Trouble with Meguiar's D300

hotrod66paul said:
After you blow off or clean your pad , try a very quick (small or light) spritz of water onto the pad or even onto the panel. You will be suprised at the cutting power left on the pad. Try this and let me know what you think. I use this to save on product and keep pads cleaner. Anyone else use this method ?



Hmmmm. That works with Surbuf/M105. I don't know if it works so great with the Meguiar's MF kit. I feel that any type of moisture with the MF kit makes the product harder to work with. I mean... I am sure you can get some more cut out of the compound, but yeah...
 
I actually found myself having to water spritz my MF M105 pad today a few times. I only had to spot compound a vehicle so even while covered, the pad would dry up and dust any time I would need it. The pad didn't seem to like it that much, was getting slight wobble, but that may have been something else also :-/
 
When I started learning how to polish, I was taught to prime foam pads with a shot of detail spray.



I am totally against this with MF pads. If I had to... I'd try to use as little detail spray as possible. You can always go back and add a little more detail spray or product later, but once the Mequiar's pads are soaked, it's kind of hard to get the product to play nice. Amount of product on MF pads vs. foam pads is much more crucial in my opinion. I am no pro, but that's what I noticed.
 
darkonion said:
Hmmmm. That works with Surbuf/M105. I don't know if it works so great with the Meguiar's MF kit. I feel that any type of moisture with the MF kit makes the product harder to work with. I mean... I am sure you can get some more cut out of the compound, but yeah...



I picked up this trick from Chris Dasher when I was first introduced to D300 and pleased with how it works. Since then Kevin Brown has also posted comments about the use of a spritz of water while using this compound. It works for me and just thought I'd pass it on.
 
The M/F pad is a different animal then the foam pad and if it is soaked and matted down then there is too much product on the pad (IMO). A little product goes a long way. I blow off or clean the pad almost after each panel.
 
hotrod66paul said:
I picked up this trick from Chris Dasher when I was first introduced to D300 and pleased with how it works. Since then Kevin Brown has also posted comments about the use of a spritz of water while using this compound. It works for me and just thought I'd pass it on.



I'll have to give it a try. Kevin (me) + mf + water = disaster... Must be me putting way too much product/water on the pads. I only have 2 Meg's MF pads... so if I screw up, I screw up, and have to clean and wait for them to dry...
 
hotrod66paul said:
The M/F pad is a different animal then the foam pad and if it is soaked and matted down then there is too much product on the pad (IMO). A little product goes a long way. I blow off or clean the pad almost after each panel.



Agreed. The first pass I do with the pad, I put about 4 or 5 pea size drops. Every pass afterward, maybe two or 3 pea size drops. 1 small one if the panel I work on is small.
 
Ya you generally need very little product, and I don't find I like to spritz mf pads either, seems to make them lay flat more (and sometimes sling). I just prime the pad, add 2 dots, and go to town. After each pass I hit with air, add one dab, go to town.
 
Picus said:
Ya you generally need very little product, and I don't find I like to spritz mf pads either, seems to make them lay flat more (and sometimes sling). I just prime the pad, add 2 dots, and go to town. After each pass I hit with air, add one dab, go to town.



Yeah. That's kind of what I am doing. I am not even priming the pad with a lot of product either. I'll put 3-4-5 pea size drops on various parts of the pad, then go to the body panel and spread product around. Seems to get around the pad just fine.
 
darkonion said:
I'll have to give it a try. Kevin (me) + mf + water = disaster... Must be me putting way too much product/water on the pads. I only have 2 Meg's MF pads... so if I screw up, I screw up, and have to clean and wait for them to dry...



Only have 2 pads... no problem... after you clean them no need to wait for them to dry... Slap em on your DA with no product... turn that thing all the way up to 6, watch the water fly off... apply product, ready to go!! Have been doing that with mine, works like a charm
 
ChevyFan said:
Only have 2 pads... no problem... after you clean them no need to wait for them to dry... Slap em on your DA with no product... turn that thing all the way up to 6, watch the water fly off... apply product, ready to go!! Have been doing that with mine, works like a charm



Hmmm... I never thought about that. I'll have to give that a try sometime.
 
Hi all.



Here's a follow up question for y'all. I have been having great success with the D300, and I've been able to a pretty good level of correction, which is awesome. I really love the product and MF pads.



Does anyone have any tips or tricks to get a little higher level of correction. I think my car is a little stubborn. It's a 1997, and there are a few things that refuse to come out.



I've heard things like running D300 with a little M105, or lightly misting the pad or surface with water to bring out some more polish off the pads. Does anyone have any other tips or could go into more details about these two tricks?



Thanks in advance!
 
darkonion said:
Hi all.



Here's a follow up question for y'all. I have been having great success with the D300, and I've been able to a pretty good level of correction, which is awesome. I really love the product and MF pads.



Does anyone have any tips or tricks to get a little higher level of correction. I think my car is a little stubborn. It's a 1997, and there are a few things that refuse to come out.



I've heard things like running D300 with a little M105, or lightly misting the pad or surface with water to bring out some more polish off the pads. Does anyone have any other tips or could go into more details about these two tricks?



Thanks in advance!



Sometimes it's best to leave stuff like that alone. I think there's quite a few of us that have some rather deep scratches and have just accepted the fact that they're in there a bit too deep to comfortably remove. If you're going to be polishing your vehicle on a semi regular basis, keep in mind that you're thinning out the clear coat every time you do it. Is it really worth going after the deep stuff? Something only you can answer. :)



I think it's wonderful that Megs (and several other companies, like Optimum) have made it possible for pretty much anyone with a DA to do serious paint correction and polishing. But... I'm a bit concerned over how easy it has become to remove clear coat. Really, a vehicle should only need to be polished *one time*, then properly maintained (washed) so that it never needs to be polished again. If that's your plan (polish once, then maintain it), I wouldn't have a problem with going a bit deeper. But OTOH if you're going to be doing a yearly or semi-yearly polishing, you might want to consider putting up with the deeper stuff so you don't end up over thinning your clear over time.
 
Good point, and I certainly do agree with your points. I am trying to think of when the last time I've done some heavy correction on the car. I know it's been awhile. And it's also white... do diminishing marginal return is even more evident. Usually, I'll just wash and wax and call it a day. Kind of lazy... :P
 
If you need more cut you can prime with D300, then work with M105 if you want dust minimized and you want that great finish M105 and D300 both provide with the MF discs.
 
ChevyFan said:
Only have 2 pads... no problem... after you clean them no need to wait for them to dry... Slap em on your DA with no product... turn that thing all the way up to 6, watch the water fly off... apply product, ready to go!! Have been doing that with mine, works like a charm



Be careful with high speeds with no load on the M/F pads. Some of them are prone to go sailing off into the sunset.Don't ask me how I know. Megs has had a few bad batches and some seem to take more abuse then others. I have had good luck with the machine turned off and just the flow of air from the compressor to spin and clean. After cleaning in that manner try a small (tiny) spritz of water on the pad or panel and you will be suprised what is still left on the pad and the cut it can still produce.
 
autoaesthetica said:
If you need more cut you can prime with D300, then work with M105 if you want dust minimized and you want that great finish M105 and D300 both provide with the MF discs.



Interesting. So... lightly prime the pad with D300, and then work with the M105 on top of the D300? I'll have to try that.



When I was working on my car, I've tried a mix of the two. I don't really prime because I find I put way too much product. What I did was put 4 dime size drops of D300 and one dime size drop of M105. Seems like they played relatively nice.
 
Also, keep in mind what SMAT (non diminishing abrasives) do:



They have the same amount of cut by themselves(changing with application and/or pressure) no matter where they are.



So, by this we know that D300 will cut on a pad as long as that D300 can contact the paint - we can change this by changing the machine, the pad, the pressure or all 3 AND if the pad gets clogged(exhausted paint etc) we know that will reduce its relative cut.



SO : prime with D300, because we know D300 has a really nice work time, is easy to use and will dust less than 105 on an open celled foam. Then all you need to do is use M105 on the pad as a "D300" sub - you get the benefits of both.



For reference, when I work like this, I prime (with whatever)(because its gonna cut, period) then I just use 2 Dots, slightly larger than pea size for a 18inx18in section. Any more (for me) and it clogs to high heaven making it a pain to clean quickly.
 
autoaesthetica said:
Also, keep in mind what SMAT (non diminishing abrasives) do:



They have the same amount of cut by themselves(changing with application and/or pressure) no matter where they are.



So, by this we know that D300 will cut on a pad as long as that D300 can contact the paint - we can change this by changing the machine, the pad, the pressure or all 3 AND if the pad gets clogged(exhausted paint etc) we know that will reduce its relative cut.



SO : prime with D300, because we know D300 has a really nice work time, is easy to use and will dust less than 105 on an open celled foam. Then all you need to do is use M105 on the pad as a "D300" sub - you get the benefits of both.



For reference, when I work like this, I prime (with whatever)(because its gonna cut, period) then I just use 2 Dots, slightly larger than pea size for a 18inx18in section. Any more (for me) and it clogs to high heaven making it a pain to clean quickly.



Cool. I think I got the idea. It does make some sense. I'll have to play with it when the weather is a little nicer. (Currently raining in my part of town.)
 
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