Makita polishing...
 

Just a short video of me polishing a panel on a Jetta during my last detail job... I was using Meg's #95 polish with Lake Country purple foamed-wool pad...

YouTube - Makita polishing with Meg's #95 and LC PFW

Ivan, nice job, you really worked that in for quite a while, I think that's the true key to paint correction is having the patience to thoroughly work in and break down the polish.

For anyone watching this video, if you notice at the begin the polish was thick and whitish and as he worked it in it became more and more clear, that is a sign that the polish is breaking down and doing what it's designed to do.

What would be great is to see a before shot in the video with some bright halogens and then see the after pics from the same angle and lighting to see the full correction.

Again, nice job.
Josh

Thanks Josh. While the swirls were pretty deep, they weren't all over the place... I have another video with the halogens but in the video you don't see much difference, if any, before/after... plus, in the other video, it was where my makita power cord screwed up, so the video was about 2 minutes of polishing then 2 minutes of me saying wtff, you damn fkin machine, etc. haha... it was 1am and I was detailing the car for about 7 hours straight before than, then my polisher fails haha... not a good sign

In any case, I will have my g/f's sister's camera for another week so I'll be recording some more videos... if anyone here has any suggestions please just post them or contact me via PM or e-mail... I'm planning on doing videos of pretty much every aspect of the detailing process, simply because when I was a newb a few years ago (still am in some regard haha) I only found non-informative videos of polishing and not much more... things haven't changed much so I'm going to record as much content as possible and just edit it... I was considering sticking the camera in the corner of my garage and recording a detail from start to finish, but idk if it can handle 7-8 hours straight recording.. we'll see

Forgot to mention... you're completely right about working the polish until properly broken down... I could've done at least 1 more pass at 1200 after 1500 but, and I'm not encouraging this, what I always do, especially with more aggressive polishes, is work the polish where I feel it's enough but also try to do it as fast as possible... basically I'm always experimenting with working time of polishes and what results it will produce... everyone knows that if you work it too long you'll start dry buffing and marr the paint, and if you work it for too short, you won't do much to the defects and residue will be at least 2x harder to remove... I simply try to find the point that's still within that middle area where the polish does work great, but the point to which I can get faster... I hope that makes sense haha I'm in a hurry

Seeing as how many polishes (at least the ones I usually have worked with) become "finer" as they break down, would this technique not compromise the finish & result in a potential increased likelihood of marring during the removal/buffing process?

I'm not sure if I'm reading too far into it, or if the products/technique you use affect it, but I'm curious ;).

Cheers

Tom

P.S. - Great video; I enjoyed watching you work the polish so thoroughly (man... how sad is that? :D). Looking forward to seeing more stuff from you - Moe's invitations were very well-placed in all of you.

I mentioned I do this mainly with aggressive polishes, when I know I'll follow up any inconsistencies with a finer one afterwards... also, as I mentioned above, I'm not necessarily not letting the polish break down, rather stopping as early as possible... I'm not going to sit here and lie that I can clearly see when that is, I can't... I can tell when I've thoroughly worked it in, but I cannot see when it's 'just' enough... you know what I mean?

Let me say this as well.. I started this 'method' when I was a newb with the rotary, because I noticed that I would always get a better finish when not working the polish long enough as opposed to working it too long... the only downside to not working it long enough is defects aren't removed as much as they should be, and sometimes residue will stay sticky and a little harder to remove... however, working the polish too long produces dry buffing, HOT paint, marring, etc... over the years I've obviously learned more and more about, and for a while now I feel I've been working polishes in pretty well, such as in the video, so these days the experimenting of stopping 'early' is simply for time saving efforts... the finish isn't compromised in any way because I know I will get the best finish I can possibly get, even if it means adding time to fix the experimenting of trying to save time haha.. as anything in detailing, it's all about trying different things and seeing what works best... I hope this answers your question thoroughly... I will stick by what I said as far as a newbie with a rotary should better work it in less than too long...

Each polish, and each car's paint, requires its own technique. As long as your results are consistent, that's all that matters. You look like you've got your technique down Ivan. Thanks for sharing the video.

Very true... sometimes the same year, make and model cars will have varying levels of paint hardness

Yup. The hardest paint i've come across is on the BMW Alpina B7. Short of wetsanding, forget about anything else.

I never came across anything like that and I hope I never do haha... worst were a few Audis that needed a a 5-6 step correction and 2-3 of those being something like PG or more abrasive.