Newbie Question

[Nev]

Hi all
I have a 9 month old ford fiesta in black metallic but not laquered, I'm from the UK, hence the car model. I'm going to clay my car first then polish it. I have a bottle of Meguiar's 105 mirror glaze and a bottle of 205 mirror glaze. As UK cards don't have as much paint on them compared to the US will I need both compounds? I'm using a rotary polisher and have a quite varied set of decent sponges can anyone give me a clue please.
Thanks.

[Nick Winn]

Re: Newbie Question

Hi Nev,

After claying the finish & removing the bonded contaminants, we would suggest evaluating the paint for below surface defects or defects "within the clear coat", like swirls, scratches, & stains. This can be done by inspecting the paint & looking at the paint from different angles under quality lighting, direct sunlight, fluorescent lighting in a garage, even a led flashlight. Quality lighting & constantly inspecting your work is recommended as part of this process, because when the paint is in the shade, most defects cannot be seen.

We would suggest performing a test spot with M205 on a moderately aggressive polishing pad. Inspect with good lighting after the test spot. If this combination does not remove all the defects to your satisfaction, you can increase your defect removal by stepping up to the M105. If you end up using M105, it would be best to follow with M205, to further refine the paint finish & increase gloss, and then you last step, will be to apply a wax.

We would hope that since that car is so new, that you wont need the M105.

Hope this helps! We are also going to move this to our rotary polisher forum section.

[Nev]

Re: Newbie Question

Thanks Nicholas
I'm not sure if I have a clear coat on the car, I have one or two very slight scratches which are down to the white primer. These marks are not very noticeable but on close inspection there doesn't seem to be a clear coat on top. It's typical for the British car market. I think it's water based paint with very fine pieces of metallic embedded throughout the paint. I wish we could buy cars over here that actually had a decent coat of paint. Years ago car paint was very thick but as more modern paint tech increases the manufacturers seem to put less and less paint coats onto the modern cars these days. I has a seat leon also in black which had the exact same paint problems. I will try and do as you told me, I thought I might not need the 105. Once again thanks for your help.