Detailing/polishing. What is your kit?

What do you use? I had a costco type polisher but it died, and I wanted a better one anyway. Was thinking the Griot's garage dual action polisher, or maybe the porter cable. I like Meguiars, so probably would stay with some rubbing compound and polishing compound from them, and have some left over paste wax to use up before getting liquid stuff.

Was going to go for Leatherique for the leather.

What do you car guys prefer?
 
Oh, cars...

I'm out.
As lang as my Kids don't learns how to not Spill shit , stuff trash into the magazine pouchs and my wife doesn't either, I could not give a shit what it looks like on the outside.
 
Depends on what your goal is and your budget.

For the typical person, you're better off just taking it to a professional detailer for a correction & coating (opticoat/gloss, CQuartz, etc) then picking up the gear for two bucket wash or rinseless/gary dean style wash to keep it swirl free from that point forward.
 
For serious polishing I have a polisher that I use with Meguiar's.

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More often than not it's a random orbit polisher.
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Depends on what your goal is and your budget.

For the typical person, you're better off just taking it to a professional detailer for a correction & coating (opticoat/gloss, CQuartz, etc) then picking up the gear for two bucket wash or rinseless/gary dean style wash to keep it swirl free from that point forward.

I can be a slob and not do anything for a long time, but when I decide to do it, I am not typical. I used to do 3 steps (not counting washing and other area specific clean up) with Meguiars, compound, polish, and paste wax. I still have two tins of that wax. My goals are, after getting a decent detail on my new to me Passat (dark blue, some typical scratches for a 10 year old car, some swirling) from a client who wants to work off his bill, keep that car up, and also keep up my wife's suby which is in pretty decent shape. No particular correction needed. By keep up, I mean to a good 5 footer standard. None of our cars are show cars. I also will do some correction (cleaning up some staining, taking care of some old oxidation) on my old alfa, to buff it up for sale only. Whoever buys it will probably do a complete paint job. I don't think I will have it painted myself as the person who buys it can then decide if they want to stay stock color, or do something different. The family truckster suburban with various dings, etc. from kid use will just get basic polish and wax for protection. I may not even use Meguiars there but just get a one step polish like Nufinish and put some wax on.

For serious polishing I have a polisher that I use with Meguiar's.

31RLp4rdrVL.jpg
IMG_0898.JPG


More often than not it's a random orbit polisher.
mjGd4m7AbgJRMvFZcSlTsvw.jpg

My old buffer was like that red one. Some Costco version. I am getting a dual action one from Griot's garage,



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and getting Meguiar's consumer equivlents to the 105 and 205 (Ultimate Compound and Ultimate Polish) as it is less expensive and according to the Meguiar's guy (Mike) on the Meguiar's forum, a bit easier for the home garage guy to work with. Will probably get an intermediate polish that is less aggressive than the Ultimate and more corrective than the finish polish, something like Meg's SwirlX for areas that do not need so much correction. There may be a couple scratches on the Passat that need some touch up paint (i can feel them with my finger nail), but I will see how motivated I am to go that far after I see how it comes out with a good detail. But given that you can't get everything out at once without being super aggressive, I want to be able to do some follow up polishing, etc.

I am getting Griot's orange corrective pads, a black finishing pad and a red waxing pad. May get a smaller backing plate and smaller pads too, but may just do areas that need smaller pads such as C pillars by hand. There are not that many on the passat and suby.

Just now learning about clay bars, two bucket washing, and other paint prep prior to polishing. I guess once I get this all done, I will get some of that stuff too to clean better without creating more problems.
 
nufinish has no abrasive content, it's a sealant w/ some moderate filling ability to hide swirls so there's no need to top it with a wax.

Your kinda thinking about the process kinda sideways; you don't really need anything more than UC and UP (course, then something to seal/wax/protect). With UC/UP, or 105/205, a selection of pads and some knowledge, you can pretty much take on any vehicle. Correction is all about the combination of polish, pad and technique. You'll need a few small pads for hand application where the DA doesn't reach, like door sils, etc. Figure 4 of each type of pad for your typical small-midsize sedan but you'll probably want at least 6, if not 8, for a surburban sized vehicle. You can certainly do C-pillars by machine w/ standard pads...in fact the goal is to do everything you can by machine to minimize the laborious hand polishing. I'm not familiar w/ griots pad colors but my usual approach is to have cutting pads, polishing pads & wax pads. By varying pad, polish and technique, you can find the least aggressive combination that yields the results you want on a specific car. Not to say that the way I do things is the only way to skin a cat.....

For me, a typical process to prep for polishing would be wash, decon w/ clay/nanoskin & occasionally ironx, wash, tape, polish (1 step or 2), de-tape, wipe down to remove polishing oils, wax/seal/coat. But, there's no point in doing all that work, polishing a car just to induce more defects with poor washing and drying techniques
 
I am a fan of Meguiars and Turtle Wax products.
I buy whatever is on sale to shine up the wheels/tires.


I don't use an orbital polisher, though.....I don't care that much.
 
nufinish has no abrasive content, it's a sealant w/ some moderate filling ability to hide swirls so there's no need to top it with a wax.

Your kinda thinking about the process kinda sideways; you don't really need anything more than UC and UP (course, then something to seal/wax/protect). With UC/UP, or 105/205, a selection of pads and some knowledge, you can pretty much take on any vehicle. Correction is all about the combination of polish, pad and technique. You'll need a few small pads for hand application where the DA doesn't reach, like door sils, etc. Figure 4 of each type of pad for your typical small-midsize sedan but you'll probably want at least 6, if not 8, for a surburban sized vehicle. You can certainly do C-pillars by machine w/ standard pads...in fact the goal is to do everything you can by machine to minimize the laborious hand polishing. I'm not familiar w/ griots pad colors but my usual approach is to have cutting pads, polishing pads & wax pads. By varying pad, polish and technique, you can find the least aggressive combination that yields the results you want on a specific car. Not to say that the way I do things is the only way to skin a cat.....

For me, a typical process to prep for polishing would be wash, decon w/ clay/nanoskin & occasionally ironx, wash, tape, polish (1 step or 2), de-tape, wipe down to remove polishing oils, wax/seal/coat. But, there's no point in doing all that work, polishing a car just to induce more defects with poor washing and drying techniques

Thanks. That helps a lot. I am just out of date with this stuff. When I paid more attention to proper washing/waxing, I did not yet have kids, or at least they were very young. Stuff like that fell to the wayside a long time ago. Now that I am getting a nicer car with pretty dark blue metallic paint, I want to do a better job. But it is amazing how much things have changed, unless I was just a bit ignorant a long time ago. :wink: I will get one of those bucket strainer/platform things, and have two buckets for washing now. At least I have known all along not to use dish soap. :grin: And I will have to get a few more pads. I have three of the Griots Orange correcting pads, one black finish pad, and one red waxing pad. Will have to get a couple more of the black and red at least. Thanks for the tips!

EDIT: as far as the Suburban goes, I will probably just use a one step, and hit any real bad spots that bug me with UC, but nu finish is probably not the one step. I might get a gallon of the Meguiars d151 which is pretty cheap by the gallon, and just use it and skip the paste wax on that beast. it is truly a family truckster and does not need a three step process.
 
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