[Hotcoupe]

Great looking Tourer Steve, congrats.

[AlanQS]

Sorry if it looks like I'm intruding in Steve's thread but the discussion moved to what kind of polish gets good results and Collinite was discussed so i posted photos....

Still can't get anywhere near Steve's finish.

[PhilR]

Originally Posted by AlanQS

Sorry if it looks like I'm intruding in Steve's thread but the discussion moved to what kind of polish gets good results and Collinite was discussed so i posted photos....

Still can't get anywhere near Steve's finish.

Alan - looks very good. Have you considered clay bar before polishing and waxing?

I kind of detailed mine last weekend - no pictures I am afraid but interested in your opinion on Collnite as I am thinking about buying some due to some good reviews (my car is Japan Red - think it's called Crimson now). I cannot tell the difference in your pics to be honmest between the Ice and Collnite finish. What's your personal opinion on it when viewing it in the metal so to speak?

I actually bought a rotorary polisher and was very impressed with the results. I tend to wash my car alomost every weekend and keep it looking very clean and always use aqua wax after every wash. The rotorary polisher has brought another dimention to the depth of shine.

My cleaning sequence took about 3 hours as follows

Rinse
Shampoo
Rinse
Clay Bar (60 mins but worth it)
Rinse and Towel dry
Autoglym SR Polish with rotary
Buff off with rotary
Meguirs Tech Wax applied with rotorary
Tried to buff this with rotary but didn't work
Hand buffed with Micro Fibre towel

[AlanQS]

Claying as I understand it, is really for removing contamination from the paintwork and the car doesn't really have too much yet though I might try it this summer.

Brave man using a rotary polisher! Since I've never done it, if I get one it will be a dual action random orbital polisher as it's almost impossible for a newb to burn the paint.

I don't see a lot of difference except that it seems just as good with the Collinite as it did with the Tech wax but nearly one year later. I "think" the car colour looks a little deeper with the Collinite - not what I'd been hoping for but good enough. What I hoped for was the deep gloss Steve's Tourer has but I think if I am ever to achieve that, it will need machine polishing.

The thing that worries me is, how do you know you have enough polish on the pad? And how long do you run the polisher before adding more polish?

In regard to the washing process, I take it you are using SR to get rid of the holograms, RIDS, and swirls and the Tech Wax as the finishing polish? Apart from the usual awful paint chips, my bonnet seems to have collected 90% of the shallow scratches and swirls on the entire car.

[PhilR]

Originally Posted by AlanQS

Claying as I understand it, is really for removing contamination from the paintwork and the car doesn't really have too much yet though I might try it this summer.

Brave man using a rotary polisher! Since I've never done it, if I get one it will be a dual action random orbital polisher as it's almost impossible for a newb to burn the paint.

I don't see a lot of difference except that it seems just as good with the Collinite as it did with the Tech wax but nearly one year later. I "think" the car colour looks a little deeper with the Collinite - not what I'd been hoping for but good enough. What I hoped for was the deep gloss Steve's Tourer has but I think if I am ever to achieve that, it will need machine polishing.

The thing that worries me is, how do you know you have enough polish on the pad? And how long do you run the polisher before adding more polish?

In regard to the washing process, I take it you are using SR to get rid of the holograms, RIDS, and swirls and the Tech Wax as the finishing polish? Apart from the usual awful paint chips, my bonnet seems to have collected 90% of the shallow scratches and swirls on the entire car.

Sorry Alan it wasn't a rotary polisher, I meant to say Orbital (too early for me to function propoerly) - lol. I've got rotory's on the brain as I was considering buying one but opted out for the reasons you state and went with an orbital instead.

The orbital spreads the polish very well and so I didn't use much. I guess it's not an exact science and one would only know from experince and would also depend on abbrassivenes of the polish, application pad and pressure applied etc. etc.

I first clayed due to some overspray from a minor repair I had and was amazed at the crap it lifted from the paint finish so claying IMO is a really worthwhile process. The amount of contaminents picked up from what looks like a very shiny clean surface in surprising. If the slightest piece of dirt / grit is picked up by the rotorary it may cause more swirling.

Yeah the SR was used to remove swirling and has worked very well with the machine polisher.

I'll endeavor to wash and wax my car this weekend, take some photos and post results later.