Thrilled with new DA/Meguiars microfibre correction kit

[alexGS]

I had a search or two here, but didn't find any specific mentions of the Meguiars Microfibre Correction system - did read a little about DAs and the Meguiars Ultimate Compound, etc. (https://www.fiatforum.com/car-care/344198-big-paint-correction-improvement-advice-needed.html)

I have been using a large, powerful, and heavy rotary polisher (some Italian brand, variable speed). Foam pads and Mirka T10 were the breakthrough - I found foam pads much easier to handle than wool, with fewer hologram problems on dark colours, less 'grabbing', and the T10 breaks down very well.

Anyway, I was looking for something even easier - the rotary is very fatiguing to use for more than half an hour, due to its weight.

I splashed out on a DA-6 Pro variable-speed DA polisher - some no-brand version that was advertised as a Kestrel - seems good quality and was $180 (about £95) so, while obviously not the best available, I'm impressed with the smoothness (my rotary sounds like an angle grinder with that box'o'rocks noise).

The tricky decision was which foam pads to get with it, given that they are all quite expensive for what they are - Lake Country, Chemical Guys, etc. - about $40 per pad. Then I would need suitable compounds - something aggressive enough, but not messy on nearby plastics or difficult to clean off the panels (Mirka was better than 3M in that regard). I think I needed a machine glaze, but also something coarser.

In the end I gave up trying to decide, and bought a box from Meguiars with two compounds (in small-ish bottles), four microfibre pads (two cutting and two finishing), a backing pad (it wasn't clear whether the machine came with one; it did (a 5") but the Meguiars version is more flexible), and an apron (what a good idea). Price for all this was $192 (£98?) which seemed reasonable given that individual choices add up pretty quick. Free shipping for that and the polisher when I went over $200, too.

Here's a picture:

 

[alexGS]

Keen to try the products out, I washed my Punto Grande's bonnet, dried it, and taped off the black plastic trim along the bonnet's rear edge. I didn't let the small matter of it being 9:15pm stop me, as the car happened to be parked near a floodlight.

I taped down the centre of the bonnet using the last of the masking tape, just because that's what all the forum experts do

The correction compound (pink) was easy to work into the pad and the machine was very easy to handle, smooth and relatively quiet. There was no spattering and the accuracy of the orbital pad surpassed my expectations - no need to mask off in future (just as well, since there's no tape left anyway).

I was stunned at the rate of progress - literally the work of a few minutes to get rid of the moderate swirl marks that you can see in the photo (on one side of the line and not the other side). Sorry that the photo is not amazing - iPhone of course.

If I have one criticism, it's that it is difficult to judge progress without a wipedown, which at least is very easy to do. With the rotary/foam/Mirka combo mentioned earlier, it tends to polish out to a shine which shows progress, whereas the DA setup I've described doesn't.

I made the mistake of skipping the clay bar preparation stage - thinking the correction compound would get out any contaminants - it might do eventually, but the paint felt a lot better once I had clay-barred the whole bonnet, which I did before finishing the correction.

Well, I use the term 'finished the correction' very loosely, as five minutes later, I decided that would be enough - it wasn't, as there were still a few scratches. I swapped pads to the longer-pile, thicker-foam finishing pad, slowed the machine a little, and applied the 'finishing wax' from the other bottle. This didn't make any noticeable difference at all, but might have left a nice protective wax coating I didn't prime the pad completely, which was obvious as parts of the pad were still white after I'd used it for a few minutes.

My twenty minutes were up before a self-imposed noise curfew (having to work outside, as the garage is temporarily filled with someone else's furniture). I hope to get maybe an hour tomorrow night to continue with the correction compound - I was really happy with my purchase, anyway

The 'correction compound' seems to get amazing results very quickly, without applying fillers or silicones, and the package deal saves time spent researching and deciding. The DA polisher is also a much nicer tool to use than I ever expected (in terms of controllability and minimised sling/spatter).

-Alex