Excellent work here!

Thanks all!

Steve, I use Leatherique. It's really good stuff but I'm not getting quite the leaning results with it that I'm seeing from some pros on the forums. Still, it does not harm the leather at all and that's the single most important thing, IMO.

Chuck, thanks and yes, those seem to be the main forums. I got hooked on DI from a thread here a while back. One thing I learned there that helped a lot with sanding the car is to start small, go with the weakest grit/compound/pad/etc. first and work your way up as needed. Also that certain makes have really hard paint and others are soft. Can't remember which are which off the bat but Porsches, for instance, have soft paint that's easy to work with and Mercedes have hard paint. Luckily, whatever CC the hack body shop used on my hood is harder than kryptonite. You could probably sand it with a palm sander. I did it 2 or 3 times, (can't remember), and it still is not perfectly flat in places. It's like sanding varnished wood, (which I have experience with), you can plainly see how far you've gone between sessions. Now keep in mind that Mercedes factory paint has quite a bit of orange peel, (not flat), so does Porsche. In a perfect world, a body shop doing a partial repaint would match the texture of the rest of the car. Not sure if that's what they were going for but they did not even try to sand or buff my hood. I had to try to sand it flat and it came out nice.

Hardflex, not a lot you can do w/ peeling clear other than sand it off and repaint. I have peeled and scraped off bad clear on a car I had, then sanded the rough edges and buffed with decent, (not spectacular), results but once again it was on a car with absolutely nothing to lose. It otherwise needed a repaint and looked horrible as it was, if I had accidentally sanded through the paint it was not a big deal. That one would really count as my first wet-sanding attempt but this S500 is the first *whole panel* job on a car that matters. (A little). It's great to start on one's own car, I would never do it on someone else's car w/o knowing what I'm doing.

Richard, maybe one day I'll come down to your place and work on your 993 and hang out. I have some good products. Short of that, the place to find the right detailer would be on one of the big detail forums mentioned here. The good ones are not cheap, (good work takes many hours), but my best advice is that it's far better to leave your car scratched and oxidised than to hand it over to some car wash detailer. At least you'll still have your clear coat. Once it's gone, there is nothing for a good detailer to work with. :cool:

Paul, isn't that a great shot? I've taken dozens, (hundreds?), of pictures of that car and then my friend comes by and takes one shot of it that blows all of mine away. It's from some cool old film camera that he bought on eBay recently, I'll find out what it is again. :cool:

Rick, you'd have to bring it here. Take a trip and get out of the heat! :cool:

I'd be up for that, but it'd get so filthy on the drive back home. It cools off here a lot in another 8 wks.

Which Porter-cable unit did you buy? Age catching up to me...the old polish/wax shoulder has bursitus now. Maybe time for me to make the job easier?

Search Results - Porter-Cable - Factory Authorized Outlet

Paul, this is the one that I have, and it seems to be the one that the pros like on the forums:

Porter Cable 7424XP Random Orbital Buffer | Detailed Image

It's a real sweetheart but it leads to a slippery slope of buying the various buffer pads and different-sized backing plates, etc... I also have a much cheaper one from Sears that works fine for just applying waxes and cleaner products.

I've almost completely stopped using my big snap-on rotary buffer. It does more damage than good in most cases in terms of swirl marks to be removed later. It's for real heavy work only. Read through some of the blogs about various paint correction jobs on the Detailed Image Forums, they usually really get into detail about the use of various machines and polishes, etc.

Also, the foam pad that comes with the PC machine is pretty worthless for high-quality work. You need to buy the hook&loop backing pads for the machine and good pads from Lake Country, all available on DI and other places.

Thanks...with only the one car I try to keep really nice...well, I'll think about it.
Maybe I should join the masses...just run the Ford thru the car wash...;)

Reflections:
 

Ok, I promised better pictures so here they are. Took these today. It's all about reflectivity and clarity in the finish once you get rid of the micro scratches, this where black really shines. (Bad pun).

I used Meguire's 105/205 compound/polish and a Porter Cable 7424 variable speed buffer.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1311743518.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1311743861.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1311743926.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1311744038.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1311744193.jpg

Remember the trunk *before* picture? I had to sand the sht out of it but it cleaned-up nicely. :cool:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1311744590.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1311744677.jpg

Good job!!

Thanks buddy.

Great, I see a 911 detail in my future. I've been using Meguiar's for 20 years. I don't have the polish you showed... Time to get a bottle. Now if it could only fix the rock chips in the hood...

You need both the 105 compound and 205 polish, they are a system and work together. Also need the right foam pads and a good DA buffer if you want these results.

I have access to a good DA, but I still prefer to do it by hand. That's how I was taught. Thanks for the info on the 105/205 set. Will make sure to get both.

It depends on what you're starting with and what you're trying to accomplish. Paint correction like I'm showing here cannot be done by hand, I don't care if you're the Karate Kid.

Chuck Norris could...

touche'

Amazing...even more so after reading your initial description of the car's paint...

Whew I thought for a minute there we were going to see those squirrel balls up that tree.
Nice results on the hood and all.

Cheers Richard