Hello everyone,
First post here, been lurking since a bit before I got my Astro Black MCSa on Valentine's Day (no less!). (
some pics here)
I moved to Japan oh about 8 years ago, and it's my first car here (long story, the licence conversion process was not simple...). However I carried over some of my products (mostly Zaino, hey, that was the hot stuff back in 2000!) and while taking care of my boss' cars (one old 1966 MG and one 1996 Carrera) I had to restock not so long ago and so I still have quite a bunch of Zaino products, so don't hate me for it ok ! I didn't know better back then !
Anyways...
As you might imagine, living in downtown Tokyo makes it quite tricky to take care of a car. I live on the 2nd floor of a mansion, thus I managed to buy a 20 metres hose reel that makes it possible to wash my Mini with the hose coming out the window down to the _small_ parking area.
However, one thing that is very impossible is to use powertools (regulations and obvious problems of cable length for one, the other being that Porter Cable doesn't sell tools here), so my only solution is to use hand tools.
Now, I've been reading very knowledgeable stuff from OctaneGuy as well as BradB and Heather from DP about pads (on the assumption that I would end up using Prima products down the line, but also with Z-PC), so I ordered quite a few things :
- Wolfgang Polishing Pal
- 2 CCS 4" Orange Pads
- 2 CCS 4" White Pads
- 2 CCS 4" Gray Pads
- 2 CCS 4" Red Pads
Basically, I tried to reproduce a typical PC setup with the Polishing Pad.
So, as I said, I still have a bunch of Zaino products (ZAIO, Z-PC, Z2, Z3[that's for the old MG], Z5, Z6, Z7 and Z8) that I would like to use (until I run out ! then I can finally try those Prima products everyone's raving about
)
I've got swirly A and B pillars, as well as very very fine webbing mainly on the hood that I'd like to minimise. The car is garaged at all times and is driven mainly during the weekends.
I guess I'm looking for advices, but purely on working by hand. I've been searching the forums quite a bit but most of the threads end up talking about doing the work with a PC. I know it's going to be physically intensive, I'm ready for it, one panel at a time !
I realise in my first post I'm already asking for favours, but I'd appreciate any feedback you guys might want to give
thanks !
Christopher
P.S.:
I would LOVE to get a nice random orbital, but until I move to a place where I have my own garden/garage, that's not going to be feasible.
