Totally agree with speedy, with T Cut it would be very easy to marr the paint and do alot more damage and harm than good, and leathers certainly for me went out with square wheels. Also the advice on scratch removal is also wrong its very suprising what you can correct and even if it is impossible to remove completely the edges of scatches the edges can be lessened and the rest hidden by using good filler heavy products such as prima amigo.
You would also have to be very heavy handed to damage the paint using a Da polisher, not saying that you won’t but its highly unlikely in my personal experience. Rotary polshers are a totally different ball game though!
Surprised to see my thread got resurrected over christmas!
As an update, I have learnt how to use my polisher correctly by practicing on my old Rover and my dad’s rock solid merc paint! The paintwork on my 5 is in very good condition bar a lot of little stone chips and some really annoying bubbling caused by bird crap from the previous owner! I’ve decided the bird crap is beyond repair by polisher, so I’m going to have to get the car resprayed in the future if I want rid of it properly, but for the forseeable future I’ll just have to live with it I’m afraid.
All the products I bought have been worthwhile, there’s been nothing I havent used, I did a lot of research and reading before buying so I’m glad I went forewarned and forearmed first! The only thing I am going to buy is some glaze, as there are some stone chips and minor scratches that could do with filling rather than polishing, so that will be next on the agenda. I also have been regularly waxing with CG Blacklight and It’s really made cleaning the car a lot easier once I got 3 coats on. (1 by polisher and 2 by hand). Now I just rinse with the hose, wash using the 2 bucket method with a wax shampoo and dry off! I reapply a coat of wax once a month and all is hunky dory!
The CG Blacklight also has a very very fine cut in it as well, so whenever I wax, I also take a little of the fine scratches and swirls out too, I figure if I keep using it, I’ll get out the majority of the scratches and I can then swap to a wax with zero cut to maintain the finish!
I’ll pop some pics up when the sun comes out so you can see my (probably rubbish) efforts!
Think you will find the Cg blacklight is a lsp(sealant,no wax at all) and has no cutting power whatsoever(if you did an ipa wipedown you would find all your old defects/swirling etc are still there), it fills glazes and offers a degree of protection but really needs another product over the top imo for long lasting protection, something like Cg v7 is ideal
Technically you are right about it being a sealant, but because it is a “hybrid” it’s supposed to be a synthetic equivalent, sort of an all round product that tries to do the job of two products! With regard to the cutting power I’m only going on what it says on the side of the bottle!
Excerpt from a review:- “Black Light contains very fine abrasives in the formula to help clean
and lightly polish the surface while it’s adding gloss and protection.
So if your car (or customer’s car) is a bit needy, but a major paint
correction detail isn’t on the menu or budget, then you can reach for an
incredibly easy to use product like Black Light for the job. I’ve taken
worn-out cars and given them a quick application of Black Light, and
have been stunned by the difference that it made in such a short amount
of time. And to further define “short amount of time”, I mean just 30
minutes with a D/A polisher! Not only will you get light correction and
color/gloss enhancement, but you’re completing it with a layer of
durable protection at the same time.”
Good call on the V7 spray though, I’ll definately get myself some of that if it’ll help preserve the cleanliness of the paintwork!
Next stop, a bottle of Jizer and a filthy engine bay to sort out!
As i said i think you will find its doing very little in the way of correction, i too have only been machine polishing by da for about a year, the first car i had a play on was the other halfs vauxhall, went at it with a black finishing pad and some poorboys blackhole(very similar to blacklight imo only not protection capability) this yielded some fantastic short term results appearing to remove alot of the swirling and scratches, when it was actually filling them, i am pretty sure this is what you are doing with blacklight, don’t get me wrong the results are by far much better than you could ever hope to achieve by hand and you will have enhanced the finish on your paint for a while especially with a good sealant or wax applied over the blacklight.
Also without trying to repeat what i’ve already said i strongly suggest you try an ipa wipe down on one of your corrected panels as im quite confident the defects are still there!
Would you suggest I continue on the glazing over the scratches path then, or is the best way a cut and polish to remove as many scratches as possible, then glaze over the top with a wax finish? I’ve ordered a bottle of V7 to finish off and protect with so I’ll definately use that, but I’m just really worried about taking off too much paint, especially as it is a soft base paint with minimal room for error!
Just need the sun to come out for a couple of days so I can really get stuck into it now!
Sort of both really, i fully understand your concerns with regards to the soft/thin mazda paint so a light polish with something like poorboys ssr1 on a white hexlogic or similar should do a reasonable job to minimise the effects of swirling etc without removing to much of your paint, definately finish off with a filler heavy product/glaze, my personal favorite is prima amigo polymer glaze applied by da with a black hexlogic pad, it almost melts and disappears into the paint leaving a slick defect free finish that require little in the way of buffing and can be topped with your sealant or wax of choice for an absolutely flawless finish that will draw positive comments for sure:)
Awesome, sounds really good! I’ll give a light polish a go with CG V38 and a white hex pad after washing and claying, then use the prima amigo followed up with the Blacklight and V7! The paint had better look awesome after that or I’ll be a monkeys uncle! Gonna have to find a full weekend to do it, this could be a big job!
Haha! No worries, I’ll be taking aim at your dad’s first though! I’ll definately be in Cardiff on the 29th-2nd so I’ll bring all my gear down and we’ll have a crack at both if we get time!
