Gave my PC random orbital polisher a test run last night... The test was on my beater, a '95 Geo Prizm.

I used a Lake Country green polishing pad with Meguiar's #83, followed it up with a white polishing pad (also Lake country) and Meguiar's #9 (swirl remover), then finished with Meguiar's Gold Wax and a black finishing pad.

There was heavy oxidation on the hood and the top of the car... The polisher tore through the oxidation with very little problem, the clear coat sparkles again, as if it were new.

However... when bright light or sunlight shines directly onto the paint...



(sorry for the quality... cell phone camera is all I have)

I see the tiny spider web swirls that I am trying to eliminate on my Z!

So what do you guys think I need to do differently? Stronger/weaker compound or stronger/weaker pad? More pressure during buffing? Longer buffing times? I don't really care about the finish of this car, but what would you reccomend I do to my Z to get rid of these identical swirl marks?

 

There is a little bit of technique required to do it properly or yes, you will leave polish swirl marks.

The following sites will teach you the basics to PC polishing:
http://forums.roadfly.com/forums/det...1430487&page=1
http://autopia.org/forum/showthread.php?t=14421
http://www.roadfly.com/magazine/7/po..._buffer.1.html

A couple of the thing I first learned is that 1) you can use the same towels to remove the polish from one step to another or you will introduce some of the coarse polish from the previous step to the current one.

2) it's not a case of how much time you spend doing it, it's how much you work the product. If you put too much on the pad, you're going to have to work it a long time.

3) Pressure is not that important, let the weight of the machine do most of the work. As you get to the finer polishes (SMR), then you may want to lighten up some.


If your beater was in real bad shape, you may not have done enough to remove the oxidation and scratches initially. When you finally got down the to finishing polish, there might have been scratches left that were just too big to remove with the last step's product. That is the danger is trying to learn on a beater, if it is in such bad condition, a newbie with a PC just won't be able to make it appear "perfect" like you hope to make you Z look like.

 

So would you suggest a start with the Meguiar's #83 on the Z, or the #9? (#83 being stronger cutting power).

I followed all those tutorial's techniques for the amount of product used... and I did use seperate microfiber towels for every level. I am still very impressed with the result on my first time, I'm just worried that I will accomplish nothing when I attempt it on my Z.

Thanks for the help.

 

I'm not familiar with the various Meguiars formulas, so I can't say whether or not the #83 is the proper starting place. A lot of that depends on the paint surface of your Z.

If you have scratches or other blemishes, then you want to start with a fine compound to see if that removes them or not. If it won't remove them, then you will need to go to a medium compound. Once you have worked up to the product that removes the problem, then you start working back down the products thru successively finer compounds. Each finer compound removes the marks left behind by the previous one.

If all you have on your surface is some swirl marks, then start with the polish made for swirl mark removal (the #9?) and see what you can do with that. In most cases, that is all that required. You may have to use a fine or medium compound on tough spots or blemishes, but only in a small area. There's no use attacking the whole car with an abrasive compound if only a few small areas need it.

 

#83 then onto #80...I believe the old #7 and #9 were developed more for old single stage paint (non-clearcoat)...work both 83 & 80 until you can barely see them any more...and megs website does recommend applying some pressure when using pc