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Polished the MINI with PC last weekend. Used Swirl with orange pad, Amigo with white pad and Epic by hand. I think I did a pretty good job for the first time. I might include an intermediate polish step next time. I have some very small micro abrasions. Maybe Finish or Swirl with white pad.
Also, the Clear Bra had me worried. I did not use Swirl on it. I did use the Amigo and Epic. Now it has swirls and the rest of the car doesn't. Anyone using Swirl with orange pad on the Clear Bra? Will it take out the Swirls if they were there before the Clear Bra? I also did not do a good enough job masking the Clear Bra. It is costing me some serious clean up time.
Also, I still see water spots on the bonnet. I guess I have sealed them in with Epic. Should the Swirl have taken the water spots out, or should I have used something else? Wondering if I worked the Swirl enough? I worked it longer than two minutes. It seemed like it was turning dry. Maybe I chickened out.
All in all, it looks way better than when it was delivered. Almost can't wait for the next attempt.
Oh, and I missed this the first time around, but yes, you can Swirl/orange pad the clear bra. Just use caution around the edges (work away from them, not into them, so they don't lift).
Yep, I've used Swirl on the orange pad on the clearbra... had a baked on bird **** stain that was tough to get out. Did the trick and didn't damage the film at all. I use it every time I detail the MINI now.
Ofioliti,
The techniques learned in St Louis were put to use. I actually practiced on my Subaru first. I spent several hours polishing it with the PC. It was swirled up pretty bad. I did just the front cap because it was a week night and I knew I couldn't finish more than the front. I had it ready to apply Epic and a bad thunderstorm blew in. Our garage only holds one car, so I pulled the Subaru out with no wax and put the MINI in. Not two minutes later it started hailing hail stones larger than golf balls. Totally beat the crap out of my Subaru. Broke the windshield, destroyed the hood,roof and several panels. I think I may have angered the MINI gods by polishing the Subaru first.
I did clay the entire MINI before polishing. This was after washing with Dawn and spritzing the entire car with 50/50 mixture of alcohol and water. I am pretty certain I had any previous wax removed.
Last edited by locogringo; 04-20-2008 at 07:46 PM.
Ofioliti,
... Not two minutes later it started hailing hail stones larger than golf balls. Totally beat the crap out of my Subaru. Broke the windshield, destroyed the hood,roof and several panels. I think I may have angered the MINI gods by polishing the Subaru first.
...
Yikes! Sorry to hear that. It's good you pulled in the MINI though!
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Then really, polish (Swirl) should remove it. You may just need a slightly more aggressive pad.
You thinking Swirl w/ yellow pad? They could be bird poop stains like Ofioliti mentioned. Makes sense being as they are on the bonnet and not the doors and fenders.
Any danger of leaving them under the Epic until next detail, or should I strip the bonnet of wax and try to get them out? I may call Heather for advice tomorrow.
By the way, the Epic is the bomb. I put in on the MINI around 9:00 Sunday night and it was in the 40's here. It wasn't curing very much so I left it over night. I didn't take it off until after work on Monday. It wiped right off with very little effort. Pretty amazing.
Water spots generally end up on the roof and bonnet too though, and not the vertical surfaces so much. It's possible they are etched into the clear coat, in which case I've never been there, so I can't offer any sound advice. But I think there is a pad between orange and yellow, DP just doesn't offer it. Another tactic is to just do more rounds with what the Swirl and orange pad.
And I checked on the pads and I was wrong...there is no pad between orange and yellow. It's at the less abrasive end of the spectrum that there are more pads than DP offers.
The yellow pad, to be frank, scares me. I'd go with more passes with the orange pad and Swirl and see if that works and if not, then I'd step up to Cut on the orange pad before I went to the yellow pad.
Yeah, I think I am going to try more passes with Swirl / orange pad first. Since it is just the bonnet, this won't take me that long. Also, it will allow me to Swirl / orange pad the Clear Bra like I didn't do the first time.
This might be a prime opportunity to use the advice in Octane Guy's video and try a small area first. I think I will tape one off and strip the wax and see what I can accomplish. I've just about cleaned all the polish and wax out of all the nooks and crannies. I might as well start again.
Your MINI looks great. Sounds like you may want to strip the areas with the spots, and give it another go. I would stay away from the yellow pad, and work it a bit more with the orange and swirl. You could also try a squirt of WD40 on them and wipe with a good MF, won't hurt the clear coat, and the stuff does clean lots of things. Them redo the Swirl/Amigo/Epic on the area.
I worked it longer than two minutes. It seemed like it was turning dry. Maybe I chickened out.
