Need your advice!

[OMG35S]

I've been personally detailing my cars for some time now but unfortunately due to my hectic schedule I haven't been up to par.



I recently acquired a Black 2007 Infiniti G35S Sedan.

- Known to have "soft" paint

- Garaged Since Purchase (Will now be on the street 95% of the time)

- Average paint condition for a 2007 model

- Rock Chips, Swirls, other defects present.

- Mint Interior



I'm looking to give it a nice full detail. Just bought LM kit for my leather.



Products I plan on Using/Buying:



Porter Cable

Edge 2000 6" Foam Pads (Yellow, Green, Orange, Blue, White) "Cutting Order"

- I'm actually in need of a new Blue/White Pad. Should I stick with Edge 2000 Pads? They are all unused except for the Blue and White. What are the best pads currently available?





Steps & Products:



1. ONR Spray Bottle - Spray Car to lift contamination

2. Wash Car with ONR

(Should I degrease before washing when applying Polish, Wax, etc.?)

3. Clay Bar with (ONR solution or QD)

4. Tape Vehicle

5. Meguiar's 105 w/ Yellow or Green Edge 2000 Pad

6. Meguair's 205 w/ Orange or Blue or White Edge 2000 Pad

7. Menzerna PO85RD w/Blue or White Edge 2000 Pad

8. Glaze Needed?

9. Sealant -Collinite #845 or Klasse AIO or Blackfire Wet Diamond

- By Hand or w/ White Pad?

10. Wax - P21S Carnauba Wax or P21S 100% or Lusso Oro

- By Hand?



Any recommendations on portable lighting to check my work?



Do I have too many products/steps? Am I missing anything? Which products would you substitute or add?



This is my daily driver and I will be mainly working on this car. (Give or take a few other cars)



I would like to spend as little as possible while achieving a durable-immaculate finish.



Thank you for your time and convenience. :thx



Adam



Links to the Edge 2000 Pads:



The Edge? Buffing Pads - A variety of buffing and polishing pads designed to provide a professional detail shine US 3M



6 Inch DA Edge 2000 Pads

 

[Legacy]

I've been personally detailing my cars for some time now but unfortunately due to my hectic schedule I haven't been up to par.



I recently acquired a Black 2007 Infiniti G35S Sedan.

- Known to have "soft" paint

- Garaged Since Purchase (Will now be on the street 95% of the time)

- Average paint condition for a 2007 model

- Rock Chips, Swirls, other defects present.

- Mint Interior



I'm looking to give it a nice full detail. Just bought LM kit for my leather.



Products I plan on Using/Buying:



Porter Cable

Edge 2000 6" Foam Pads (Yellow, Green, Orange, Blue, White) "Cutting Order"

- I'm actually in need of a new Blue/White Pad. Should I stick with Edge 2000 Pads? They are all unused except for the Blue and White. What are the best pads currently available?





Steps & Products:



1. ONR Spray Bottle - Spray Car to lift contamination

2. Wash Car with ONR

(Should I degrease before washing when applying Polish, Wax, etc.?)

3. Clay Bar with (ONR solution or QD)

4. Tape Vehicle

5. Meguiar's 105 w/ Yellow or Green Edge 2000 Pad

6. Meguair's 205 w/ Orange or Blue or White Edge 2000 Pad

7. Menzerna PO85RD w/Blue or White Edge 2000 Pad

8. Glaze Needed?

9. Sealant -Collinite #845 or Klasse AIO or Blackfire Wet Diamond

- By Hand or w/ White Pad?

10. Wax - P21S Carnauba Wax or P21S 100% or Lusso Oro

- By Hand?



Any recommendations on portable lighting to check my work?



Do I have too many products/steps? Am I missing anything? Which products would you substitute or add?



This is my daily driver and I will be mainly working on this car. (Give or take a few other cars)



I would like to spend as little as possible while achieving a durable-immaculate finish.



Thank you for your time and convenience. :thx



Adam



Links to the Edge 2000 Pads:



The Edge? Buffing Pads - A variety of buffing and polishing pads designed to provide a professional detail shine US 3M



6 Inch DA Edge 2000 Pads

Do you have the newer XP PC or the older model? Even the newer PC will not spin the 6" edge pads very well. Get the 5.5" flat pads.

1. OK

2. Washing is good enough.

3. Either or

4. OK

5. Orange would be better, but do a small section with a white pad first and then move up if necessary.

6. White

7. Grey or blue

8. Your choice, but do a IPA wipe down first and inspect in sun. You can also use a paint cleaner at this point.

9. Any one of the three by hand

10. Again by hand.

The sun is the best, but in a garage a dual halogen set up will work.

Remember polishing is 90% of the finish product. You can use a $2000 wax and it will look like shi$ if you do not polish correctly.

Good Luck!:buffing:

 

[Accumulator]

..



Any recommendations on portable lighting to check my work?

Many peope like the Brinkman Dual-Xenon, but the halogens are basically a necessity.

Do I have too many products/steps? Am I missing anything? Which products would you substitute or add?

As Legacy99 noted, the 6" pads are too big for the PC. You might want to look into the LC Hydrotech line, but note that you'll need pretty many pads when using M105 (and to a lesser extent M205).



To me, your proposed process sounds too involved/complicated. If you really need to do three polishing steps, well...OK, but then I wouldn't want to do a lot more (glaze + LSP1 + LSP2 sounds like too much to me).



I myself might approach it M105/cyan hydrotech, M205/tangerine hydrotech, Autoglym SRP/ruby hydrotech, then LSP. And that's still a lot.

I would like to spend as little as possible while achieving a durable-immaculate finish.

IMO the greatest challenge will be keeping it nice once you've done this big detail. I'd give thought to maintaining the finish; how to wash it without marring, what you can do to keep it looking OK without driving yourself nuts. Something along the lines of AIOing it with SRP and rewaxing; you don't want to redo this whole process every few months when the car needs a little sprucing up.