What Pads to use with Menzerna Polishes?

ScoobyDrew06

New member
Right now I have Sonus DAS Orange, Green, And Blue pads, the cheap ones that come with the sonus PC kit. I have tried to use the Menzerna Intensive Polish with the orange pad on my girlfriends jetta with dark blue paint and heavy swirls, this got out very light scratches but the deeper swirls were still there. Should I be using a heavier pad to try and get rid of the swirls? I'm pretty sure I have the technique down, I was working in small areas with plenty of polish going side to side and up to down and repeating this until the polish started to dry.



I followed up with the final polish II on the green pad, should I have used the blue?



also should I be using AIO after all this to clean all the polish residue off? or before all this to clean the paint before the polishing.



I will also be trying to remove the dealer installed swirls on my aspen white subaru, and was wondering what pad I should use on that since suby's have very soft paint.



Thanks in advance for you help.
 
From what I read the VWs have pretty hard clear. So you need to crank up the PC to 6 and apply lots of pressure w/ very slow passes. This still might not get everthing out.
 
I've had good results with the Sonus SFX pads in conjunction with Menzerna IP and FPII. I like the following combinations:



IP w/ 4in White polishing pad or 6in Yellow cutting pad

FPII w/ 6in White Polishing pad or 6in Blue Finishing Pad





On black paint I've found I have to use the 6in Blue finishing pad with FPII to get the look I want. On lighter colors the 6in white pad seems to do fine.



From what I can tell:

SFX Yellow = DAS Orange

SFX White = DAS Green

SFX Blue = DAS Blue





On the heavier swrils, like the Jetta you speak about, you might want to give the 4in pads a try. I was very surprised how well they worked when I tried them in conjuction with IP.
 
MichaelM said:
The PC is a finishing tool, you may never get out deeper marring.



You'd be surprised what I've removed with a PC.



On the other hand, after switching to a rotary, I don't think I could ever go back to soley PC work.
 
ScubaStevo said:
You'd be surprised what I've removed with a PC.



It still wouldn't change my opinion. Using a PC to do corection work is like the guy from "Shawshank Redemption" using a rock hammer to dig through the concrete walls to escape. Sure you can make it work, to an extent, but it lacks, um, balls.
 
ScoobyDrew06 said:
Someone here must use menzerna with a PC....i just want to know what pads they are using.





Well allow me to give you my thoughts on what I have used. I do like the Sonus green with 85rd , 106ff, IP and fpII. my current favorite is the pads from Patrick at excel p2's. have used the green , orange and yellow with great results. use 4inch pads from LC and they are quite nice. they hold up well and apply product evenly. the above pads get my vote, they clean and rinse very easy and dry quickly, which is a bonus. looking at Excel Detail I saw the Erasure pads , wonder if anybody has tried them yet ? hope this helped.
 
ScoobyDrew06 said:
Someone here must use menzerna with a PC....i just want to know what pads they are using.



The PC can remove deeper swirls...it just takes a lot longer. However, if you want to remove most of the deeper swirls, you'll need to turn it into a three or four step process.



First start off with a carefully chosen heavy compund and cutting pad (like Menzerna PG, HiTemp Extreme Cut, Optimum Hyper Compound). Next you can follow with the IP you already have (be sure to mix in about 20% Clearkote Red Mouse Machine Glaze with PG and IP to increase working time, reduce dust, and make it easier to remove product from the paint). After this, you ought to be able to finish with a real thorough application of a finishing polish like OP, FPII, or PO106FF (my favorite).



If the swirls aren't coming out right away, you can repeat the first compounding step a couple times if necessary (and if patience allows).



Good luck.
 
MichaelM said:
It still wouldn't change my opinion. Using a PC to do corection work is like the guy from "Shawshank Redemption" using a rock hammer to dig through the concrete walls to escape. Sure you can make it work, to an extent, but it lacks, um, balls.



Unfortunately, a lot of people have a bad taste in their mouth regarding the rotary because of the unskilled "hacks" at dealerships and bodyshops that consistently do shotty work...leaving halograms and burnt edges in their wake.



I've never been one to "preach" to people about getting a rotary as I don't want to offend anyone, but I really think that people who are in this gig for the long haul need to get one - it is much much faster and really is quite easy to use after you get the hang of it (I've never had anyone ever tell me it was harder than they expected...to the contrary, everyone has always told me how easy it is). Not only is the rotary faster, but for final finish work, the results are unmistakably better (whenever I go from a rotary to a PC on a dark color, I actually see the surface quality/clarity decrease). I used to be a 50/50 guy, and then I was more of a 90/10 guy, using the PC for finishing work on dark colors, but because of the "clarity" issue and my slowly acquired ability to finish down halogram-free on any paint, I don't see myself using the PC any more (unless we can develop a better DA polish for final finishing on black).



So there it is, my one and only rotary sermon.
 
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