Paint Correction / Machine Polish

Minrich

Do it by hand , go onto detailing world and ask what they would use for a 2006 Skoda . Then just do one panel at a time . It is worth it when you finish it and know you did it yourself .
I wouldn't bother unless you intend on treating the bodywork with kid gloves from now on. The swirl marks will be back in no time . Buying snowfoam pressure washer etc gets expensive , for a 10 year old car i wouldn't bother imho.

daydotz

Poorboys black hole is a good product to help mask the swirls you can do this by hand

Retrogamer

It's not just the swirls though, it's the scuffs as well. No amount of hand polishing is going to get them out sadly.

I'm thinking more long term investment now. With a DA i can do my mum's car, my dad's car and any future cars i have. Probably wouldn't be used very often after the first time. Maybe for some prep if attending car shows, but would hope to just top it up every now and then with a hand polish and sealant / wax.

force_ten

www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/polishing-machines/das-6-pro-dual-action-polisher/das-6-pro-meguiars-hex-logic-kit

I bought that when some git keyed my car, right down the passenger door and the front wing, £400 for two full panels paint and a blend into the back door so I bought the machine above and, wet sanded the scratch and then machine polished the door and wing and I got 99% of the scratch out only one tint section that was to deep to polish out so i used a touch up pen and polished that and you really had to look hard to see it after very happy, saved a few hundred quid and still got the kit for future use

if you fancy giving it a go the DAS 6 is good for the beginner as it is dual action it is harder to damage the paint, for a bit more money the DAS 6 pro is a better machine

as a beginner stay away from the rotary polishing machine as it is harder to use and easier to mess up with buffer trails and clearcote break through

Buy the kit above watch some of the many youetube vids on the das 6 and then practice on your scrap panels and you should be ok

as said above it takes time but with your own kit you can do a couple of panels a time rather than having to spend a full day on the whole car

force_ten

http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/polishing-machines/das-6-pro-plus-dual-action-polisher/das-6-pro-plus-meguiars-hex-logic-kit/prod_1453.html

That is the DAS 6 Pro plus kit is what i was on about above, it is a step up from mine and it still has the advantage of being a dual action

http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/polishing-machines/das-6-pro-plus-dual-action-polisher/cat_150.html

I went for the megs and Hex logic combo but there is many pads and polish combos to be had

londonTiger

force_ten wrote: »

http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/polishing-machines/das-6-pro-plus-dual-action-polisher/das-6-pro-plus-meguiars-hex-logic-kit/prod_1453.html

OP should probably start off on a £40 silverline and progress up if they are keen on it.

I detailed my car once using a silverline but then I never did it again. Always have something on during the weekends.

Strider590

Buy a tub of G3 compound and a polisher (plenty of choice out there), I use a polishing mop attachment for my angry grinder, but going down this route requires great care.

I polished up my headlights a few months ago, with the intention of clear coating them in the summer. I used wet'n'dry 600, 1200 and 2500 grit, which left cloudy swirl marks on the lenses, the G3 then removed those to leave a mirror finish. If it'll work on headlights, i'm pretty sure it'll work even better on the thing is was actually designed for (paintwork).

force_ten

londonTiger wrote: »

OP should probably start off on a £40 silverline and progress up if they are keen on it.

I detailed my car once using a silverline but then I never did it again. Always have something on during the weekends.

Use a £40.00 silverline wrong and you could be spending £2000.00 on a respray, the silverline sander/polisher is the rotary polisher that i said beginners should stay away from, A friend of mine has buffer trails all down the side of his car from a badly used rotary polisher

he asked me to polish it out with the das 6 and i said no because if i damaged the paint more then it would be down to me, I said he could borrow the das 6 and do it himself but i wasn't going to risk damaging the paint on somebody else's car

londonTiger

force_ten wrote: »

Use a £40.00 silverline wrong and you could be spending £2000.00 on a respray, the silverline sander/polisher is the rotary polisher that i said beginners should stay away from, A friend of mine has buffer trails all down the side of his car from a badly used rotary polisher

he asked me to polish it out with the das 6 and i said no because if i damaged the paint more then it would be down to me, I said he could borrow the das 6 and do it himself but i wasn't going to risk damaging the paint on somebody else's car

it's a VW group car withmost likely very hard paint, rotary is the way to go.

bowlhead99

I'd agree with force ten - something like the megs das6 kit is the way to go (although the hardware is more expensive than it needs to be because newbies will be willing to pay for megs name).

Is a better finish achievable with a rotary? Yes, in the right hands and with lots of training/ practice it will give you the most accuracy. Think of it like a powerful electric drill with a polishing pad on the end which spins round and round on the spot, and if you're able to use it with the lightest of touches without staying on the same spot at the same angle for too long, you'll be able to carefully take off a few microns of clearcoat around your scratches without burning through to the paint. If you have scratches everywhere, you have a lot of hours of painstaking work ahead of you. For most of us muppets, we'll screw it up the first time. And the second time and the third time...

By contrast a D.A. doesn't just simply spin a polishing pad on the spot to burn through your clearcoat; with the dual action it moves itself back and forth over the surface to avoid doing that. It will still take a long time and produce a great result but sacrifices some ultimate accuracy for safety - it's much harder to take off too much paint, leave a funny trail of holograms etc. Professional detailers will still use them even though a perfectly-used rotary is the way to get a 10/10 instead of an 8/10. The customer will be so happy with the 8/10 compared the 1/10 that the car started at.

If you don't want to spend money on the kit to do it yourself and don't have the time or inclination then give it to a pro. But a full day of paint correction at £30-50/hr plus VAT is going to cost you more than the kit.

I've used these guys before, who are perfectionists and excellent at what they do: http://kdskeltec.co.uk/price-menu/paint-correction-packages/silver ; https://www.facebook.com/KDSKeltec/

£200 is nowhere close to the mark though.