D/A Buffing 101 - An Introduction to the G110v2 (and similar)

[Big Ed5150]

Re: D/A Buffing 101 – An Introduction to the G110v2 (and similar)

Great write up...i think mike did this cause he knew i just bought a g110v2..lol.

[mattya802]

Re: D/A Buffing 101 – An Introduction to the G110v2 (and similar)

Awesome write up Mike! Just bought my PC and used it for the first time yesterday. Certainly have a lot of learning/practice to do with this thing!

[Michael Stoops]

Re: D/A Buffing 101 – An Introduction to the G110v2 (and similar)

Is there a thread somewhere that steps you through all the necessary stages of washing/correcting/waxing? I'm not talking about full detail, but something that tells you the order of doing it and what products can be used for each step and the strength of the products listed in order.

That would be our 5 Step Paint Care Cycle.

Great Information!! Thank you for sharing.. How about Rotary? I can't wait to see it too....

Maybe in time, but that's not as easy to do via just images and words. There is a whole lot more going on with a rotary compared to a D/A, and much more potential for damage in the hands of a novice.

So, Michael, is it OK to use masking tape (beige-colored) on taping up the trims and emblems? I am trying the paint's tape, and it is not just sticking for me. Thanks!

The tape used here is Meguiar's Professional Masking Tape rather than typical blue painter's tape. We developed this tape specifically for detailing - it's less expensive than the painter's tape and holds onto trim better due to the adhesive being a bit more tenacious. Painter's tape was developed with very specific painting requirements in mind - light adhesion so as not to damage fresh paint, ability to leave a very clean paint edge line, etc - that are sort of overkill when used for detailing.

Great write up...i think mike did this cause he knew i just bought a g110v2..lol.

Just for you Big Ed, but thanks for letting others read it too!!!

[Bill Davidson]

Re: D/A Buffing 101 – An Introduction to the G110v2 (and similar)

Excellent write-up Mike. You were able to articulate in writing, what is often difficult to get across even with video. This article should ship as instructions with the G110v2.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: D/A Buffing 101 – An Introduction to the G110v2 (and similar)

Excellent write-up Mike, this is going to help a lot of people new to machine polishing into the future...

If you don't mind, I would like to add a link to a similar article that brings up the most common problems and then the solutions as it relates to DA Polishers... it might help people to take what you've laid out and if needed tweak their technique and master the DA Polisher...


Tips & Techniques for using the G110v2, G110, G100, G220 and the PC Dual Action Polisher
(These are all similar tools)

After teaching hundreds of classes here at Meguiar's, there are some common mistakes most people make when trying to remove swirls and scratches with a dual action polisher. Most of them have to do with technique.





Here's a list of the most common problems

1. Trying to work too large of an area at one time.
2. Move the polisher too fast over the surface.
3. Too low of speed setting for removing swirls.
4. Too little pressure on the head of the unit.
5. Too much pressure on the head of the unit so the pad quits rotating.
6. Not keeping the pad flat while working your product.
7. Too much product, too little product.
8. Not cleaning the pad often enough.

Here's a list of the solutions in matching order,

1. Shrink your work area down, the harder the paint the smaller the area you can work. The average area should be and average of about 16" by 16" up to 20" by 20" or so. You have to do some experimenting, (called a Test Spot), to find out how easy or how hard the defects are coming out of your car's paint system and then adjust your work area to the results of your Test Spot.
2. For removing defects out of the paint you want to use what we call a Slow Arm Speed. It's really easy to move the polisher too quickly because the sound of the motor spinning fast has a psychological effect to for some reason want to make people move the polisher fast. Also the way most people think is that, "If I move the polisher quickly, I'll get done faster", but it doesn't work that way.
3. When first starting out many people are scared of burning or swirling their paint, so they take the safe route of running the polisher at too low of a speed setting, again... this won't work. The action of the polisher is already g-e-n-t-l-e, you need the speed and specifically the pad rotating over the paint as well as the combination of time, (slow arm speed), together with the diminishing abrasives, the foam type, and the pressure to remove small particles of paint which is how your remove below surface defects like swirls or scratches. It's a leveling process that's somewhat difficult because the tool is safe/gentle while in most cases, modern clear coat paints are harder than traditional single stage paints and this makes them hard to work on. This is also why people get frustrated, they don't understand paint technology, all they know is their paint swirls easy and getting the swirls out is difficult and thus frustrating.
4. For the same reason as stated in #3, people are scared, or perhaps a better word is apprehensive, to apply too much pressure and the result of too little pressure is no paint is removed thus no swirls are removed.
5. Just the opposite of item #4, people think that by pushing harder on the polisher they can work faster and be more aggressive, but the truth is the clutch in the tool is a safety mechanism to prevent burning and will cause the pad to stop rotating, thus less cleaning or abrading action and once in a while this will lead a person to then post on the forum something like this, "Hey my pad doesn't rotate". There needs to be a balance of enough pressure to remove defects and keep the pad rotating but yet not too much pressure as to stop the rotating action. This balance is affected by a lot of things, things like type of chemical, some chemicals provide more lubrication and the pad will spin easier, curved surfaces or any raise in body lines will tend to stop the pad from rotating. This is where experience on how to address these areas comes into play or you do the best you can and move on. It's not a perfect tool, nor a perfect system, but it's almost always better than working/cleaning by hand.
6. Applying pressure in such a way as to put too much pressure to one side of the pad will cause it to stop rotating and thus decrease cleaning ability.
7. Too much product over lubricates the surface and this won't allow the diminishing abrasives to do their job plus it will increase the potential for messy splatter as well as cause pad saturation. Too little product will keep the pad from rotating due to no lubrication and there won't be enough diminishing abrasives to do any work. Again it's a balance that comes with experience, or another way of saying this would be it's a balance that comes with hours of buffing out a car to learn what to do and what not to do. Information like what you're reading here is just an edge to decrease your learning curve. Hope this is helping.
8. Most people don't clean their pad often enough and most of the time the reason for this is because they don't know they're supposed to clean their pad often and they don't know how to clean their pad. Again, that's why this forum is here to help you with both of these things. You should clean your pad after every application of product or every other application of product, your choice, most of the time cleaning your pad after every other application of product works pretty well. It enables you to work clean and enables the foam pad, the polisher and the next application of fresh product too all work effectively. How to clean your pad will be addressed below sooner versus later, but not at the time of this posting. (Sorry, I'm behind a keyboard, not a video camera

The first 4 are the most common.

[Marc08EX]

Re: D/A Buffing 101 – An Introduction to the G110v2 (and similar)

Thanks for taking time to do a how-to write up! This will be great information for people who's new to detailing and want to learn the proper way of doing things!

[Jim Lucier]

Re: D/A Buffing 101 – An Introduction to the G110v2 (and similar)

Finally took the plunge and ordered the G110v2 (the Power Kit). Received it yesterday and spent the entire day today (Saturday) polishing my red 2007 Subruban with M205/Yellow 2.0 pad after washing with Gold Class shampoo and a quick clean up with mild Meguiars clay/Final Inspection. Why had I waited so long? Meguiars DA polisher is the easiest tool to master. With the M205 I was able to remove all swirls and minor scratches with ease leaving a flawless, clean, and defect free surface. I used Final Inspection to prime the pad and and old bath towel to frequently clean the pad. A follow up applicaion of wax finished a long 10 hour day. The end result is a deep, dark finish that is better than new.
THANK YOU MEGUIARS FOR PRODUCING A SUPERIOR LINE OF PRODUCTS FOR THE AVERAGE WEEKEND WARRIOR TO EASILY MASTER.

[Bunky]

Re: D/A Buffing 101 – An Introduction to the G110v2 (and similar)

Still learning but I have made most of the mistakes

1. Move the polisher too fast over the surface - this can happen after doing multiple panels (like 1/3 done), getting tired/bored, and trying to get done. Resist the urge, take a break, pay attention. Flex will make you stay attentive more than the droning DA.
2. Trying to work too large of an area at one time. I started using a mf towel as a template for area and mark off sections with painters tape. For my flex, I work about 20x20.
3. Too low of speed setting for removing swirls - If you are running at less than 5 to 6 you are wasting your time.
4. Too little pressure on the head of the unit - Only had this initially since I was scared of ruining the paint.It still needs plenty of pressure to break down. Once I played with the DA pad against my hand, I realized how safe it was.
5. Too much pressure on the head of the unit so the pad quits rotating - never had this issue.
6. Not keeping the pad flat while working your product - done this. Need to keep the Flex flat or it will walk more
7. Too much product, too little product - I try to use less and if it does not spread well, then add more. If you add too much (like with Menz. it takes forever to break it all down if you use too much).
8. Not cleaning the pad often enough - underrated issue to me. Polishes breakdown correctly (after each panel does not see to too much but at least after every couple panels). The tell tale sign is that when you spread the polish on a panel, if it does not look very uniform, you pad is likely dirty.

[VMP]

Re: D/A Buffing 101 – An Introduction to the G110v2 (and similar)

Great write up, very good information, thanks Mike.

[MagicHands]

Re: D/A Buffing 101 – An Introduction to the G110v2 (and similar)

Great Article Mike.

[juliom2]

Re: D/A Buffing 101 – An Introduction to the G110v2 (and similar)

awesome!!!!!!

[RyanNowlin]

Re: D/A Buffing 101 – An Introduction to the G110v2 (and similar)

Received my D/A in the mail on Thursday and spent Saturday morning with it and a bottle of Ultimate Compound. Absolutely amazing results, I still can't believe it! I focused on the front-end of my '07 911 Turbo and the swirls are now completely gone. Planning to do the rest of the car this coming weekend and then polish & wax.

Question - I clayed the car the previous weekend, then just washed and started the UC process this week. Is it OK to continue in this fashion week to week, assuming I can't get all the steps done in a single weekend? Or is it best to just dedicate 1 weekend to all the steps and do them back-to-back?

Also - was surprised when I started using the D/A with all the little yellow "crumbs" that came off the 2.0 pad and were getting everywhere, is this normal? Don't recall seeing this on any of the videos.

Thanks!
Ryan

[Michael Stoops]

Re: D/A Buffing 101 – An Introduction to the G110v2 (and similar)

Hi Ryan, and welcome to MOL!

Received my D/A in the mail on Thursday and spent Saturday morning with it and a bottle of Ultimate Compound. Absolutely amazing results, I still can't believe it! I focused on the front-end of my '07 911 Turbo and the swirls are now completely gone. Planning to do the rest of the car this coming weekend and then polish & wax.

Glad to see you're getting such good results so quickly!!

Question - I clayed the car the previous weekend, then just washed and started the UC process this week. Is it OK to continue in this fashion week to week, assuming I can't get all the steps done in a single weekend? Or is it best to just dedicate 1 weekend to all the steps and do them back-to-back?

Really the best case scenario would be to do the whole process start to finish in a single day or weekend. But time constraints don't always allow for that, so it you have to break it up over multiple weekends then so be it. But if you're going to do that, we'd recommend blocking out time to do the whole process on as much surface area as time allows. That is, if you're going to do the hood and front fenders only, then do the entire process on those areas and then next weekend do the entire process on one side of the car (time allowing, of course).

If the car is driven daily during this process we highly recommend washing and drying it thoroughly before starting each weekend session. You should be able to wash and clay the whole car, as you did, and then just concentrate on the buffing later on. Just keep in mind that doing so means you'll have no wax on some parts of the car, but in reality doing so for a week or two isn't going to cause the paint to fall off the car. If the car is not driven daily but is kept in a garage, you should then be fine just wiping it down with Quik Detailer prior to buffing the next section(s).

But from the above description, you start to see why doing the whole car in a single session or single weekend is preferred.

Also - was surprised when I started using the D/A with all the little yellow "crumbs" that came off the 2.0 pad and were getting everywhere, is this normal? Don't recall seeing this on any of the videos.

That's normal and it's just part of the manufacturing process with the pads. In future you could wash the pads before first use, or at least brush them out thoroughly first, but other than that initial dust it's not a big deal.

[RyanNowlin]

Re: D/A Buffing 101 – An Introduction to the G110v2 (and similar)

That is great, Michael -- thanks so much for the help!

[Jimmy Buffit]

Re: D/A Buffing 101 – An Introduction to the G110v2 (and similar)

We've been using a DA for over 8 years, and almost exclusively with the intro of 105/205.

But, I've had each of my employees study this post (on the clock), and then quizzed them on the finer points.

As Kevin Brown pointed out, an epic post. Thanks for the symposium, Mike!