SK-R's NHB EP3 Journal
- Thread starter SK-R
- Start date
- Messages
- 1,093
Comes up a treat. Can you please do a detailed how to on your polishing technique?
Thank you guys.
And yes Flashy I will do a proper guide on it once the Ceramic Coating is on too and detail all the steps with pictures and links for the products.
I have also found a new critical step to restore headlights, which I was missing before hence why they would start to go cloudy or show marks after a few months again. Will post that too once I do mine.. (again) lol.
Tonight I hope to get some more bits sprayed, the skirts and car ceramic coated and also polish the door sills and fit the plastics back on.
Hazz
B16
- Messages
- 8,827
- Messages
- 2,229
Excellent, good man.
- Messages
- 1,093
Brand new OEM hangers mate. And thank you.
- Messages
- 1,093
As per request, here is a bit more detailed explanation of how I went about polishing the car. Before you begin, make sure you mask off all of the plastics, rubbers and glass to avoid damage.
Step 1 - Dry 1500
Go over the car with 1500 grit dry sandpaper. You need to be very careful with this as it is quite easy to strip the clear coat when approaching edges or difficult to reach places. If you have various size heads then I recommend using them or even rubbing by hand will work (just takes more time). This stages allows you to remove any imperfections such as clear coat runs or any bits that might have stuck onto the clear coat while drying.
Once you have gone over the entire car, give it wipe with a MF cloth to see your result. You should not be able to see any shiny spots, and if you do then run over them again till they are matte.
Step 2 - Wet 3000
Once you are done with the 1500 grit, it is time to move onto Wet 3000 grit sandpaper. This is one of the most important stages of this polishing process as it essentially refines the surface and makes the panels smooth to the touch again. Make sure you use plenty of water to lubricate the pad (it is easy to tell when it's lacking).
Again after you believe you have finished with a panel, give it a wipe down with your cloth and check for imperfections.
Step 3 - Wet 6000
Next us is the Wet 6000 grit sandpaper. You don't have to be very careful with this as it is EXTREMELY hard to mess anything up. Simply go around the panels while keeping it reasonably damp and things should start to gloss over after a wipe down. This is what starts to give a really smooth look and finish.
All of the above is done using an orbital dust-free sander. You can of course do this manually by hand but... It will take you a couple of weeks
Step 4 - Compound
After the entire car has had the 6000 treatment, you can now start to bring back that colour and get it shiny looking again. This stage isn't that difficult but it is quite messy. Make sure you have a clean cloth to go over the panels after you are done with them, and repeat over it if it is still hazy. The panels should be crystal clear after this stage. You can use something like 3M Perfect-it III Fast Cut Plus Compound or the Farecla G3 Premium.
Step 5 - High Gloss Polish
This stage will help remove the swirls or pig-tails as detailers call them, that are left behind after the compound stage. It is not messy and should ideally be done using a softer pad on your DA polisher. It also has UV protection too. You can use 3M Perfect-it III Ultrafina SE or equivalent for this.
Step 6 - Speed Wax
This is pretty self explanatory, essentially it is a faster curing Wax for your car. If you have the time for the conventional method, then do that but I chose to go over it with Scholl Concepts SW20 Premium Speed Wax. This was mainly due to the fact that the car was getting ceramic coated anyway so this didn't really matter that much.
Step 7 - Ceramic Coating (optional)
Normally when you get up to the above step, you can stop there and be fine for a very long time. However since I am probably never going to get another chance to do the above (or have the time for it) I decided to add ceramic coating and hydrophobic protection at the same time.
For this I used Gtechniq Crystal Serum Light and EXO V4. They are applied by hand using the lint free pads provided. Because you can easily mess this up, it is best to read up on the application instructions found here: https://gtechniq.com/products/auto/protect/exterior/paint/crystal-serum-light
It takes 12 hours to cure between products and you should always wipe off any excess material.
And this is pretty much it. You will feel great after as your car will look like new, if not better than new, until of course you get the inevitable stone chip or car park ding and swear to never go through this process again
Hope this was helpful
Step 1 - Dry 1500
Go over the car with 1500 grit dry sandpaper. You need to be very careful with this as it is quite easy to strip the clear coat when approaching edges or difficult to reach places. If you have various size heads then I recommend using them or even rubbing by hand will work (just takes more time). This stages allows you to remove any imperfections such as clear coat runs or any bits that might have stuck onto the clear coat while drying.
Once you have gone over the entire car, give it wipe with a MF cloth to see your result. You should not be able to see any shiny spots, and if you do then run over them again till they are matte.
Step 2 - Wet 3000
Once you are done with the 1500 grit, it is time to move onto Wet 3000 grit sandpaper. This is one of the most important stages of this polishing process as it essentially refines the surface and makes the panels smooth to the touch again. Make sure you use plenty of water to lubricate the pad (it is easy to tell when it's lacking).
Again after you believe you have finished with a panel, give it a wipe down with your cloth and check for imperfections.
Step 3 - Wet 6000
Next us is the Wet 6000 grit sandpaper. You don't have to be very careful with this as it is EXTREMELY hard to mess anything up. Simply go around the panels while keeping it reasonably damp and things should start to gloss over after a wipe down. This is what starts to give a really smooth look and finish.
All of the above is done using an orbital dust-free sander. You can of course do this manually by hand but... It will take you a couple of weeks
Step 4 - Compound
After the entire car has had the 6000 treatment, you can now start to bring back that colour and get it shiny looking again. This stage isn't that difficult but it is quite messy. Make sure you have a clean cloth to go over the panels after you are done with them, and repeat over it if it is still hazy. The panels should be crystal clear after this stage. You can use something like 3M Perfect-it III Fast Cut Plus Compound or the Farecla G3 Premium.
Step 5 - High Gloss Polish
This stage will help remove the swirls or pig-tails as detailers call them, that are left behind after the compound stage. It is not messy and should ideally be done using a softer pad on your DA polisher. It also has UV protection too. You can use 3M Perfect-it III Ultrafina SE or equivalent for this.
Step 6 - Speed Wax
This is pretty self explanatory, essentially it is a faster curing Wax for your car. If you have the time for the conventional method, then do that but I chose to go over it with Scholl Concepts SW20 Premium Speed Wax. This was mainly due to the fact that the car was getting ceramic coated anyway so this didn't really matter that much.
Step 7 - Ceramic Coating (optional)
Normally when you get up to the above step, you can stop there and be fine for a very long time. However since I am probably never going to get another chance to do the above (or have the time for it) I decided to add ceramic coating and hydrophobic protection at the same time.
For this I used Gtechniq Crystal Serum Light and EXO V4. They are applied by hand using the lint free pads provided. Because you can easily mess this up, it is best to read up on the application instructions found here: https://gtechniq.com/products/auto/protect/exterior/paint/crystal-serum-light
It takes 12 hours to cure between products and you should always wipe off any excess material.
And this is pretty much it. You will feel great after as your car will look like new, if not better than new, until of course you get the inevitable stone chip or car park ding and swear to never go through this process again
Hope this was helpful
- Messages
- 673
Useful information there.
I've only ever given my car a 2 stage polish to get rid of the majority of the swirls.
I'm not man enough to wet sand.
Trouble is my car is a daily and the paint is so soft that the perfect finish doesn't last.
If it was a weekend toy it would be great to chase perfection and wet sand it to get rid of the orange peel in the paint.
Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk
I've only ever given my car a 2 stage polish to get rid of the majority of the swirls.
I'm not man enough to wet sand.
Trouble is my car is a daily and the paint is so soft that the perfect finish doesn't last.
If it was a weekend toy it would be great to chase perfection and wet sand it to get rid of the orange peel in the paint.
Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk
- Messages
- 1,093
Yes, that is true. My car will also be a daily so the only way to preserve this "perfection" at least to some extent was to ceramic coat it. Otherwise, just as you said it will not last very long and you will start to notice swirls only a few months later.
That said, my car is the worst possible colour to try and keep perfect anyway. Silver/Grey are actually one of the easiest as it is very hard to notice dirt/swirls and even dents on those compared to black.
2 Stage polish + Wax is fine for 90% of the people out there and I would of done the same, had the car not been freshly resprayed and already in the booth which I rented for a week.
- Messages
- 1,093
I have been looking at the Alfa Romeo Quadrifoglio a lot lately, it is wayyyy out of my price range and definitely a "dream car" at this point but jesus the sound that thing makes, the looks and the decent performance is definitely impressive. I specced one up on their car configurator earlier this morning (yes, work is not that busy lol) and with most decent options ticked it came just shy of £72k.
Which makes me wonder, do people actually pay list price for cars of that nature?
Back when I had my M3, I spoke to a bloke who had just ordered a brand new M4, with ceramic brakes and the lot. He said sticker price ended up just shy of 80k but he paid 65k for it. How on earth does one get 15k discount?! lol
Which makes me wonder, do people actually pay list price for cars of that nature?
Back when I had my M3, I spoke to a bloke who had just ordered a brand new M4, with ceramic brakes and the lot. He said sticker price ended up just shy of 80k but he paid 65k for it. How on earth does one get 15k discount?! lol
C4Doc
Gamblor
- Messages
- 11,391
Finance. Lots of places offer deals.
Not the same scale but my mate has just bought a Qashqai (kid on the way). He got a cracking deal on finance with several thousand off, however if he has the cash (which he does) he can pay the finance off penalty free after 3 months.
He's essentially got a brand new car for less than they're selling 9 month old cars.