Need a very light polish suggestion...

dschribs

dschribs

Active member
I have a '68 Camaro with red single stage paint. It was professionally polished with a rotary by a member of Autopia about 5 years or so and came out almost perfect. Over the past few years, it's developed some light swirls from glazing & waxing and such. The paint is basically almost defect free. What's the lightest/most gentle product I can use on a PC with just has a very slight cutting ability. I don't need much at all. I was thinking of going with Menzerna's PO85RD polish. Would that be a good choice?

Also, would a Blue LC or a Gray LC Pad work for this or would I actually need to step up to a white polishing pad?
 
dschribs said:
I have a '68 Camaro with red single stage paint. It was professionally polished with a rotary by a member of Autopia about 5 years or so and came out almost perfect. Over the past few years, it's developed some light swirls from glazing & waxing and such. The paint is basically almost defect free. What's the lightest/most gentle product I can use on a PC with just has a very slight cutting ability. I don't need much at all. I was thinking of going with Menzerna's PO85RD polish. Would that be a good choice?

Also, would a Blue LC or a Gray LC Pad work for this or would I actually need to step up to a white polishing pad?
Click to expand...

With out knowing the how deep the marring is and how hard (or soft) your paint is it is basically impossible to guess what is needed to restore the former beauty to your paint. As you noted, you want to use the least aggressive method possible to remove the light damage.

Because of the new abrasive technology, Meguiars M205 Ultra Finishing Polish is probably going to be your most verisitle and best bet. This is a very very fine polish, but the cut remains constant through out the buffing cycle, which means it will continue to remove swirls and damage until you turn off the machine. This will allow you to remove just the defects and stop vs. have to work for a set amount of time.

Menzerna PO85rd is a very mild polish that generally doesn't have the omphh to remove swirl marks with a rotary polisher and a finishing pad.

The red foam (which is identical to the blue foam) that we and others sell is very soft and mild and probably would not have enough cut with PO85rd on a Porter Cable to remove your marring unless you have very soft paint. If you where to use it on a black (gray) pad you will likely get a better finish and improved cut, but still not a lot.

If you where to stay with Menzerna, I would instead consider PO106FA, as it has marginally more cut then PO85rd and finishes to the same gloss on a Porter Cable.

However if it where my money, I would pick up Meguiars M205 Ultra Finishing Polish, a white pad, and a black pad, and use this. Use the white pad if the black pad isn't strong enough to remove the damage. Polish with firm pressure through out the polishing cycle and move slowly. Polish in bright light and stop as soon as the paint is restored and damage is removed then wipe away the residue.
 
Couldn't I start with PO85rd if I wanted to stick w/ Menzerna? My vehicle has very, very slight marks..barely noticable in sunlight. When would PO85rd be used if not in this type of situation??
 
dschribs said:
Couldn't I start with PO85rd if I wanted to stick w/ Menzerna? My vehicle has very, very slight marks..barely noticable in sunlight. When would PO85rd be used if not in this type of situation??
Click to expand...

You could stick to PO85rd. It is very light cutting polish that leaves behind an incredible finish. The question is: Is it strong enough for your needs? Maybe but maybe not and there might be better choices, IMO.

The situation that PO85rd is most commonly used for is removing the faintest marring caused by machine polishing, (which tends to be even finer then marring caused by washing) and creating a very refined finish on the paint. At the OEM level it has been replaced by PO106fa. In my experience, even on a rotary, PO85rd doesn't have a lot of juice.

If you have harder paint or the marring is deeper (it is relatively difficult to judge the depth of the marring by looking at it, instead we tend to see the frequency at which it occurs) my concern is that PO85rd might not have enough power to restore the paint to your liking.

PO106FA has a little more bite and an equal finish (on a random orbital or forced rotation dual action polisher) so it is a safer bet. I would hate to see you order the PO85rd and find it isn't as strong as you needed.
 
I have seen one post here that PO85 has an extremely long work time -- 7 to 9 minutes. I guess it depends on how much you apply to the pad.
 
I do a lot of old muscle cars. For single stage paint I always start with M205 with a white pad (PC 7424XP).

If needed I'll switch to an orange pad. SS paint usually pretty soft so you don't need that much cut. (That's probably not always true, but it has been for my experience.)

Rarely do I need to go to M105.
 
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