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Buffing my car... 

 

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 Post subject: Buffing my car...
Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2004 11:56 pm 
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Hello all

Decided to do my fairmont a favour today, and give it a proper polish. Lobbed on down to my local bunnings, bought a low RPM 180mm sander polisher, went to super cheap and bought some Meguiars medium cut polish, swirl remover and scratch x, came home and started polishing away.......

So after 3 hours, my arms are sore, my back hurts, and my car looks s**t. It all started out ok, but then i got tired and a little impatient. What ended up happening was my lambswool pad got a bit too much polish on it, and as a result wanted to leave my arms. The result? some HUGE marks all over my roof of where the pad dug in. I did manage to get some of it out, by slowing the speeds down and just working at it, but my roof and my polisher are not tolerating each other.

Can someone give me the right clue about how to go about it? it seems pretty stupid now i think about it, my paintwork is pretty average up close, but i want to see how pretty i can make it look...

so whoever buffs their car, please let me know! If i get the s**t tomorrow, im going to have to go and buy some terry towelling and do it all by hand....

All those who went to the last official mod day at yobbofords house may remember some dude (forgot his name) who polished a couple of cars, i was basically doing the same thing as him but may have had things going a bit too fast

 

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Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 12:57 am 
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Okay dude,
Shouldn't be much of a problem i think im good at buffing cars, today i helped my mate take off petrol and cloth residue off his merc.
Firstly hose car down and allow to dry, some where were dust won't gather up quickly i suggest a shade cloth, not garage.
For starters you need a good quality product polish, use a clean cotton or weath material and rub into paint work try and use circular movement rather then line work. Allow for the polish to dry up (roughly 30 mins depending on polish.
Then get your bufferer (dad owns $300 makita product) set at a low rotating speed i use #1 (speed 1) and start buffering over it with a constant rhythm allow the machine's pad to sit flat on body and slowly buffer.
It take's time, be patient and results will be rewarding. :P
Cheers lad :D

 

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Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 12:59 am 
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ahh u need vary speed rotary polisher i got one from super crap for $60
i sanded my bonnet with 200 wet and dry and spent 3 hrs with teh buffer and still looks poo
will take time mate

 

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Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 1:07 am 
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People with little to no experience shouldn't be using orbital machines in the first place.. Even then, a rotary tool would be much more effective as the torque is never concentrated in one position at any one time.

From now on I'd suggest just using a trusty cotton cloth and working with it with your hand. As Frankie said, it will take a lot of time but it's better than screwing it up more.

 

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Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 1:10 am 
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Disco Frank wrote:
ahh u need vary speed rotary polisher i got one from super crap for $60
i sanded my bonnet with 200 wet and dry and spent 3 hrs with teh buffer and still looks poo
will take time mate


haha, I spent 2 hours on my entire car and it looks great. Really brang out the colour. :wink:
But it does take time.

 

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Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 7:13 am 
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LOL i did mine on the weekend , looked tops
All u really need to do is just do little at a time , try doing by hand first .

 

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Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 7:52 am 
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One Drone wrote:
People with little to no experience shouldn't be using orbital machines in the first place.. Even then, a rotary tool would be much more effective as the torque is never concentrated in one position at any one time.

From now on I'd suggest just using a trusty cotton cloth and working with it with your hand. As Frankie said, it will take a lot of time but it's better than screwing it up more.


I agree.

You are using lambswool - don't tell me you have a e-series or newer. If you are you are mad. Also tell me you did it to a clean car and cold car. Never polish or cut warm paint or in direct sunlight!
Buy a spay bottle, put water in it. Use this when you cut, it helps keep paint cool.
I suggest you wash the vehicle and re-buff it by hand. Still do it in the shade and cool area. Door one panel at a time (rub on - rub off) and 1/2 bonnet, roof and boot. Use the softest and very clean cloths. rotate then replace the 'rub off' cloth frequently.
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Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 8:28 am 
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Yeah, likewise I have always polished my EL by Hand. Because you at least know how hard you are rubbing etc.

 

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Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 10:43 am 
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Thanks for the help guys

Its not a orbital tool, its just a low speed sander/polisher. And i am using a lambswool bonnet on a foam pad......is this bad or something?

 

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Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2004 3:31 pm 
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Definitely only do it by hand. It doesn't take too long. I polished my car last weekend (it had oxidised to a pale pink, and had streaks all through the paint from stupid Carlovers!). It only took just over an hour to do the polish/buff whole thing by hand, and that includes rubbing all the very stubborn streaks out, and putting red wax in all the gouges in the paint!

Another trick is to only do small sections at a time (eg half the roof, one door, etc).

 

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Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 7:32 am 
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Interesting thread as i want to do my car aswell,what brands of polish do you guys use.I like the meguiars stuff should i stick with there polishing products.
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Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 3:22 pm 
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Meguairs is good off the shelf kind of stuff however there are better products out there that are hard to get. The trick with polish/wax however is to leave it on for as long as possible for the wax/polish to sink in..

 

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Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 3:47 pm 
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spazo wrote:
Interesting thread as i want to do my car aswell,what brands of polish do you guys use.I like the meguiars stuff should i stick with there polishing products.


I use Kitten #1 polishing wax. No cutting compounds please! Takes considerable time and effort but the paint comes up very well. Apply every month or so and start to get a nice layer building up. Can now leave the car unwashed for a few weeks and still have a decent finish (albeit covered in dirt! lol).

In contrast to a few people's comments, the directions state not to let the wax dry on the paint. People's thoughts on this...?

 

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Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 4:18 pm 
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spazo wrote:
Interesting thread as i want to do my car aswell,what brands of polish do you guys use.I like the meguiars stuff should i stick with there polishing products.


I use an assortment of different products for different things. I have a liquid cut & polish, a diamond finish polish, a liquid wax, a coloured wax, and a coloured polish (as well as various cloths, soaps, oils etc etc! lol - I love my car :mrgreen: ).

Basically, just buy a polish. If it works, keep using it. If it doesn't, try a different one the next time!

 

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Posted: Wed Nov 17, 2004 4:22 pm 
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Hrm, any melb member knows what type of condition i keep my cars looking in so it no suprise my car cleaning products range over proberly 100+ bottles/brands.. :lol:
I find nothing beats doing it all by hand, the buffer works "OK" if you know what your doing, but i find the buffer hurts my arms more than the manual work - therefor i go manualkly by hand each time.
Also if polishing, leave it on there to dry no less than 15min, otherwise bit of a waste of time, i know some people like to do it asap, but id rather leave it long as possible as said above in drones post.
Also i cant stress enough, SMALL sections at a time, panel by panel, half bonnet/roof/boot lid at a time!
Ive seen some people do the whole car at once and the result was worse than the before condition to be hinest - mainly as they didnt change cloths when removing polish/wax. :shock:
I used to have some posts up on the old FM which had links to a site that gave washing tips which really worth a read, infact i would pay for the type of advice it had, anyone still got the links? :o
Sorry to ranmble.

 

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