Several Qs re: PC

[bigbobv]

I have a black BMW and live in very sunny Las Vegas. Despite very careful methods of hand-washing and detailing, I have several very pronounced swirls/scratches that show up in the bright sun. I use two buckets to wash, an all-cotton mitt, dry with CA Water Blade, Klasse AIO/SG applied with the MF pad they supply and polish off with an all-cotton towel (Fieldcrest with poly binder removed). Still, a mess in the sun.



I am debating the purchase of a Porter Cable polisher. Here are my questions:



1. I am planning to keep the car 15 years or so. Thus, I am very reticent to take down the clear coat much at all. Am I better off switching to Zaino to fill or does the PC really do that good of a job with minimal reduction of the clear coat?



2. Has anyone PC'd a black car and seen it later in a very bright sun or vapor lights?



3. Can (should) I use 3M SMW with the PC, or something less aggressive?



Kills me to spend $250 on a PC when I swore off machine polishers years ago to switch to hand work, but I am puzzled with why I am getting these scratches with current methods.



Thnaks for any help.

 

[JonB]

First thing you should do is paint your car white! Or, if you insist on having a black car, you might consider giving up the water blade. I used it initially with seemingly good results until I started noticing some fine linear scratches on the hood.. :scared My preferred drying method now is the Big Blue MF towel from CMA followed with a quality regular MF.



As far as the PC goes, you should be safe with SMR or FI II. These are relatively mildly aggressive polishes and will not be removing much of your clear, even with the PC. But don't expect miracles on scratches. Those need to be addressed first. The PC will get rid of most of the swirls. If you do this once a year or so, your clear should be fine... I found that the not only did I get faster results using the PC, but better results that I don't think I could have gotten without it.



I have not used Zaino on black, but 5 coats of Z 5 on Steel Gray did hide whatever spiderwebbing that remained after using the PC prep.



H

 

[JasonC8301]

I would also like to add that the PC is very safe to use. I used it on black paint before. the swirls were reduced to the point of having to look at angles to find it in bright sunlight. After the wash the swirls would bounce up at you along witha boat load of other imperfections, so I used the PC, a lambswool polishing pad with a clear coat compound (similar to 3M Perfect It II Rubbing compound medium cut), followed by 2 applications of machine glaze with PC and foam polishing pad, and a final coat of wax.



Before

After

The PC with a pad kit can be put together for roughly $180. the DM KIT from CMA for $60, the PC SP7336 from Lowe's/HomeDepot or on-line for $110, and $10 or so for shipping.



I love my Porter Cable Polish, achieved great results on cars that would have taken me a whole week to do by hand. The 3M polishes do their job but are a little tough to remove, same goes for Meguiars. Check your local paint shop/body shop for these 3M or Meguiar's pro products, don't use the consumer Meguiar's stuff since they don't measure up to the pro lines (Mirror Glaze, body shop.)



Happy Detailing,

Jason