Polishing SSR by hand

[Quant]

I`m looking for some info regarding polishing out swirls of a 7 yr old clear coat. I`m going to use SSR 2.5, followed by SSR1, and would be working by hand. I have no experience with abrasive polishes. Any suggestions regarding the techniques? Do I use up/down motion, or small circles, or big circles?



Thanks.

[vdog0531]

use a terry cloth aplicator/towel and if i were to use it by hand, i would go in smaller circles and apply enough to pressure to try and break down the polish. Work it in until its almost gone, then wipe free and move on. do small sections at a time. don`t be frustrated when your arms starts to hate you after one panel...



Vernon

[Quant]

The applicators I bought are terry cloth on one side, and foam on the other. I was planning to use the foam side. Is there a difference on how the foam works vs. cloth?

[imported_Sullybob]

The terry side will probably be more aggressive then the foam side.

[J.J.]

You are going to have a very difficult time using the SSR 2.5 by hand. This is the reason the above memebers are recommending the more aggressive terry applicator for application. The abrassives in the polish need to be broken down in order to work to their full potential. These abrassive are boken down via heat caused by friction. The only problem w/ applying the 2.5 by hand is that you will need to supply the heat and friction instead of the PC = Soar and tired arm.



JJ

[Quant]

Do you guys wear gloves while doing stuff by hand?



A friend at work is offering me his Simoniz random orbital polisher. I know it is not the PC (can an autopian even mention the word "sim#@*niz" :-) ), and I don`t want to buy the PC right now. I don`t mind working by hand, but time is always at a premium, especially for an enthusiast with two kids and a wife.



The bumpers and one side of the car were repainted two months ago, so I might not even need to use SSR1 on half the car (that saves me more than 1/2 the time).

[mb300d]

I gave SSR2.5 a shot by hand just to see what it could do before I hit it with the PC. I found it does works well with a terry. I did a small section (1x1) of my roof and although it worked great, it was a bit of a workout. I doubt your car is as bad as mine though. Removing was the easy. Good stuff!! :xyxthumbs

[scooch]

mb300d: how bad of a condition was your car in? minor marring or some pretty good scratches? The pic you have looks really good do you have a pic of after you did you roof with the PC?