hand application

[4pbears]

a am going to detail my daughters 95 buick lesabre which is maroone in color. a would say that the paint is in average condition for a 95; say a medium amount of scrarches , (whaterver that means lol) and a fair amount of swirls, my questions are should i start with 3.0 or 2.5? and finish up with # 2. or 1? finally, although it will be a lot of work, can i do this by hand?



thanks, dave.

 

[BigLeegr]

3 is very abrasive. I'm not sure if you could do a whole car (well) and then do it again with 2.5 and then again with either 1 or an AIO. It would take lots of effort/elbow grease. (Especially since your daughters car isn't exactly tiny.) You can't go from 3 to 1 or a wax and expect it to look good. You'd have very dull paint after 3 and would need to "finesse" the paint to bring back a good reflection/shine by going to a finer and finer polish.

You might consider using something like SSR2 or even Pro Polish followed by Black Hole and then top it with a wax. That way you'd get the paint cleaned and somewhat reduced in marring, as well as filling in some of the residual marring you aren't able to remove.

 

[Poorboy]

What BigLeegr said or even just go with a one step like Polish w/ Sealant or Polish w/ Carnauba ... that's a big car to do by hand with SSR's :wink:

 

[Bassman007]

Hand application

I see SSR2 was mentioned above...what does SSR2 actually do?, seems to be recommended in quite a few threads.

 

[Poorboy]

It removes light swirls and cleans the paint, while bringing up a high gloss shine

 

[Beercan31]

Bassman007

My 2¢

You have a lot of energy or might bite off more than you could chew.. that's more that I would take on by hand but again I'm lazy.. if your serious abt. doing this car by hand be expected to rub this car down 3-4 times with a lot of time spent on the polishing process.. *SSR2, *Polish/W Carnauba or sealant, *Black Hole, *Natty's blue. I would try to avoid circular polishing strokes and go with horizontal passes, this way if there were light swirls left behind it would be less noticeable. with out seeing any photos of the finish at different lightning angles it's a tough call on suggesting SSR2.0. the rule of thumb is to use the least aggressive method first so you should be fine... "should"

 

[Gus-Gus]

If it was me i would probably head to sears and buy a 30 dollar orbital so i didnt at least have to work so hard doing it by hand.. ive done alot of cars by hand and i can say i would never go back.. even a sears cheapy machine will save you alot of grief and sweat in the heat.

 

[kitzy]

Ok. If you try to tackle all of this at once, you're going to HATE life. My suggestion, break it down in to sections. Maybe do the hood one day or hood and fenders? Maybe hood and roof. Then maybe the doors on another day (or week) and so on. Real multi-step correction is going to be brutal by hand.

 

[ronkh]

Ok. If you try to tackle all of this at once, you're going to HATE life. My suggestion, break it down in to sections. Maybe do the hood one day or hood and fenders? Maybe hood and roof. Then maybe the doors on another day (or week) and so on. Real multi-step correction is going to be brutal by hand.

i agree with nekkid ninja
and gus
and beercan

 

[Bassman007]

Good advice Beercan31, but I am not the person planning on doing all the correction by hand..I believe its 4pbears

 

[Merlin]

My recommendation is do not tackle a project that big by hand. You will be hating life.
Never do by hand what you can do by machine. If it's worth doing get a machine.

I probably would use SSR 2.5 or SSR 2 depending what works the best.
IMHO The paint every vehicle is different. Do a 2'x2' test spot and see what works.
Always start with the least aggressive method first. Don't kill a fly with a sledge hammer.
Start with SSR 2. If that is not giving you enough paint correction then use SSR 2.5

Follow SSR 2.5/2 with SSR 1 then black hole and your PB wax/sealant of choice.
IMHO a project that size could be completed with a machine in approx. 1-2 days.

Try it by hand...if it you are not getting the results you would like then get a machine.
You can not obtain the same results by hand that can be achieved by using an orbital DA.

Here's my results with a PB Polish a Porter Cable 7424xp and Lake Country pads. CLICK HERE

However you choose please keep us posted on your results. Pictures are always nice too.