I have never witnessed an Assimilation in real time before
But it all is good

 

Assimilation - egads. Just had an image of Heather and Nick as detailing Borg - with orang and black pads instead of hands and laser things over their eyes. I even bet the shop is kinda cube shaped

 

Finish is a true abrasive. That is, it is an abrasive that does not contain any fillers/concealers or wax or anything else like that. It's just an abrasive. It is the least abrasive of the Prima abrasive lineup (Cut-Swirl-Finish) but it is more abrasive than Amigo. As I mentioned before though, in many cases Amigo isn't even considered abrasive at all.

By hand, Amigo will not act as an abrasive at all. It will cleanse (read: clean off the gunk that won't come off with just soap/water) and fill/conceal very slight swirls and scratches. Fillers and concealers only hide slight swirls and scratches temporarily. Amigo by hand will not physically remove any swirls.

By hand, it is difficult if not impossible to get Finish to do much abrading. You can abrade with Finish by hand technically, but in reality most people simply cannot move their arm around enough and at a consistant enough rate/speed to do much of anything with such a small abrasive particle size. Having said that though, the abrasives in Finish do have a cleansing ability just by their nature- even when used by hand.

When attempting to abrade by hand, the only really effective polish is Swirl. It is heavy enough to do the job without the need for the mechanism & torque of the polisher, yet diminishes nicely to a fine finish. Of course, as with any abrasive polish, it is able to do the most work when using it with a polisher.

Bottom line: With just a few exceptions, use Finish only with a polisher. If working by hand, use either Swirl for light abrading and/or Amigo for cleansing and filling/concealing.

Drillslinger- This is why we recommended either Amigo-Epic or Swirl-Amigo-Epic. You could alternatively do Swirl-Epic but with a black MINI I'd advise Amigo if nothing else.

-Heather

 

-Heather

 

Gotcha Heather, thanks
For 2-step I think I'll look at Amigo-Epic and then once I start feelin' froggy, I'll jump up to the 3-step method by adding Swirl as my prep-step

 

Sounds like a good plan!

-Heather

 

We are Borg. Resistance is Futile. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Prepare to be assimilated.

 

My Mini is only 2 months old (Sparkling Silver). I'd like to clay it to remove little stuff, then wax with Epic and use Hydro during washes. Question: should I use Swirl before my coat of Epic? I wax by hand. And do I wash the car after claying to remove the detailing spray? Thanks

 

Drill - You should have been at the last MidTNMinis Mod party at Monk's in Spring Hill. I took my polisher up and hit Minimusprime's bonnet after he removed the stripes. If you could have seen how easy polishing / waxing is with a polisher you'd be on the line getting one for yourself. I even gave Minimus some time with the polisher. He had a fair amount of swirl marks on his Chili Red mini, plus the lack of swirl marks that were under the stripes. Message him for his impression.

First off I'd recommend doing some test spots. You might find that you'll be happy with Amigo/Epic/Hydro. No point in adding an additional step if you don't have to. Especially if you're working by hand. Generally the best rule of thumb is to use the least invasive method to achieve your goal.

FYI - WallyWorld just took $20 of their First Up canopies. I just picked one up. I've seen a few and they look pretty good. Especially vs the old sectioned pole one I had.

There were a couple of Huntsvegas guys up at the last MOD party. You'll have to swing by next time.