First of all, greetings everyone. I'm new here, but not new to Meguiars. I am, however, new to rotary buffing. I've always used their 3 step consumer products, but when I got a variable speed dewalt buffer for $50 at a garage sale that looks like its never been used, I'm taking the plunge.
After turning the rotary on, even at 1000 rpm (it goes from 1K-3K), I'm kinda scared you-know-what-less. I can easily see how you can mess up really bad really quick. The dewalt seems really heavy, though I have nothing to compare it to, and kinda jumps when you turn it on. It definitely doesn't have the "slow start up" I've read about a couple places around here. On the other hand, I am unbelievably excited about the potential results, and I am really loving the treasure trove of information in this forum.
Fortunately, I have a friend with a junker who won't mind me burning all the paint clean off his car. He's apparently planning a repaint soon. The problem is, I'm not sure how good of practice I'm going to get with this car. It's definitely not clear coated, and it has the full gauntlet of problems. Deep scratches, chips through to the metal (with rust), severe oxidation, orange peel, you name it, it has it. That is, it has everything except swirl marks and holograms because it's definitely never gone to a detailler (I'm sure I'll solve the swirl mark and hologram problem real quick). I don't know if it's a single stage or high solid or what (no thickness gauge either). I know many of these problems would normally be handled with sanding, but really all I care about is practicing the buffer to get a show-car shine on my car, not become a paint restoration and repair specialist.
I've watched all the Meguiars videos hosted at better car care, and that was an extremely helpful first step. First of all, what kind of surface prep should I perform? I know I'm going to need to get the bonded contaminants off before the cleaning stage, but the paint seems so damaged and fragile I'm just not sure what it can handle. With so many problems that are so severe, can I even do anything with this car? I'm especially concerned about using the rotary on or around the chips that are all the way through. It seems as if the heat and friction would pull paint off those areas because of the jagged edges. Unfortunately there's a lot of them on the hood which would be the best practice. I know I'm going to need to clay bar, probably with the aggressive one (I have both, I am taking the full plunge, btw how do you know which to use? Use the mild and if that isn't strong enough then go aggressive?).
I should've ordered on the internet to get the 6 1/2" pads, but being as excited as I was, I bought my stuff from a store here, so here is my inventory of products thus far. Tell me what more I might need.
8" velcro backing plate
8" foam cutting pad w-7000
8" foam finishing pad w-9000 (they didn't have the w-8000)
#62 carwash (gallon)
#34 final inspection (gallon)
Aggresive and mild clay bars
#2 fine cut cleaner 16 oz. (all they had, I might need medium/heavy? compound?)
#9 swirl remover 2.0 16 oz.
#26 hi-tech wax 16 oz.
I'll try to take some pictures to help you all better understand the extent to which this poor car has been abused by the sun, birds, and rocks. But, lacking a decent camera, it might be a day or two. Perhaps I'll defer my other many questions until then, such as the proper body position to do the side of a car. Bending over? On your knees? A short stool? I was so excited with my purchases I was imagining doing my personal car (which I won't touch until I feel *extremely* comfortable with the rotary), but I don't know how you would be comfortable and maintain control of a rotary, especially with how heavy mine seems to be. Oh yeah, one other question. I'm sure my pads are going to be dark blue after working on this car. Does that mean I won't be able to use them on a clear coated car in the future? Would it tint the finish blue? I need the practice so I won't really mind having to buy new pads, but I've gone so over budget thus far it would be nice to be able to reuse them.
After turning the rotary on, even at 1000 rpm (it goes from 1K-3K), I'm kinda scared you-know-what-less. I can easily see how you can mess up really bad really quick. The dewalt seems really heavy, though I have nothing to compare it to, and kinda jumps when you turn it on. It definitely doesn't have the "slow start up" I've read about a couple places around here. On the other hand, I am unbelievably excited about the potential results, and I am really loving the treasure trove of information in this forum.
Fortunately, I have a friend with a junker who won't mind me burning all the paint clean off his car. He's apparently planning a repaint soon. The problem is, I'm not sure how good of practice I'm going to get with this car. It's definitely not clear coated, and it has the full gauntlet of problems. Deep scratches, chips through to the metal (with rust), severe oxidation, orange peel, you name it, it has it. That is, it has everything except swirl marks and holograms because it's definitely never gone to a detailler (I'm sure I'll solve the swirl mark and hologram problem real quick). I don't know if it's a single stage or high solid or what (no thickness gauge either). I know many of these problems would normally be handled with sanding, but really all I care about is practicing the buffer to get a show-car shine on my car, not become a paint restoration and repair specialist.
I've watched all the Meguiars videos hosted at better car care, and that was an extremely helpful first step. First of all, what kind of surface prep should I perform? I know I'm going to need to get the bonded contaminants off before the cleaning stage, but the paint seems so damaged and fragile I'm just not sure what it can handle. With so many problems that are so severe, can I even do anything with this car? I'm especially concerned about using the rotary on or around the chips that are all the way through. It seems as if the heat and friction would pull paint off those areas because of the jagged edges. Unfortunately there's a lot of them on the hood which would be the best practice. I know I'm going to need to clay bar, probably with the aggressive one (I have both, I am taking the full plunge, btw how do you know which to use? Use the mild and if that isn't strong enough then go aggressive?).
I should've ordered on the internet to get the 6 1/2" pads, but being as excited as I was, I bought my stuff from a store here, so here is my inventory of products thus far. Tell me what more I might need.
8" velcro backing plate
8" foam cutting pad w-7000
8" foam finishing pad w-9000 (they didn't have the w-8000)
#62 carwash (gallon)
#34 final inspection (gallon)
Aggresive and mild clay bars
#2 fine cut cleaner 16 oz. (all they had, I might need medium/heavy? compound?)
#9 swirl remover 2.0 16 oz.
#26 hi-tech wax 16 oz.
I'll try to take some pictures to help you all better understand the extent to which this poor car has been abused by the sun, birds, and rocks. But, lacking a decent camera, it might be a day or two. Perhaps I'll defer my other many questions until then, such as the proper body position to do the side of a car. Bending over? On your knees? A short stool? I was so excited with my purchases I was imagining doing my personal car (which I won't touch until I feel *extremely* comfortable with the rotary), but I don't know how you would be comfortable and maintain control of a rotary, especially with how heavy mine seems to be. Oh yeah, one other question. I'm sure my pads are going to be dark blue after working on this car. Does that mean I won't be able to use them on a clear coated car in the future? Would it tint the finish blue? I need the practice so I won't really mind having to buy new pads, but I've gone so over budget thus far it would be nice to be able to reuse them.
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