SteveH

I've just read a guide on this but have a few questions....

The guide recommended you tape the edge of the bonnet where it meets the wing to stop you burning through the corners, but how do you finish the paint when the tape is removed? Is it by hand or very carefully with the machine?

also, say on an escos bonnet would you remove the bonnet vents completely and mask the edges of the holes? How do you properly polish the vents themselves?

I have mopped a car (after paint) before but not polished one, so any recommendations for products would be great, is G10 ok for existing paint?

Obviously I dont want to knacker the finish, but my general idea behind a frigging good mop/polish is to restore the natural colour and shine to the paint, so when I spray the bits that will need doing, I can get a spot on colour match

Any tips/recommendations would be great, the car is metallic grey by the way if that makes a difference?

CraigoScott

iTrader: (1)

you can tape the edge of the panel you are polishing, what i prefer to do is tape the edge of the panel that you are not polishing, so if you were polishing the bonnet, tape the tops of the wings.

ive never had a problem polishing edges of panels, but take care, and polish away from the edge rather than towards it!

colour doesnt really make much difference to me, the idea of polishing is to remove any defects, so swirls, etching, marring, etc and leave a perfect mirror finish,

this can only be achieved with slow careful polishing, if you rush it, you will fuck it!

take your time, and make sure you work the polish well if you are using megs or menzerna!

i wouldnt use g10, because afaik it doesnt break down, so you can polish and polish and just keep removing paint, what i would use is something like meguiars #80 or #83 or the menzerna range of polishes, which breaks down as you work it, so refining the finish as you go!

the vents are probably too small to polsih with the rotary, unless you have a small polishing head for it, i would use some fine polish by hand on those...

boost mad

iTrader: (8)

I would pretty much agree with this.

Although you may find it easier to pop the vents out as its only a couple of screws

Viper_

Agree with what CraigoScott's said.

The Menzerna range are superb and if you've only light surface defects to remove then you could get away with a single pass with the 106FA final finish, which is capable of removing light swirls etc. and refines down to a perfect finish ready for the protection stage (your chosen sealant or wax, or both).

If the swirls are more severe and you have a lot of random scratches etc. then you'd probably need their PO85 RD Intensive Polish to correct and then finish/refine with the PO85 Final Finish (this has an even lighter cut than the 106 finish polish I mentioned earlier and is Menzerna's finest grade polish for refining). You could just use the 106 to refine after the Intensive polish if you wanted as it would still do a great job, it's just that I prefer to use the finer one.

Most detailing traders do a 250ml Menzerna sampler pack with all 3 products I've mentioned plus a more aggressive cutting polish 'power gloss' as well. Each 250ml bottle is more than enough to correct several cars so is great value.

Best of luck with it

SteveH

Thanks for the responses guys, I'll post up some before and after pictures when I get to doing it. The car has some stonechips etc but most of it is very tidy, I just want to give the car a good spit and polish before summer and a winter rebuild/respray