Most liked posts in thread: Rubbing Compound

Do not use the old fashioned rubbin compound on your MINIs paint. It will really screw up the clear coat. FWIW I do not bother trying to rub down places I use touch up paint on. I use a paint pen & it does not blob like touch up paint put on with a brush.

 

If you've got light scratches in your clear coat, how do you get them out if you can't use rubbing compound? I just bought some "hand polish", which I assume is the same thing, but I haven't used it yet.

 

This may answer your question.

MOTHERS® Polishes·Waxes·Cleaners

Can be picked up at any auto parts store, or from us at wholesale prices.

Brett

P.S. Another good product is Swirl Remover made by 3M, it's a very smooth polish.

 

Jim,

Check out my article
The Best Car Care Products are at ShowCarSupplies.com - Technique is Everything

Your question is answered in the first paragraph. I'll quote the first paragraph here:

"If you're new to detailing, you need to learn the lingo and strike some common phrases from your existing vocabulary. If you work by hand, and working on a modern paint finish, forget about "Rubbing Compounds" as well as "Wet Sanding". It's not that these terms are not important but simply because they are commonly misused which can lead to confusion and potentially irreversible damage to your paint. We will talk about safer alternatives that will get the results you seek without the risk."
Read the rest of the article here
The Best Car Care Products are at ShowCarSupplies.com - Technique is Everything

What you are asking about is hand applied polish. A safe and effective polish is Prima Swirl. I use this by hand a lot to remove minor clear coat blemishes and smoothing down touchup. We also used it the other day to clear up some lightly fogged headlights on a BMW 535. It also works great to clean up neglected or environmentally contaminanted vinyl. The link below has a picture of such a cleanup on perforated vinyl on the sunroof of a MINI.

The Best Car Care Products are at ShowCarSupplies.com - Polish for removing swirls

I would just use a dab of Prima Swirl on the end of a microfiber towel and gently polish the touchup. Although now I am using an entirely new system from a company called Applied Colors that lets me smooth and apply touchup using a chemical that works better than Dr. Colorchip or Langka.

Richard

 

Thanks for setting us straight Richard. To a non-paint detail professional it can seem so confusing.

 

Thanks Richard. I read your articles a couple of days ago and used Swirl to remove some bug marks from my Clear Bra. It worked great!

 

It really is confusing. There are soooo many products out there, and its really hard to choose the ones that work best. I went to the website quoted in a previous post here for Mothers and if I were a newbie...the sheer number of choices of products is mind boggling. I've always recommended Prima because it's simple and effective and if it's good enough for a $120,000 Fisker Karma, it's good enough for our MINIs, lol. And for those that don't know...we are Fisker Automotive HQ's exclusive detail shop for all of their press and prototype Karmas.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150806614276133.471932.157160866132&type=3



If you had unlimited funds to build a dream garage for your MINI, it might look like this


And look what products are used


See more here

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150808066841133.472093.157160866132&type=1

Jim..are any of you that's going to MOTD might be interested in our Sonax Full Effect Wheel Cleaner? I'm thinking of shipping some but not sure if people will be interested in a wheel cleaner that's basically touchless...spray and rinse?

Awesome!!! Thanks for sharing. :cornut:

 

I want some!

So yeah, bring it please. At least one bottle for me.

 

Ok Nathan. :biggrin5:

Richard

 

Got it...thanks for the headsup.

Richard

 

If you look at Nates Garage he must have 10 different sets of wheels is 1 bottle gonna be enough?

 

Richard if you could reserve me some Sonax wheel cleaner I'll be there to pick it up on Friday.

Thanks!

 

That SONAX Ultimate Wheel Cleaner is magical stuff......
I bought the spray which is almost gone and fortunately I also bought the 5L refill tank.... So now I'm hoarding it to be used only on my MINI......

 

Haha, he'll need the 5L refill, but I'm not so sure I'll be sending any of those up with me. If no one buys it, I'd rather use it up than ship it back, lol, cause they are heavy.

Absolutely...but Way Motor Works and MC2 magazine will also have some.

Will do! I guess I'm getting enough feedback that I should ship some product to the event, lol. I'm flying in, so I can't really pack this stuff in my suitcase, lol.

Richard

 

With 1100+ registered I'm sure that a lot of product is going to leave the Dragon with happy buyers! I talked to another vendor yesterday who also shares my view and is going to have more product for sale than he normally has at MOTD. Richard, I'm in for Sonax and Black Wow....looking forward to meeting you.

 

Thanks for the heads up. Look forward to meeting you too. I'll be doing tech clinics with Heather of Prima and for my Black Wow so be sure to attend one if you can. We're doing it two hours back to back each day on Thursday and Friday.

Richard