Saturday was the semi-annual polishing of the Acura. I have typically used a different onestep AIO but I’ve always wanted to try 3D Speed since it gets rave reviews anywhere you look and now that Mike P is at 3D, I felt it was only natural to use it…and I was NOT disappointed!
First off, the car was in very good shape before I started except for a few areas and after I clayed the car using a Fine Mitt from Nanoskin, it was only natural that it had to be polished! I almost didn’t clay the car since it still really looked good but the “baggie test” revealed I’ve been driving a fine grit sandpaper Acura TLX for a while!!
Process:
Decontamination using Meguiars Iron Remover
Washed Car using P&S Pearl Soap
Clayed using the Nanoskin Fine Mitt with Griots Speed Shine . I tried using the Sonus Fine Clay but it really had no impact unless I really pressed hard on it, so I grabbed the Mitt and breezed over the horizontal surfaces, vertical surfaces were good.
Washed the car again to clean up the Speed Shine.
Since this was my first time using Speed and trading messages with Mike P, I determined I was going to try the LC White Pads since the paint was still in decent shape other than the marring that came from claying the car and I’ve used the White Pads in the past with great success. My test spot on the hood was two passes left and right, two passes up and down, and two more left and right with moderate pressure….this was the ticket! I found that Speed was very easy to work with, no dusting, long working time, and I could tell by the passes that Speed was very consistent, looked “creamy” (I can’t think of another word) with each pass. The wipe off was very easy as I would do three panels at a time (new pad per panel) then go back to wipe them off, this was done only because my DA was getting very hot and I wanted it to cool down so not to burn up any pads.
In the spirit of saving time and trying to beat the heat, I started applying Poxy by hand using a small MF Pad as I would wipe off Speed on the panels.
As I got to the front end, I’ve been noticing that my headlights look like they’ve been partially sanded down by road dust/debris. In the spirit of experimentation, I grabbed a LC Orange Pad, applied an “ample amount” of Speed towards the center of the pad since the areas I would be working with was fairly narrow and went to town! I started with moderate pressure on the highest speed setting and notice a little correction, so instead of moderate pressure, I went full tilt and was basically standing on my DA but making sure the pad was still turning, I have never applied that amount pressure to my DA, it was a heck of a workout, in the end it cleaned them up very well and I’ll probably go back and hit the sides of the headlights after taping off the panel.
Once the car was corrected, I grabbed my new bottle of Poxy and applied a few drops to a Black LC Pad and hit the rest of the panels that I did not do by hand, again very easy to apply and very consistent in the “cream”. Afterwards, it was lunchtime and time to cool off from the brutal humidity and heat!
About 45-50 minutes passed since I applied Poxy using the DA, the other half of the car had been sitting for about 75 minutes +/-. I grabbed a couple of plush MF Towel, one for the wipe and the other for the buff, wipe off wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be which I though was really odd. The panels that had been sitting the longest, the wipe off was fairly easy but not “wipe on wipe off” easy, it took a little effort, not a ton but harder than I thought it would be. The other side of the car was a little more difficult but I made it through…I thought I gave it enough curing time but with the conditions being normal for Houston (mid 90’s and humid) maybe it needed to sit longer.
After the wipe off was finished, I pulled the car outside in the sun, walked to my neighbor’s yard and gazed at my work, checking the different angles in the sub. One of the first things I noticed was that I could see the metal flakes in the paint from my neighbor’s yard, never seen that before that far away!
As I got closer to the car, I noticed the wipe off didn’t go as planned, it appeared to be smearing across the panel where I wiped and it looked a little “blotchy” on the different panel, this was only on the side that I applied it using the DA, the other side of the car I couldn’t tell because the sun wasn’t shining on that side of the car. I grabbed my trusty MF towel again and started to wipe off again, not much luck. I changed to a shorter nap MF towel and it worked a little better but I was running out of time since I had to pick-up my wife from work that evening.
The next morning, I went back out and wiped it down again using the shorter nap MF towel, I really couldn’t tell if I was making any progress since I was in the Garage and the lighting is not ideal for inspecting a cars paint. I went to the gym afterwards, getting out of the car, I stood back and inspected the paint with the sun as my light, it seemed to have corrected itself either by towel or by curing, not really sure…and I didn’t care either as long as it looked good….and boy does it look good!!!
If I was scoring Speed and Poxy, Speed would be 5 star and Poxy would be 4 star just from the simple fact that the wipe off for ME was more difficult than expected but I sure do like the look of the car!!
I'm really looking forward to correcting my wife’s White X3 with Speed that the paint is much more difficult to correct than my car and applying Poxy to it.
Mike and All…is it alright to apply a second coat of Poxy or stick a fork in it and call it completed? If I do apply another coat and given the conditions how long should I wait before wiping off?
Thank you for the product recommendations…your advice is always spot on!
Jay
First off, the car was in very good shape before I started except for a few areas and after I clayed the car using a Fine Mitt from Nanoskin, it was only natural that it had to be polished! I almost didn’t clay the car since it still really looked good but the “baggie test” revealed I’ve been driving a fine grit sandpaper Acura TLX for a while!!
Process:
Decontamination using Meguiars Iron Remover
Washed Car using P&S Pearl Soap
Clayed using the Nanoskin Fine Mitt with Griots Speed Shine . I tried using the Sonus Fine Clay but it really had no impact unless I really pressed hard on it, so I grabbed the Mitt and breezed over the horizontal surfaces, vertical surfaces were good.
Washed the car again to clean up the Speed Shine.
Since this was my first time using Speed and trading messages with Mike P, I determined I was going to try the LC White Pads since the paint was still in decent shape other than the marring that came from claying the car and I’ve used the White Pads in the past with great success. My test spot on the hood was two passes left and right, two passes up and down, and two more left and right with moderate pressure….this was the ticket! I found that Speed was very easy to work with, no dusting, long working time, and I could tell by the passes that Speed was very consistent, looked “creamy” (I can’t think of another word) with each pass. The wipe off was very easy as I would do three panels at a time (new pad per panel) then go back to wipe them off, this was done only because my DA was getting very hot and I wanted it to cool down so not to burn up any pads.
In the spirit of saving time and trying to beat the heat, I started applying Poxy by hand using a small MF Pad as I would wipe off Speed on the panels.
As I got to the front end, I’ve been noticing that my headlights look like they’ve been partially sanded down by road dust/debris. In the spirit of experimentation, I grabbed a LC Orange Pad, applied an “ample amount” of Speed towards the center of the pad since the areas I would be working with was fairly narrow and went to town! I started with moderate pressure on the highest speed setting and notice a little correction, so instead of moderate pressure, I went full tilt and was basically standing on my DA but making sure the pad was still turning, I have never applied that amount pressure to my DA, it was a heck of a workout, in the end it cleaned them up very well and I’ll probably go back and hit the sides of the headlights after taping off the panel.
Once the car was corrected, I grabbed my new bottle of Poxy and applied a few drops to a Black LC Pad and hit the rest of the panels that I did not do by hand, again very easy to apply and very consistent in the “cream”. Afterwards, it was lunchtime and time to cool off from the brutal humidity and heat!
About 45-50 minutes passed since I applied Poxy using the DA, the other half of the car had been sitting for about 75 minutes +/-. I grabbed a couple of plush MF Towel, one for the wipe and the other for the buff, wipe off wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be which I though was really odd. The panels that had been sitting the longest, the wipe off was fairly easy but not “wipe on wipe off” easy, it took a little effort, not a ton but harder than I thought it would be. The other side of the car was a little more difficult but I made it through…I thought I gave it enough curing time but with the conditions being normal for Houston (mid 90’s and humid) maybe it needed to sit longer.
After the wipe off was finished, I pulled the car outside in the sun, walked to my neighbor’s yard and gazed at my work, checking the different angles in the sub. One of the first things I noticed was that I could see the metal flakes in the paint from my neighbor’s yard, never seen that before that far away!
As I got closer to the car, I noticed the wipe off didn’t go as planned, it appeared to be smearing across the panel where I wiped and it looked a little “blotchy” on the different panel, this was only on the side that I applied it using the DA, the other side of the car I couldn’t tell because the sun wasn’t shining on that side of the car. I grabbed my trusty MF towel again and started to wipe off again, not much luck. I changed to a shorter nap MF towel and it worked a little better but I was running out of time since I had to pick-up my wife from work that evening.
The next morning, I went back out and wiped it down again using the shorter nap MF towel, I really couldn’t tell if I was making any progress since I was in the Garage and the lighting is not ideal for inspecting a cars paint. I went to the gym afterwards, getting out of the car, I stood back and inspected the paint with the sun as my light, it seemed to have corrected itself either by towel or by curing, not really sure…and I didn’t care either as long as it looked good….and boy does it look good!!!
If I was scoring Speed and Poxy, Speed would be 5 star and Poxy would be 4 star just from the simple fact that the wipe off for ME was more difficult than expected but I sure do like the look of the car!!
I'm really looking forward to correcting my wife’s White X3 with Speed that the paint is much more difficult to correct than my car and applying Poxy to it.
Mike and All…is it alright to apply a second coat of Poxy or stick a fork in it and call it completed? If I do apply another coat and given the conditions how long should I wait before wiping off?
Thank you for the product recommendations…your advice is always spot on!
Jay
