polishing boats/cars/trucks shortcut

[RickK]

I'm not sure what polish out there is condered the best now,..seems that every year a new crop come up saying they beat all the others,..lately I've used liquid glass,or zymol,..but whatever,..one great way of polishing your ,....whatever... is to of course wash it then to use a electric pad sander and put on a terrycloth "pad" on it and wet it well with your polish,..then put dabs on the surface say every few feet or so and use the electric pad sander to rub the polish into the paint,..Its SO much faster than doing it by hand,...and I think does a better job. use a dry towel to take off the haze and it looks beautiful and you are on your way to do fishing instead of spending all day polishing your baby. Try it once and you will never go back to hand polishing. Hard to spend over 20 minutes on a large car.

[Pitts]

I use pledge on my fiberglass boat and that keeps it looking new. I have windsheild polish for the windscreens and I have a plastic polish for a dremel that will take out the scratches that occur.
I will have to try the sander deal or maybe just get the power polisher kit sold with an orbital buffer.
Thanks for the info.


Pitts

[eek]

Be careful using a sander to polish any kind of late model paint. Usually they turn to many RPM, and can burn the paint bad if you don't have a very light touch. For waxing, a random orbit waxer is much easier to use and does a very good job, but quickly. You are better off if you change the terry cloth pad a couple of times when doing a full size vehicle. At least remove it and soak it in a bucket of clean warm water several times. If you want to buff late model paint, it is best to use a dedicated buffer like Milwaukee makes and a very fine compound like 3-M Finness-it II. Then wash and wax. Remember to clean the pad often and overlap slightly during each pass.

eek

[RickK]

Eek,I 've never had a problem with a burn,..remember the RPMs have a very small "throw" and many do it in tiny orbits,..(used for fine sanding of wood etc) Did you catch that it was a PAD sander not an orbital one? I know about burns,..in my younger days I worked in a auto dealer (large 3000 cars a year) and often they would send me to help out with the car preparers,..and those guys took away the electric rotary tools at the time cause I burned a few spots,.long time before they trusted me to try it again. If you use just a fair amt of polish,I don't think its possible,...I doubt it you could even if the polish is sparse,the terrycloth as long as the car surface is clean the pad sander doesn't have that much movement activity,...,..I have used a random orbital tool made for car polishing and can see no difference. Used it on some fine finishes too w/o any problems,....

[whitetips]

I can recommend a product that a saleman will be able to supply to us,
I will be working with NPAA to try and make it available to the members program and maybe on this site too by the case or can, its an Industrial Supply, Sprayway Brand, in aerosol, safe for the envrn,
great for cars and trucks with the waxes, bug and tar remover,
and a fiberglass wax also, this is a project for the summer, keep in touch with the site.

[Brian_MN]

I can second your recommendation for using a pad sander for fine polishing. I had a pair of wave wackers that were badly scratched and hazy from a cover that flopped around too much. I used Novus plastic polish on a Black & Decker Mouse sander to polish them out, and did the job in about 10 minutes. It would have taken at least two hours to do it by hand. The Wackers looked better than new! Since, I've used it on my windshields, and on some scuffs on my motor from my brother sitting on it. He thinks it's cool to sit on the motor and bomb shorelines with cranks while I'm jigging. Now I don't worry about how to get out the scuffs he leaves behind. Just make sure you've got enough thickness of good soft terry cloth, or bits of old t-shirt, soaked with plenty of polish.

[BlackSilver]

You can have a good wax job, or you can have an easy wax job, but you can't have both at the same time.

For a GOOD wax job, use Zaino's. Z18 clay first (you can skip this if your vehicle/boat is almost new with no embedded contamination of the paint), then Z1 pre-cleaner and conditioner, then at least 3 applications of Z2 or Z3.

If done right, this will take you all day Saturday. But you won't need to do it again until next year.

SET the hook!!!

Hans/MN

[ufda]

Now I know what my wife meant when I asked her where she kept the rags and she replied,"in your underwear drawer".

[BlackSilver]

Underwear often is a blend of cotton and polyester.

Polyester is what puts all those microscopic 'swirl' marks in your clear-coat paint. Go to Target/Walmart/Where-ever and look for 100%-COTTON bath towels, made in USA (apparently 100% is not always 100% in offshore mfg). They'll be spendier than other brands, but your paint job will stay factory-bright.

Then WASH these towels after each time you use them. You want them nice and fluffy, not full of residue from your last wax job.

SET the hook!!!

Hans/MN

[fishinguy]

Wow! this works really well! Just Did my car in about 15 minutes much better than I ever have by hand! Good tip!!!!

[Chris]

Ditto!!!! I did one car yesterday,.will to the wifes and daughter's car this weekend, I can't see that it look look better! really easy and superfast!