" ccs orange/white/blue pads
pb ex sealant with carnuba for the tow rig (ford truck)
dg aquawax, im sure this will come in handy for touch ups and wheels, and glass

i am also picking up some pakshak ultraplush mf towels and pakshak ultra soft waffle weave mf towels.

do the 4" pads ever come in handy?

 

finished with blue pad and nano and put two coats of nattys blue on her.

 

some more