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Hi all, I recently purchased a '16 ES350 in Caviar and love the color but there are swirl marks on the hood, and a few small scratches around the vehicle that do not catch my fingernail. I plan to purchase the PC 7424XP as my first polisher, and have read a lot about Meguiar's M105 and M205 polishes. I would like to do a wash, clay, correction polish over the whole car and concentrate more aggressive correction on the scratches, then wipe down and put on a ceramic coat. Do the M105/205 still hold their own or is there a better option for paint correction polishes for our cars? Also, what pads should I get to use for any cutting or polishing?
I recently used these two products they worked well, the more aggressive polish I used with a yellow pad (can use with orange if you have deeper scratches) then a white pad to finish.
M105 is very aggressive don't use that unless the paint is extremely beat up, or use it on small sections not the entire car. BTW the best pads I've ever bought are Lake Country but they seem to be hard to find, those things have lasted me 8+ years on many, many cars. I have a couple of
Rule of thumb, use the least aggressive first then work your way up to more aggressive. I find on both my Lexus's one Caviar,one Stargazer that I get excellant results with a finishing polish. I just have to work it a little longer to achieve perfect results. An example of what I get using finishing polish only on a daily driver that hasn't been buffed in a year.
M105 is a very aggressive polish, basically a compound and can be difficult to work with especially for a beginner, it dries and cakes quickly. I would not recommend you getting it as your regular polish, m205 is a good finishing polish. If you want a Megs polish for polishing out swirls, that is easy to work with, not too aggressive then I highly recommend Meguiar’s DA Microfiber Correction Compound D300, it is a great polish, the name fools you a little because it is not really a full compound but gives close to compound results when you use it with aggressive Micro fiber pads but when you use it with orange foam pads it acts mainly like a good slightly more aggressive polish that can pretty much finish down to not needing a finishing polish. Another reliable great go to do just about everything polish is Menzerna PO91E Intensive Polish, I use it all the time, great polish, it does dust a lot but it is a great polish, they make very good products.
For pads I would look into Meguiar's DMC DA Microfiber Cutting Disc for the bad spots, they work great with the D300. Then I would get at least 3 or 4 orange foam pads, and 3 or 4 white foam pads. You will want two backing plates, one around 3 to 3 1/2 in for 4in pads for tighter sections, the other around 5 in for 5 1/2 to 6 in pads for larger sections. They make many different color pads for different jobs orange and white seems to be the best all in one pads for polishing and finishing and what I use the most.
Before you apply a ceramic coat make sure you get all the polishing oils off your finish, wash the car with dawn after you are done polishing, then you can use panel wipe right before you apply to make sure you got everything.
I would sign up for autotopia, auto geek, detailed image, they normally give sign up coupons and they have 20% sales all the time likely including 4th of July, that is where I would get the pads, Amazon seems to price the pads too high and they get pricey really quick when you start buying several, try to get all the pads when have the 20% off sales at Autotopia, Auto Geek, Detailed image.
Thank you all! Do you think I should do the entire car with a white pad and 205/v38 to remove the light swirls, and spot treat the smaller scratches with 105/v36? Would like to make this as easy as possible, but if the 2 step polish is recommended I'd like to do it now. There aren't very many actual swirl marks, more of a hologram look on the hood and front fenders.
For a single pass job I use a yellow pad and a medium to light polish works for most jobs. I've been meaning to give Menzerna a try but I have quite the stock of other polishes so waiting to use them up first. The car you're working with has fairly soft paint from what I've read, contrast that with my ES300 the clear on that car is very hard it takes a lot to scratch and by extension is harder to remove defects.
Thank you all! Do you think I should do the entire car with a white pad and 205/v38 to remove the light swirls, and spot treat the smaller scratches with 105/v36? Would like to make this as easy as possible, but if the 2 step polish is recommended I'd like to do it now. There aren't very many actual swirl marks, more of a hologram look on the hood and front fenders.
Thank you all! Do you think I should do the entire car with a white pad and 205/v38 to remove the light swirls, and spot treat the smaller scratches with 105/v36? Would like to make this as easy as possible, but if the 2 step polish is recommended I'd like to do it now. There aren't very many actual swirl marks, more of a hologram look on the hood and front fenders.
I white pad and finishing polish won't remove many scratches and swirls, it is not aggressive enough, it may appear to remove them but that is likely just the polish/oils temporarily filling them in, it is more of a finishing pad/polish to remove hazing, micro buffer swirls/trails from a more aggressive pad/polish. Get a powerful flashlight and shine it on your paint to reveal what really needs to be addressed, it is normally worse then you think. If you are doing a polish and then ceramic coating you want to try to get everything you can since the ceramic coating is going to "lock" any defects in for a couple years until it wear off. If you have bad scratches/swirls on one part of the car you likely will also have them on other parts too, I would recommend using a orange pad with a decent polish on the whole car, then determine if you want to do a finishing polish with a less aggressive pad after you wash it and get the polish residue off, look the whole car over with a strong flash light after each step.
Did you clay the car? You probably want to clay the car before you polish it especially if it has never been clayed before.
I think paint correction will be much more difficult with a PC 7424XP than with a forced rotation machine like a Flex 3401. I had a PC 7424XP and got rid of it pretty quickly because of the amount of time it took to get any decent results.
Rule of thumb, use the least aggressive first then work your way up to more aggressive. I find on both my Lexus's one Caviar,one Stargazer that I get excellant results with a finishing polish. I just have to work it a little longer to achieve perfect results. An example of what I get using finishing polish only on a daily driver that hasn't been buffed in a year.
Seeing this really makes me want to bust out the orbital and dedicate an afternoon to my Smoky Granite Mica GS... I've been going the lazy route this last year and just washing every few months, spraying on some Hydro2 every 6 months, and not doing any prep work; bad, I know.
Seeing this really makes me want to bust out the orbital and dedicate an afternoon to my Smoky Granite Mica GS...
I had a Smokey Granite Mica IS350. I LOVED that paint!! Loved the car, too.
I just polished my ES with 205 and orange pads to prep for a coating. It came out really well, and took out all of the new car swirls the dealer prep missed.
Thank you all! Do you think I should do the entire car with a white pad and 205/v38 to remove the light swirls, and spot treat the smaller scratches with 105/v36? Would like to make this as easy as possible, but if the 2 step polish is recommended I'd like to do it now. There aren't very many actual swirl marks, more of a hologram look on the hood and front fenders.
Always start least aggressive then progress.
I also prefer simple, so an All In One has always been the way for me. I got a dual action polisher and did not want to use multiple products, compound, polish, wax, etc and really preferred a single all in one. After looking at this review, I tried Blackfire One Step and I'm now a believer. Check this out from AGO...
06-30-19, 12:32 PM
DIY Swirl/Paint Correction
