Machine polished Rado

[David Winter 0]

Hi guys.

My Corrado has been running well recently and after seeing a thread on here on machine polishing the paint I decided to try. The paint on my car was sound but suffering from deep swirls and light scratches looking quite ropey really. I bought a machine polisher from Halfords and the Meguirers 3 step polishes. I used T-cut on the polisher for the harshest and most trashed area (the bonnet),caution must be used obviously. Then machine polished with step1 and 2 and hand polished with the step 3 wax. Im staggered with the results. It really has transformed the paint. I was thinking I would need to get the bonnet sprayed so am well pleased. 8) Carefull car washing should see this new finish last hopefully.Corrado92.pdfpolish.jpg[/attachment:96lafxpl]

[moneypit23 0]

That looks great! I'm definitely going to use the one i bought last year and never used. I've got the Meguiars 3 step stuff as well, hopefully it won't take the 7-8 hours it took by hand.

[stevef182 0]

looks very nice indeed..

do you mind me asking how much you paid for the machine polisher???

[David Winter 0]

The polisher was £29.99 from Halfords. Comes with 2 buffers which are washerble. One being finer than the other. This is a mains 240v one. They do a smaller cheaper one which is £19 but is 12v for the cigarette socket.

[Yandards 0]

Good job, the real art is to ensure you dont get any buffer trails when you are finished and is very hard to achieve.

 

Worth going over the rear light clusters, will bring them up nicely.

[CrazyDave 0]

Nice work David, the megs polish really does the trick.

 

Don't forget if you want to give the Dodo Juice wax a try give me a shout, I couldn't believe how much of a difference it made even after a good machine polish.

 

I tried polishing out the small amounts of overspray that we looked at on my car, it all came off a treat and now looks really great, cheers for the tip :)

[herisites 0]

Looks good. Although i cant see the machine making all that difference with those choices of polish.

 

Machine polishers are meant to be used with an abrasive polish that breaks down as it heats up which is what takes out oxidation, swirls and scratches from the paint. These are the problems i see:

 

1. The megs step 1 is a paint cleaner, its designed to chemically remove bonded contaminants and oxidation from the paint. Its a great product and does do a great job of restoring tired looking paint on its own, but as its not abrasive the machine wouldn't have made a difference, just applied it quicker.

 

2. The megs step 2 although is called a 'Polish' isn't actually a polish. A polish is abrasive which is why its used to bring the paint up to former glory. The megs step 2 contains no abrasives so is actually just a glaze, which is a product that sits on top of the paint looking pretty really.

 

So although you got great results, the machine has only really helped in speeding up the process of applying the products.

 

However wherever you used T-Cut with the machine, that would actually cut the paint as T-Cut is abrasive, although not the greatest product to use imo :?

 

But all the same, car looks great so you should be very happy with the results :) im just a cleaning geek so thought i would say thats all :lol:

[David Winter 0]

Like I said. I used T-cut as a cutting paste on the bonnet which I know is not the best thing to use but if careful works. I used this on the very badly swirled bonnet. It has not eliminated everything but is so much better than it was.

[Traverse 0]

Looks pretty good...

 

It was a beautiful spring day and I really wish I had mine running :(

[Guest]

I use the Meguiars 3 stage polish system on both my cars, as said the paint cleaner just does that, no abrasive, but i have to disagree with the above about no cut in the stage 2 polish, on a mettalic car you are only cutting laquer and polishing aclear finish, use the same polish on Flash Red paint (as i do on my sportline cab) and it cuts a fair bit of red onto the cloth i can assure you!! the stage 3 is purely a protecting and finishing carnubra wax which seals the paint after and gives it a longer lasting repelant finish and protection from water marks ets

 

I find it the Meguiars the best polish i have used to date, but do intend to get some of that dodo Juice purple haze (for blue and dark colours) when i have a spare £35 laying about that is :lol:

[ben16v 0]

scratch x and stage 3`d my car today came up lovely although am interested what polishes should be used? and what polisher you bought from halfrauds

[David Winter 0]

Nice work David, the megs polish really does the trick.

 

Don't forget if you want to give the Dodo Juice wax a try give me a shout, I couldn't believe how much of a difference it made even after a good machine polish.

 

I tried polishing out the small amounts of overspray that we looked at on my car, it all came off a treat and now looks really great, cheers for the tip :)

[David Winter 0]

Cheers Dave. Will have to take you up on that. The finish on your Vr is really glossy.

The picture of the polisher is for bens16v.

[ben16v 0]

cheers dude, your car looks like glass!

[Alexander 0]

I bought one of those machine polishers from Halfrauds and I've only used it once because it vibrates so much it's almost painful.

[David Winter 0]

I bought one of those machine polishers from Halfrauds and I've only used it once because it vibrates so much it's almost painful.

No pain No gain as they say :D In all honesty I found it ok. The handle is adjustable and its a lot less painfull than hand cuting and polishing.

[Alexander 0]

I should say I have pretty bad RSI in both wrists from typing/playing guitar/drumming so whatever I do with my hands results in pain. Not that I'm one to complain, you understand!

[Lufbramatt 0]

I got one of the orange silverline rotary polishers from toolstation.com and have to say ive been very impressed with it (although ive only done my bonnet and half of a scrap fiat uno to test it out lol) but the crappy paint on the fiat that hadnt been washed for about 5 years came out really good lol

 

cant wait till i get a nice dry day so i can do the rest of teh car, my roof really needs doing but need to take the roof rails off really as they get in the way.