Orange pads don't always finish out ready-to-wax in my experience, but you never know. I'd probably use a stronger product with that aggressive a pad though, I'm more inclined to go aggressive with the product than with the pad.
IP with orange pad isn't getting the hood done like I want it. It has alot of spots (looks like water spots and maybe water etching)? What should I step up to? I have heard some good things about Optimum products. Any recomendations. I'll try to get pics of hood posted. Hood is covered with little spots.
you should jump up to a more aggressive product rather than pad....
most water spotting needs to be compounded out/off...not polished off
orange lc pad/EC is going to be my choice on a red ford I have to do on sunday...then step down to something like IP/FPII combo on yellow megs pad, and blue LC pad
My previous car (Silver Nissan Altima) needed to be finished with FFII/PO106FF/FK 215 + white LC or some similiar fine polish. Got too much hazing with anything more agressive.
My wifes car (Pearl White Acura TL) and my current car (Pearl White Subaru Legacy) is LSP ready after PO106FF or FK 215 + orange LC. The white color really helps here.
My brother-in-law just did his Silver Lexus GS 300 yesterday and it was *nearly* LSP ready after SSR2.5 + YELLOW LC. I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it myself. He did end up making one pass with PO106FF + white LC (which sharpened up the reflections a smidge) just to make sure he took care of any hazing/micromarring that we might have missed during the visual inspection. I'm going to check back in today to check out the final results.
Noting that I've never used OC but have used a lot of products that I'd consider similar- yeah. I often use not-too-aggressive compounds with polishing pads, works fine and it's great with ones that finish out/break down nicely. Not as aggressive as a cutting pad of course..
1Bad81Bu- I can't tell if toyotaguy is talking about H-T EC or not
But just because one Menzerna product isn't doing the job I dunno if that means you oughta jump to another line of products. I'd probably try Menzerna's PG.
FWIW my wife's car has some etching that's still there after some mighty aggressive rotary work; I decided to live with it.