How Do You Guys Polish So Fast?

[rstype]

Think of it this way... How long would it take you to polish by hand? Plus how sore would you be the next day?

SCOTTWAX... please dont respond to that question!!:nono

For his own car, didn't he spend 20 hours on it or something?

 

[Mr Big Bass]

How much time would you guys say it takes to do each panel? I use 1Z compounds and AIO by PC and I have no idea when I should stop. I've read when it hazes but I have no real idea of how long that takes.

 

[C-MDX]

It took me an hour just to polish and seal 2 doors (SUV doors) and that there are still many swirls left

 

[jerry@robs]

I guess the answer will lie on the condition of the car BEFORE any work was done. Clearly, a beat-up condition car will take more time than a regular "wash induced" swirl car that was taken care off...



Even with a rotary, it usually takes our shop around 3hrs to finish a sedan, more if it's repainted... But 3 hours is common...



Interior, darn, that takes forever, takes us almost a whole day for a complete interior for an SUV... Including extraction etc, with 2 workers.



Again, most interiors of the cars we get in the shop are good enough for cab use hehe.

 

[Accumulator]

How much time would you guys say it takes to do each panel? I use 1Z compounds and AIO by PC and I have no idea when I should stop. I've read when it hazes but I have no real idea of how long that takes.

Sometime I oughta time myself with various products, but honestly, I bet I'll never bother It's sorta weird, but IMO you get a "feel" for it and it becomes second nature. Sorry about the Zen/Yoda-style answer, but it's true.



The 1z stuff does need to be worked long enough to break down, but you don't have to work it "dry". Try to work it so that is not quite dry when you turn off the PC, but enough that it dries while you're setting the PC down and picking up your buffing towel. Hope that was at least a *little* helpful.



As far as how long you'll have to work a panel, it just depends on how marred it is and how hard the paint is. When you "do rotary work by PC" you can literally spend hours on a single panel- I've done it ('01 Audi A6, hour after hour, morning to night, for two *days*) and I still didn't get everything truly perfect (wool and cutting pads, 3M RCs, speed 6) before I gave up and switched to my final polishes. Yeah, other people might've thought it was perfect, but I could still see flaws in certain lighting since I knew where/how to look. The PC just wan't the right tool for that job.

 

[Mr Big Bass]

Wow... hours on a panel huh... Does that mean you would use let's say PP with a white pad on the same panel 5x or more times over? By that I mean you use the PC til it hazes, buff off and then start over again?

 

[Accumulator]

Wow...Does that mean you would use let's say PP with a white pad on the same panel 5x or more times over?

Yeah, if need be. But remember, doing it that way is really mis-applying both the PC and the PP. I'd at least do some of the work with Ultra and then switch to the PP.



And of course, you don't want to take off too much clear/paint. Gotta determine whether some marring really oughta be removed or not, especially a) on not-new cars and b) if it's just gonna get marred again.



One of the Volvo's quarter panels was repainted with rather hard b/c before I got it. It was awfully scratched up. I just did the following: 3M PI-III Extra Cut RC (liquid sandpaper, IMO) by rotary/cutting pad (one pass), PI-III RC (05933) by rotary/polishing pad (two full passes), 05933 again by Cyclo with cutting pad (about three passes) then again by polishing pad (two-three passes), PI-III MG by Cyclo with polishing pad (two passes), 1Z MP (Pro version) by Cyclo with milder polishing/finishing pad (the Cyclo white one) for one pass. That was a lot of work on one quarter panel, but it turned out pretty nice, at least under halogen lighting- it's NOT perfect, though; I decided I didn't want to take off enough paint to shoot for true perfection in all lighting conditions.

 

[Bill D]

One of the Volvo's quarter panels was repainted with rather hard b/c before I got it. It was awfully scratched up. I just did the following: 3M PI-III Extra Cut RC (liquid sandpaper, IMO) .

Hey Accumulator,



That stuff sounds just like the 3m Super Duty RC. And your description couldn't be more accurate, that stuff can be down right terrifying, I would say definitely only for the more severely marred surfaces and *hard* paint.