Hi Folks, So on the weekend, I brought my first machine polisher from my local shop. It's a Flex XC3401VRG. It came in a kit with some Sholl S3 Gold and S30 and a bunch of pads etc. To have a go, I decided to attack my wifes car first, it's a 2004 Golf which I hope is not too far gone. So I washed the car quickly, just using Polish Angle Aqua as it was all I had on hand. This was more just to take as much dirt off as I could before I started. I then skimmed through the manual, picked out the Orange pad and pre-loaded it with S3 compound and masked up 1/4 of the bonnet/hood. I set the speed to 2 and set to work. I quickly realized that I should have used less S3 when it sprayed everywhere, but that aside quite quickly some of the list scratches in the paint started disappearing. So I was getting excited at this point. But then when I hit a from more spots from tree sap and bird poo, it didn't seem to help much. Obviously this wont repair stone chips or put paint back on the car, but I'm curious about some of these trouble spots, should I keep going ? go faster ? or just accept there are some limitations to what can be achieved. PS. Wanted to add a picture, but it wont let me, any hints ?
Sounds like you skipped a very important step and that's paint decontamination. Using a clay bar and/or chemical decontamination remover like iron out will improve the paint slickness, remove above surface contaminants that will get lodged in your buffing pad while polishing etc. road tar and other contaminants on the paint can also be removed with solvents like stoners tarminator before polishing. Look into this first before polishing the car again. Make sure you get all the dirt off the car too not just as much as you could.
