Which will finish better?

[IowaEmt1991]

What have you guys noticed to produce a better end result in terms of finish quality. I get a great finish using foam and FMP, however in certain light I am able to see some micro scratches and would like to rid those. Wondering if you guys think the microfiber might produce a little better result, it seems my car has some rather hard clear coat. Even with SSR it takes some work to get out big swirls.

 

On a side note, what causes the micro swirls? I have been told that is generally from over working the polish on the area I am correcting?

 

 

 

 

[Chewy]

MF doesn't finish down as well on average but cuts like a motha! Dump your old polishes and replace with the newer ones. You'll thank me! They're 10 times better.

[Holder]

Believe it or not I've found many situations that the PCP and Orange foam finishes very well on soft clear coats. Especially if you work it til it completely flashes eliminating the PFP all together. I've had no kidding "show car" results.

[Chris@Adams]

I think on some clears the MF pads finish better and on others the foam pads finish better.

And like mentioned before, when ever you can move up to the new polishes.

[WildBillsBlueC6]

Believe it or not I've found many situations that the PCP and Orange foam finishes very well on soft clear coats. Especially if you work it til it completely flashes eliminating the PFP all together. I've had no kidding "show car" results.

 

I just finished doing my car today. After a pass with finishing polish I found some small scratches that I wanted to take out.

So I grabbed the correcting polish and Microfiber pad and was impressed with how easily the scratches came out, but was really impressed with how it finished. At the time I was thinking that for a lot of cars that would be enough. It was better than I had seen on some show cars (but I scored better).

 

But seeing I was working on a show car I pushed it up some more first using the finishing polish with the microfiber pads, and another pass using foam pads with the finishing polish.

[hockeybawler]

I see you have a grand prix like I do so I would suggest the microfiber pads.  My clear coat is basically a rock and takes forever to correct with the foam pads, microfiber works well for me and gives my car a nice finish.

[Kingsford]

Fine Machine Polish on a foam pad with light pressure finishes pretty well. I sometimes mix a few drops of Revive into the FMP.

[The Guz]

I also have a 99 grand prix.  The clear on mine is medium.  So foam works for me.  My camaro on the other hand had some very hard clear coat.  Foam and compounding would not even touch the imperfections.  I ended up using a microfiber cutting pad and compound followed by foam and polish to refine the finish from another manufacturer.  That worked great. 

 

I would try the finishing polish and microfiber finishing pad.  If you still have deeper scratches and swirls then you may want to go with compound and a microfiber cutting pad and follow up with polishing.  I would also upgrade to the new polish and compound. 

 

Swirls are going to happen on a daily driver.  If you follow a proper washing technique you can limit them. 

 

 

By the way I have seen you over on club gp and grand prix forums.

Edited April 7, 2014 by The Guz

[mc2hill]

I used Adam's most aggressive polish and foam pad combo, along with some even more aggressive combo's from other manufacturers, and could not remove the swirls from my son's Civic.  Tried the MF pads and polish combo, and SHAZAM, they were gone!  The best part was with the hard clear I was able to finish down the paint with the same pad and polish (no finishing pads or polish required).       

[Chewy]

You can work down Adams correcting polish to a point where Finishing Polish isn't necessary.  I still think FP makes the finish pop just that much more though so I always follow up with it.

 

I used the MF pad with correcting polish on my G8 this weekend.  G8's are notorious for SUPER soft clears and this one didn't disappoint.  My GT was just as soft.  That being said, the scratches on the plastic bumpers don't come out for ANYTHING!  I had the same issue on the GT and can only surmise that it's because the plastic bends so much.  I can smooth them out so they're not as noticeable, but I can never get rid of them completely.   I finished with white foam due to the clear being so soft.  If I don't, I get micro marring. 

 

Chris

[Periodic]

I still have full bottles of the old stuff, really like the SSR and the new orange MF pad, does WONDERS!