If the paintwork is that tired you need to compound it - polish will only protect. Farecla G3 on a medium foam mop, then finish with whatever polish you like best.
G3 will leave a very good finish if you know how to use it properly so as the abrasives can diminish. If you use it badly (too much water, particularly), it leaves a horrendously swirly finish.
I agree with Stephen on the point about splatter - it's worth masking black trim if you can't manage to be careful. Farecla have produced a product that can be used dry, called Total Dry, which I've been using and found very good, but I know it does give more cut than G3 or G6 on a wool bonnet, but it has it's own specific mop for use as a general compound, which may be designed to be a bit softer and reduce the cut a little. It's well worth emailing Farecla's technical bods if you're stumped, although I think they're more inclined to avoid questions obviously from Joe Public.
BTW, Does anyone know where I can get 3000 or 4000 grit paper in the UK without paying a lot for Meguiars stuff?
Dunno. I don't want to clay the car. The paint has set absolutely rock hard, and even getting 2000 grit marks out is quite hard work with a wool bonnet, so I was thinking a grade or two of finer paper might do the trick.
If the paintwork is that hard you need a coarser grade paper not finer. Are you flatting black paint? if so this can be really tough.
A clay bar is ok on small defects high-spots like dirt etc, but not really suitable for the whole car as it picks up too many contaminants.
Various grades of wet-or-dry grit are available ranging from very coarse to very fine. Low numbers represent coarse grit, high numbers represent fine grit. Examples of common wet-or-dry grades are as follows: 220, 240, 320, 400,
600, 800, 1200, 1600.
I'd recommend 1200, 1600 or 1800, 3000 and 4000 if available are too fine, it would be like rubbing the paintwork with toilet paper.
The paint is very hard as it's very well cured white two pack. It will cut happily with 2000 grit but compound struggles to take the sanding marks out. It's not dirt between the paper and paint, and it's not rubbing marks from coarser grades - I've experimented very carefully to check this. The paint is just very very hard so compound struggles to cut it. Taking 1200 or 1500 grit marks out (G3 is rated to do 1500 grit marks) is hopeless.
In that case instead of G3 I would suggest you try Farecla G4 advanced compound which is more suited to *fully cured* twin-packs.
Using a mechanical polisher with a lambswool pad would appear to be the recommended way on fully cured finishes and polishing without water with G4 is also recommended.
The thing is, what I actually want is very fine grades of sandpaper. I'm already using a wool bonnet and total dry, which Farecla's technical director told me was the strongest cut available, after I'd explained what paint system I'd used and how the paint had become fully cured. A bit of
3000 grit would help things along a lot. The thing is, I've got no idea where to get it at sane price.
At least now you have a link for obtaining your specific grades of wet-or-dry paper, although any paint factor should be able to provide you with this but you may have or order it in.
As you are attempting to flat hard paint with fine wet-or-dry and then compound it back up to a shine there are two compounds that come to my mind that are coarse enough to do the job. One is Farecla G4 and the other is Farecla SMART liquid compound, both these compounds will remove 2000 grade abrasions and are even listed as specialist compounds.
I have never encountered a finish yet that could not be polished with conventional compounds even epoxy resin finishes, so I find in hard to understand why you cannot polish out 1500 abrasions with G4.
G4 HS Paste Specialist Compound For use on all modern original and refinish paint systems:
High solids (well cured)
Features and Benefits: Provides a very fast cutting action, when used in conjunction with the Advanced G Mop Lambswool Pad Provides high gloss finish Silicone free Machine application only
For use with:
6? and 8? Advanced G Mop Lambs Wool Pad
6? and 8? Advanced G Mop Compounding Foam Standard G Mop
6? and 8? Advanced G Mop Back Plates
For use on: Well cured high solids OE Paintwork High Solids Paintwork Medium Solids paint
SMART Liquid Compound Specialist Compound For use on all modern original and refinish paintwork systems:
Medium solids
High solids
Features and Benefits: Removes P2000 or finer abrasive marks Suitable for blending in the refinish paintwork to the original paint finish Silicone free For machine applications only
For use on: All paint SMART Repairs Outer edges of larger areas (no farther than 15cm from edge of panel) Small areas that are close to rear lights, number plates, windows, etc Sills and lower areas Bumper corners
You could also look for 3M 281Q Wet-or-Dry 'polishing paper' (481Q-for silicon carbide instead of aluminium oxide) pink, mint or light green in order of fineness. Pink is 3 micron, mint is 2 micron and lt.green is 1 micron.
Converting from microns to the equivalent grit depends who you ask, though. I've seen 3 micron rated as 1500 grit down to about 4000.
Jewellers use the next step finer - polishing films. Same sort of thing, but with a polymer backing instead of cardy-papery stuff. However they go to 0.5 micron, then you start getting it rated in Angstroms. Which are very very small. And used for polishing fibre optics and lenses.
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.