imported_Dave KG
New member
Took a trip up to Aberdeen today to meet a couple of guys looking for a little bit of rotary tuition.. I have to say I do enjoy travelling around showing folk how to use the PC or the rotary (or at least how I use the tools), its great to meet like minded folk in detailing and set them on their way machine polishing wise.
Started off playing on a red wing for some ninital goes with the rotary - demonstrated what hologramming is and what causes it (#83, 1800rpm, fast movements for only five or so passes did the trick! :lol: ), as well as demiing how to get the rotary to remove defects properly and finish down crystal sharp. The guys seemed to soon get the hang of the tool, so we decided to play on the host's old Porsche 924 - its getting a respray so we were told we could do what we wanted... Excellent!
:thumb: (Cheers Roddy for this, and the coffee!)
Decided to tackle the back wing, resprayed before, good thickness of paint but some really bad swirls evident:
Now, to tackle them, I wanted to show that a medium polish can finish down crystal sharp if worked thoroughly - so went for Menzerna PO85RD3.01 Intensive Polish on a Meguiars Polishing pad. Spread at 600rpm, two passes at 1200rpm, about 5 passes at 1500rpm, 5 or 6 passes at 1800rpm, 5 passes at 1500rpm and a couple at 1000rpm to refine. A lot of passes, and only after this was the residue going clear to indicate the polish had thoroughly broklen down and the abrasives were worked to their best. Here's me in action:
And the finish achieved:
Now, over to Skid to work on the rear part of the wing, a couple of photos of Skid polishing, following the slow>quick>slow technique to fully work the polish:
Then Mark had a go. A pic of Mark showing the small amount of polish required to do the wing section - couple of skittle sized beads:
And Mark in action with the Makita:
The bonnet had clearly seen better days on this car! :
Just for fun, as the owner didn't care about the paint, we decided to play around with this damaged paint area to see what rotary polishing can do to damaged paint, so it was cleaned off and fully inspected with the PTG to show respray (and a clearcoat as this was flaking elsewhere on the bonnet):
Now, on any normal detail, this bonnet would be left as the paint was so dodgy risking any machining would be a big no no. But, the owner was perfectly happy for us to play damage control exercises as the car was being resprayed anyway, didn't care if we went through to the metal!!! So, we decided to play with the machine polisher, and after several sets of Final Finsih and Intensive Polish, we reduced the damage severity on the bonnet a notable amount...
This was just for fun as I say and on a normal detail, this kind of risk would never be tackled but its always nice to push the boundaries when you've got a car to play with just to see what happens and can be achieved and we were all pleasently surprised with this.
Just to round the day off, we decided to try hand applying waxes, and what better wax to start out with than Victoria Concours wax, probably the easiest wax to apply by hand IMVHO and cracking results. Here's Mark warming the wax between his hands getting ready to apply:
And Mark applying the wax to the panel - long sweeping strokes to pull the wax across the panel, keeping hands warm to keep the carnuaba melted and easy to spread making a little go a long way:
And now, the fruits of our labours, the wing completed:
All in all, a grand day out! :thumb:
Started off playing on a red wing for some ninital goes with the rotary - demonstrated what hologramming is and what causes it (#83, 1800rpm, fast movements for only five or so passes did the trick! :lol: ), as well as demiing how to get the rotary to remove defects properly and finish down crystal sharp. The guys seemed to soon get the hang of the tool, so we decided to play on the host's old Porsche 924 - its getting a respray so we were told we could do what we wanted... Excellent!
:thumb: (Cheers Roddy for this, and the coffee!)Decided to tackle the back wing, resprayed before, good thickness of paint but some really bad swirls evident:
Now, to tackle them, I wanted to show that a medium polish can finish down crystal sharp if worked thoroughly - so went for Menzerna PO85RD3.01 Intensive Polish on a Meguiars Polishing pad. Spread at 600rpm, two passes at 1200rpm, about 5 passes at 1500rpm, 5 or 6 passes at 1800rpm, 5 passes at 1500rpm and a couple at 1000rpm to refine. A lot of passes, and only after this was the residue going clear to indicate the polish had thoroughly broklen down and the abrasives were worked to their best. Here's me in action:
And the finish achieved:
Now, over to Skid to work on the rear part of the wing, a couple of photos of Skid polishing, following the slow>quick>slow technique to fully work the polish:
Then Mark had a go. A pic of Mark showing the small amount of polish required to do the wing section - couple of skittle sized beads:
And Mark in action with the Makita:
The bonnet had clearly seen better days on this car! :
Just for fun, as the owner didn't care about the paint, we decided to play around with this damaged paint area to see what rotary polishing can do to damaged paint, so it was cleaned off and fully inspected with the PTG to show respray (and a clearcoat as this was flaking elsewhere on the bonnet):
Now, on any normal detail, this bonnet would be left as the paint was so dodgy risking any machining would be a big no no. But, the owner was perfectly happy for us to play damage control exercises as the car was being resprayed anyway, didn't care if we went through to the metal!!! So, we decided to play with the machine polisher, and after several sets of Final Finsih and Intensive Polish, we reduced the damage severity on the bonnet a notable amount...
This was just for fun as I say and on a normal detail, this kind of risk would never be tackled but its always nice to push the boundaries when you've got a car to play with just to see what happens and can be achieved and we were all pleasently surprised with this.
Just to round the day off, we decided to try hand applying waxes, and what better wax to start out with than Victoria Concours wax, probably the easiest wax to apply by hand IMVHO and cracking results.
Here's Mark warming the wax between his hands getting ready to apply:And Mark applying the wax to the panel - long sweeping strokes to pull the wax across the panel, keeping hands warm to keep the carnuaba melted and easy to spread making a little go a long way:
And now, the fruits of our labours, the wing completed:
All in all, a grand day out! :thumb:
