OTC products for new PC user

G

GeeReg

New member
Hi, all. I've just ordered a 7424 to help remove swirls/light scratches and oxidation from a few cars. I tried reading through a lot of DA technique posts and guides but was looking for something more specific to my situation.



I have and will be doing the following:



7424 with orange and white LC pads

~half bottle of watery Ultimate Compound

~half bottle of ColorX

1 tube of the old ScratchX



2008 Black VW Jetta - medium swirls/some light scratches/bird bomb etching

2010 Black Mitsubishi Lancer - light swirls

1998 White Acura Integra - light swirls and some decent oxidation/dirty paint (tried UC and ColorX by hand and seemed to take care of most of the oxidation/dirt but not swirls)



My confusion comes from reading some cases where people will only use M105/UC and be LSP ready, and others saying they need to polish even after M205. I realize the black cars will be less forgiving, so will I be OK with just the Ultimate Compound? The Jetta and Lancer are daily drivers that sit outside, the Integra is not driven much and is garaged. I am NOT looking for perfection but would like to do the best I can (being the first time using a DA).



How is the paint hardness on all of these? I was thinking of getting a tube of ScratchX 2.0 and starting out with that and hoping to be happy with that as LSP ready. Being new to polishing, I don't know what to expect and what is as good as it will get. I should have ordered some products at the same time as the PC but didn't really know what I would need, so now I am sticking to OTC.



Thanks in advance.
 
Forget the Scratchx, call meguiars and have them send you a new bottle of UC that isn't watery and go buy a bottle of Swirlx. Then tape off a 1x1' area and test out your products and go from there.
 
I would, but it started out normal if I remember and I've used about half of it, so I didn't think it was right to call them and have them replace it.



I forgot about SwirlX also. Is it the least aggressive polish Meg's makes OTC?
 
UC/SwirlX is as close as you can get OTC to the 105/205 combo. And yeah, its the least agressive in OTC line.
 
I'd get yourself a fresh bottle of Ultimate Compound and a bottle of SwirlX. Whether you will need to follow-up UC with SwirlX to remove micro-marring all depends on your specific car. There's no way to predict ahead of time. As you note, many find that UC leaves the finish LSP-ready, some do not.



I observe that for a wax you only have ColorX. ColorX is an excellent OTC cleaner wax but its cleansing ability will be unnecessary after you have polished the car with UC and SwirlX. So consider purchasing a good sealant or wax. For OTC protectants, consider:



Mother's Reflections (hard to find but can be ordered from Amazon.com for a very reasonable price, with free shipping if your order is +$25)

Duragloss 105 (also hard to find)

Megs' NXT

Megs' Gold Class Carnauba Plus
 
Sorry, I was only mentioning products for the correction. I have a tub of NXT2.0 and a bottle of Collinite 845.



I have heard that the UC will still work when watery so I will probably try the SwirlX first and if it doesn't cut it, try the UC I have. If that works I will probably pick up a new bottle.
 
GeeReg- Welcome to Autopia!



Hope you're planning to use 4" pads on the VW..hard clear on those. The Acura, OTOH, oughta be considerably softer, interesting that the UC didn't fix its marring.
 
Thanks!



Unfortunately I only ordered 6.5" pads, orange and white. I didn't know what I needed and didn't want to order $100 worth of pads that I wouldn't use. It seemed like people used those so that's what I went with.



The UC may very well have taken out most of the swirling on the Acura if I put enough effort into it, but I was just trying to improve it since it was by hand and already taking a lot of time and energy.



On the other hand, the VW is my wife's car and she is just slightly less (read: not at all) worried about the finish than I am on my cars so I may do the best I can with what I have and see where I end up.
 
GeeReg- OK, roger that. If your results are disapointing I'd blame the large pads. IME the PC simply can't overcome the friction and won't let you apply pressure (it merely "jiggles" when you try that). I sure wish vendors would quit selling those big pads with PCs.....
 
GeeReg said:
On the other hand, the VW is my wife's car and she is just slightly less (read: not at all) worried about the finish than I am on my cars so I may do the best I can with what I have and see where I end up.
Click to expand...



I know i mentioned it before, but I can't stress it enough, start with a taped off 1x1 area and see how that goes. Sounds like you "just want to get it done" and that often ends in disappointment and posts about how the PC just does not work.
 
Well, I picked up a new bottle of UC and went to town on the VW. After trying the SwirlX on a white pad and then on the orange, I went right to the UC on the orange pad. Man this is rough. Had to make 3-4 passes (1 pass being 3-4 sweeps, wiping clean and observing) to get anywhere and there are still some swirls not coming out. There is a definite improvement though. It also seemed like there was hazing or holograms left over but I couldn't tell whether they were there already, just more apparent with the swirling almost gone. It didn't go away with some SwirlX follow-up.



I gave up after doing the hood and trunk lid. I hope the Mitsubishi isn't this hard. Any one have some information on them? I'm guessing the next step is smaller pads like you suggested Accu.
 
GeeReg- Sorry to hear it was kinda frustrating, but well...I'm not all that surprised either.



Yeah, get the smaller pads. That really will make a big diff. Vendors who sell 6.5" pads with PCs sorta tick me off :hmph:



Note that the 3-4 tries really isn't very many when doing the initial correction on VW/Audi clear. Heh heh, sorry to say, it's often not even getting started! Just the nature of the beast; you're using a fairly mild (hence safe) approach to do something that's really *best* done with a very aggressive (hence risky, so don't go there ;) ) approach instead.



To avoid driving yourself nuts, consider doing a panel or two at a time after each of a series of regular washes. Doing the car incrementally like that can make it seem less overwhelming.



The "holograms"/hazing are quite possibly from the Ultimate Compound. It's a little funny in that it doesn't really break down...so you have to be careful that it doesn't dry/clump on the pads and also be careful when buffing off its residue. You also might want to do UC/orange, then UC/white, and only *then* move on to a milder product.



Work small areas and do a few more of those "section passes"; work the UC until it's almost, but not quite, dry. I've only used the similar M105 (not actually UC) but with that product it takes about five-seven sorta slow times across the *(small) area of operation at speed 6.



Using a little spritz of Meguiar's #34 Final Inspection when buffing off the residue will help minimize any micromarring too, and use very good, clean, plush MFs.



(Check the yellowpages and see if an autobody/paint supply store in your area has the #34.).
 
Thanks for the tips Accumulator. If the VW is going to be that much work I might just let it be.



I'm afraid I'm even more frustrated than yesterday. I tried the Mitsubishi today and it was looking promising. The larger swirls were coming out with UC on the orange pad after not too much work. But no matter what combination I use, I can't leave a micro-swirl, haze, hologram, whatever you want to call it-free, finish. I don't know if I'm using too much pressure, not enough pressure, too much product, not enough, etc... I've read an awful lot about using a DA and thought I was following all the advice.



I think I will get a new backing plate and the 4" pads and see what I can do.
 
GeeReg said:
Thanks for the tips Accumulator. If the VW is going to be that much work I might just let it be...
Click to expand...



At least until you get those 4" pads and get your technique sorted out ;)

I'm afraid I'm even more frustrated than yesterday. I tried the Mitsubishi today and it was looking promising. The larger swirls were coming out with UC on the orange pad after not too much work. But no matter what combination I use, I can't leave a micro-swirl, haze, hologram, whatever you want to call it-free, finish.
Click to expand...



Again, get the smaller pads. Then...



I wouldn't expect the UC to leave all that nice a finish, no matter what others here say (no, that's not some :argue ). I'd rely on the next step to get that hazing/etc. out and if that next step has to be sorta aggressive, then so be it.



I think I will get a new backing plate and the 4" pads and see what I can do.
Click to expand...



There you go :xyxthumbs I'm confident you'll get this sorted out once you start working with the smaller pads. And hey, if you're just somebody for whom the Meguiar's stuff isn't the right approach, there are all sorts of other options.
 
There you go :xyxthumbs I'm confident you'll get this sorted out once you start working with the smaller pads. And hey, if you're just somebody for whom the Meguiar's stuff isn't the right approach, there are all sorts of other options.
Click to expand...



Thanks for the confidence LOL. Pads are on their way
 
I thought I would pop-in with an update. I've got the 4" pads and have been mostly working on the Integra. I'm almost embarrassed to post these as I'm ashamed that I've let a car I own get this bad. However, it has been a track-only vehicle for the past 5 years and its appearance sort-of took a backseat to other things. This was all done with the UC on an orange pad. I can't seem to make it look any better with a second step of SwirlX on the white. I'm also hitting a wall on the painted plastic parts such as the bumpers. I've read that once they go dull, you can never bring them all the way back. The difference is huge (obviously from the pics) but the bumper is not as glossy as the metal panels:





This was after a wash and clay, 50/50 after polishing... :nervous:



Integ1.jpg




Integ2.jpg




:nervous2:



Integ3.jpg






These are from my first attempt at the Jetta with the 6.5" pads. You can see it's also a big improvement but there's still hologramming/marring. But, you can also see it in the untouched side so I'm a little confused



Jetta1.jpg




Jetta2.jpg






I had better luck on the Mitsubishi with the 4" pads but still got some marring occasionally. I'm not sure if it's the product drying up or a dirty pad but I'll hopefully get it sorted out.



So, that's it. Thanks for the help everyone.
 
That marring looks like its being caused when you are wiping off the product. Be sure to use a quality MF towel and don't put a lot of pressure on it.
 
GeeReg- Ah, it does look like you're making progress. The pics are nice and informative.



On the Acura, I think I'd try to decontaminate things more before polishing. Additional claying, in the absence of a decontamination system, would get a lot of that [stuff] off and maybe the subsequent polishing would be more effective. If there's still contamination on the paint when you polish, then it will scour the paint during the polishing. (Apologies if I'm misunderstanding your process...)



On the Jetta, IMO you need to do more with the UC. It'll almost certainly take that to get the rest of the holograms out. And as Dibbin1 pointed out, getting the "used" UC off gently is critical [repeat M34 lecture]. Oh, and IMO some of the deeper RIDS on that one might be too deep for (absolutely) safe removal.



On the Mitsubishi, when you wonder if your pads were dirty or the product had dried out...well, if you're even wondering about it I bet the answer is "yes".
 
Accumulator - I clayed before polishing and it didn't seem like it was coming off. The contamination comes off very easily on the first pass though. I am having some trouble getting the UC off when done. It just won't buff off so I end up wiping it down with IPA (I forgot to order the M34) It makes me think I'm working it too long but it happens with only 2 passes. I also feel like I'm using too much product (I'm nearing the end of the bottle of UC) but it seems too dry if I use less (I usually make an X on the pad).



Dubbin - I thought that was the case but you can see it on the taped-off section also, so I'm not sure.
 
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