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DA Polishers - Any Advice?

4K views 19 replies 9 participants last post by  Cabby 
#1 ·
I've had my The Jag over two years, and am feeling a bit guilty about the lack of TLC and it being outside near the sea all the time.

I am considering getting it polished and waxed, then thought about doing it myself with a DA Polisher.

There are lots of these - from £70 in Halfords to over £300 for the Meguiar's.

Is there a price/quality sweet spot? Which products to use with it? (M's Colour Restorer, polish and wax?)
 
#2 ·
Look I wouldnt, personally. I've had one and preferred doing it by hand as I was worried about damaging the clearcoat. I used it on one car and really didnt like it.

What is very low effort for detailing is to use a very mild clay with a decent clay lubricant - I use a Carpro Polyshave block with a decent clay lubricant (I use NV Purify), the a decent carnauba wax (I use polish Angel "Passion" on my red cars) followed by a spray on Wax (not silicone based which I find is staticky and attracts dust) - I use Polish Angel Rapidwaxx. That is a once a year thing that takes maybe a half a day although that includes a few hours here and there between coats, in actual work time it is probably 3/4 hour.
 
#4 ·
I bought a polisher several years back and found it to be cumbersome. It was meant as an amateur tool. The better more expensive ones are very good but they have to be used very carefully. My choice is elbow grease, 8 hour labour intensive. First I hose to get off the gritty bits, snow foam, wash again (two bucket method) rinse, dry and then use a clay mitt (Farcela) with a diluted wash wax for lubricant. Rinse again with a hose, dry with drying towels and then apply Autoglym Resin Polish. Buff off and apply Autoglym Extra Gloss protectant. That needs around 20 mins to cure before buffing off. Clean the windows on the car with Astonish window cleaner. Buff off the Extra Gloss protectant and stand back and admire the shine. Tyre dressing is applied with Meguirs tyre gel. I use and old sponge to apply it. That is my method. It does take time but the result is really good and the polish lasts about 4-6 months.( longer if you use Demon Shine at every interim wash.)
 
#5 ·
I have fancied one for years but not plucked up the courage to do it. On videos it looks easy, but I suspect that there is a skill/art to it. If you have a second car that's somewhat older, it might be worth "practicing" on this one first. The key, I think, Is to be very careful around the edges of the panels.
 
#6 ·
The polishers from Halfords etc aren't worth bothering with, they rattle themselves to bits after a while and are very basic for the money.

I bought a DAS6 dual action polisher kit from cleanyourcar.co.uk about 4 years ago for about £115, at the time. I phoned to ask which was the best kit for Jaguar paint and was recommended this one with the Sonax polish and pads.

I still apply and buff the final wax layer by hand, but the machine gets the surface like glass. Something I wish I'd bought years ago.
 
#7 ·
Fighterpilot said:
I bought a polisher several years back and found it to be cumbersome. It was meant as an amateur tool. The better more expensive ones are very good but they have to be used very carefully. My choice is elbow grease, 8 hour labour intensive. First I hose to get off the gritty bits, snow foam, wash again (two bucket method) rinse, dry and then use a clay mitt (Farcela) with a diluted wash wax for lubricant. Rinse again with a hose, dry with drying towels and then apply Autoglym Resin Polish. Buff off and apply Autoglym Extra Gloss protectant. That needs around 20 mins to cure before buffing off. Clean the windows on the car with Astonish window cleaner. Buff off the Extra Gloss protectant and stand back and admire the shine. Tyre dressing is applied with Meguirs tyre gel. I use and old sponge to apply it. That is my method. It does take time but the result is really good and the polish lasts about 4-6 months.( longer if you use Demon Shine at every interim wash.)
Your polishing regime with Autoglym Super Resin and then Extra Gloss Protectant is the same as the one I've used successfully on a number of cars I've owned over the years, both new and used and including my previous new XE. These treatments have kept the paint looking good for 10 years or more on some cars I've owned for a long time.
However, I seem to have come a bit of a cropper on my latest XE, and application of Super Resin Polish last Autumn has resulted in swirl marks all over. These aren't visible unless in bright sunshine, so this problem has been not been apparent to me until the (welcome) start of the Spring sunshine. These swirl marks are now really bugging me so I took the car to a Detailer who took a look and said yes, it's "marring" and quite common on Jaguars because of their unusually soft clear coat. The upshot is I've booked the car in for paint correction (which is very careful power buffing of the clear coat) and then ceramic coating - the latter being much harder than even the hardest clear coats. Supposedly, the car then will not need any polish or wax applied - just a wash and dry with microfiber towels.
I would therefore counsel extreme caution with polishing any new XE - especially one in a dark colour like mine, where swirl marks are more visible.
 
#8 ·
The super resin polish won't have caused the swirl marks. It will be grit during the wash & dry process or worse still during the polishing & buffing - a very unfortunate occurrence. I hope the paint correction brings it back so you are 100% satisfied with the results.
 
#9 ·
Temp is critical with polishes and coating. Most will apply in the sun and it bakes on and makes a shiny mess. The best time is very light cloud or no sun altogether witha temp around 16C. That is just enough to flash off the liquid. Also one panel at a time and no swirl polishing . It's better the do horizontal and vertical polishing with the Extra gloss.
 
#10 ·
Fighterpilot said:
Temp is critical with polishes and coating. Most will apply in the sun and it bakes on and makes a shiny mess. The best time is very light cloud or no sun altogether witha temp around 16C. That is just enough to flash off the liquid. Also one panel at a time and no swirl polishing . It's better the do horizontal and vertical polishing with the Extra gloss.
Good advice on the timing and weather forecasting there.
I'm going to fix my road rash, get those two products mentioned, and wait for an overcast Sunday. :)
 
#11 ·
I've looked into polishing by machine a few times and always backed off, I came to the conclusion it's best left to the pro's. I'm extremely careful cleaning my car (it's black - snow foam regime etc.) and however hard and careful you are there will always be some light 'marring' on the top coat, and out in the big scary wide world it will also pick up feint scratches - someone catching their coat on the paintwork as they walk between cars in a car park for example. It's easy enough to get a 'shiny' car these days but to get the light scratches/swirls out is much more difficult and it's not quite as easy as YouTube would have us believe.
 
#12 ·
UV Blue said:
I've looked into polishing by machine a few times and always backed off, I came to the conclusion it's best left to the pro's. I'm extremely careful cleaning my car (it's black - snow foam regime etc.) and however hard and careful you are there will always be some light 'marring' on the top coat, and out in the big scary wide world it will also pick up feint scratches - someone catching their coat on the paintwork as they walk between cars in a car park for example. It's easy enough to get a 'shiny' car these days but to get the light scratches/swirls out is much more difficult and it's not quite as easy as YouTube would have us believe.
Yes I agree, and that's why I've decided to get mine professionally paint corrected and then ceramic coated. The detailer will also replace the sill paint protection film that I applied myself from new - which has itself got damaged by flying stones. He'll then ceramic coat over the film which hopefully will prevent further damage to the film.
This work won't be cheap (around £600) but the detailer will need the car for 3 days so there's a lot of skilled labour involved. He's also not got a slot for me until early June, but I take his busy-ness as a good sign!
I'll report back with some pictures when it's done.
 
#13 ·
UV Blue said:
I've looked into polishing by machine a few times and always backed off, I came to the conclusion it's best left to the pro's. I'm extremely careful cleaning my car (it's black - snow foam regime etc.) and however hard and careful you are there will always be some light 'marring' on the top coat, and out in the big scary wide world it will also pick up feint scratches - someone catching their coat on the paintwork as they walk between cars in a car park for example. It's easy enough to get a 'shiny' car these days but to get the light scratches/swirls out is much more difficult and it's not quite as easy as YouTube would have us believe.
Have you tried using a DA? It's not that difficult if the preparation is thorough and you take your time to find the right pad and compound combination. The golden rule is start with the least aggressive combination as that removes the least paint. It takes time to do all the prep and polishing and the pads and compound cost soon mount up, but you'll have learnt a skill that is rewarding.
 
#14 ·
I've always been a great believer in DIY and have done most work on cars over the years, including rebuilding engines. Normally I've either been able to practice and perfect skills on things that don't matter too much if I get it wrong the first time, or whatever I got wrong was reasonably easy to remedy , albeit with maybe the need to buy additional replacement parts.
The problem with DIY paint correction on an expensive car is that you've only got the single chance to get it right and if you don't, and you've further damaged the paint, you've got a disaster with possibly a respray being the only remedy. That's too risky for me!
 
#15 ·
Yeah I had that experience using the Carpro cquartz product, although the main culprit was the dreadful paint on my daughter's Alfa Mito. You would have thought the painter had the cost of product coming out of his wage, it was so bad.

Anyway the paint was chalky and nasty on a 2 1/2 year old car so I spent a day giving it a correction and applying the reload, it ended up coming out worse and ultimately nearly showing metal through parts. I'll never try anything "permanent" again, although I think I have found the next best thing with my beloved Polish Angel products about which I never stop rabbiting on.
 
#16 ·
I'll let a picture do the talking - my car coming on 5 years old. Once a year it gets a clay and the polish angel wax, then washed about once every 6 weeks, a spray of rapidwax every couple of months (wipe on wipe off) Tire Wheel Car Vehicle Automotive parking light
 

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#17 ·
BruceTheQuail said:
I'll let a picture do the talking - my car coming on 5 years old. Once a year it gets a clay and the polish angel wax, then washed about once every 6 weeks, a spray of rapidwax every couple of months (wipe on wipe off)
That's a beautiful car - as well it should be, since it appears to be sleeping in your home gym / store room.
Your car gets a bedroom! :)
 
#18 ·
oh we baby them over here. If it was an Aston it'd be next to me in bed
 
#19 ·
Cabby said:
UV Blue said:
I've looked into polishing by machine a few times and always backed off, I came to the conclusion it's best left to the pro's. I'm extremely careful cleaning my car (it's black - snow foam regime etc.) and however hard and careful you are there will always be some light 'marring' on the top coat, and out in the big scary wide world it will also pick up feint scratches - someone catching their coat on the paintwork as they walk between cars in a car park for example. It's easy enough to get a 'shiny' car these days but to get the light scratches/swirls out is much more difficult and it's not quite as easy as YouTube would have us believe.
Have you tried using a DA? It's not that difficult if the preparation is thorough and you take your time to find the right pad and compound combination. The golden rule is start with the least aggressive combination as that removes the least paint. It takes time to do all the prep and polishing and the pads and compound cost soon mount up, but you'll have learnt a skill that is rewarding.
...no I haven't tried using a DA. Yes, It would be a skill to learn specially if I could practice on some old shunter, but that's not possible!
 
#20 ·
UV Blue said:
Cabby said:
UV Blue said:
I've looked into polishing by machine a few times and always backed off, I came to the conclusion it's best left to the pro's. I'm extremely careful cleaning my car (it's black - snow foam regime etc.) and however hard and careful you are there will always be some light 'marring' on the top coat, and out in the big scary wide world it will also pick up feint scratches - someone catching their coat on the paintwork as they walk between cars in a car park for example. It's easy enough to get a 'shiny' car these days but to get the light scratches/swirls out is much more difficult and it's not quite as easy as YouTube would have us believe.
Have you tried using a DA? It's not that difficult if the preparation is thorough and you take your time to find the right pad and compound combination. The golden rule is start with the least aggressive combination as that removes the least paint. It takes time to do all the prep and polishing and the pads and compound cost soon mount up, but you'll have learnt a skill that is rewarding.
...no I haven't tried using a DA. Yes, It would be a skill to learn specially if I could practice on some old shunter, but that's not possible!
I started off practising on an old car door I bought on ebay. What I learnt from this was:
- doors are big and heavy! It was from a 2 door BMW M3, so schoolboy error there.. a small bonnet would have been better.
- black paint was a good colour to correct
- all paint is different, the BMW clear coat was softer than the Jag.

But I understand its not for everyone.
 
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