i took advantage of these two spring-like days here in the northeast to get rid of 14 years of previous owner neglect. ultimatly she needs a re-spray , but since my wallet wont allow it i had to do the next best thing. there are small areas of "checks" in the clearcoat , and numerous dings, but i can PDR the dings little by little and at least now she is glass smooth. the rear bumper was rattle-canned rather poorly , so i buffed it down and re-shot it with the oem match spray and clearcoat. again , it really needs to come off, but at least itsw presentable for the time being.

so over several hours a day for two days i did the following
- used 3m rubbing/cutting compound with a ROTARY buffer and foam cutting pad , this took the longest since you can only work small areas at a time, and have to re-do areas to satisfaction.
- followed it up with meguiars polish (the body shop stuff) with a random orbital buffer.
- then came meguiars color-back - two applications - orbital buffer
- finally finished off with meguiars gold class wax

all i can say is .. man my shoulders hurt !! but its worth it and the results were very noticable

 

Nice looking car!

It is amazing what can be done with proper products and a DA polisher. A brand new car can be dramatically improved in an hour of polishing as well a 12 year old Jaguar.

 

Good job, if you don't mind let me move this to the Detailing Forums so that our experts can easily spot this brilliant job too

 

Well worth the effort! looks fab.

 

Is there a reason for using a ROTARY buffer with rubbing compound instead of an ORBITAL buffer. You put some stress on that.

How about a tutorial on PDR? That would be a pretty big hit around these parts.

 

Looks wonderful and very shiny, thanks for sharing!

 

with the compounding / cutting stage, the rotary is necessary because you cant get the same "work" out of the random machine. i guess in theory you could, but you would be there for a week. the abrasives are much more effective with the action of the rotary, but also lies more potential to do damage if your not carefull.
as far as PDR, i wish i could do a tutorial, however i thnk i will be leaving it to the pros. ive seen thos DIY lits, but for some reason i think they will not be too effective.