Compounding by hand?

I

imported_crazeebush

New member
What is an ideal compound to use by hand? SMR just doesn't have the bite I'm needing. Would FI II be a good choice for me? It would be followed by SMR to remove any fine swirls it created. I'm trying to get my finish as perfect as possible before the Klasse goes on. And I'm doing it by hand, doh!:( No PC for me, yet...



BuSH
 
You can essentially get the same results by hand polishing as by machine polishing. It just takes a lot more time. To cut down on time and effort sometimes it's best to use a more aggressive product to get a desired result than you would use by machine.



I've detailed lots of cars with Meguiar's #2 Fine Cut Cleaner. It's buffered (starts aggressive but mellows quickly and gets finer) and OK for clearcoats. Follow with #9 to remove swirls and you're good to go.



With 3M you'll probably want to go with their light rubbing compound prior to their SMR. But most of us have found 3M's products a little harder to work by hand than Meguiar's. 3M seems best suited to machine use but the results are just as good.
 
bretfraz said:
I've detailed lots of cars with Meguiar's #2 Fine Cut Cleaner. It's buffered (starts aggressive but mellows quickly and gets finer) and OK for clearcoats. Follow with #9 to remove swirls and you're good to go.
Click to expand...



By hand?



Have you seen this link?



The New World According to Meguiar's



It's a lot to read, but here's a quote:



"Swirls are also induced by rubbing with compounds made of silicate, sand or aluminum oxide. These materials are not used in Meguiar's products, which use materials (e.g. diatoma~ceous clay) which break down as they are used instead of scratching up the paint"



Well, I know for sure 3M compounds use silicates and Aluminum Oxide. Perhaps this is why they are harder to break down and seems to support what you just said. I've had good results with FI-2 and FCRC by hand, but I must admit they do take considerable effort and time to get the haze down.
 
That's good to know that you're getting good results with #2 by hand, since Meguiar's no longer recommends it for hand use at all (I think they say rotary only?), not that that's ever stopped people. :)



It's interesting to note that Meguiar's uses diatomaeceous (sp?) clay. AFAIK, that that's a natural abrasive since it's actually mainly composed of the fossilized remains of countless microscopic "diatoms", which are kind of like shellfish....



Another good hand abrasive I've heard of is Meguiar's DACP. It's supposedly as strong as a fine cut abrasive to start off, but smooths out to a much finer grade. Unlike the products mentioned I think it has fillers, but this shouldn't be a problem if you've already used SMR (which also has fillers) without issue.
 
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